anointed with truth

John the Baptist was very much appealing to the people as a prophet or as the Messiah. He was not a hermit who lived in silence and solitude. John said of himself as the voice crying out in the wilderness. A voice is prophetic when it is anointed with truth. He did not hesitate to point out to Christ as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John proclaimed that Jesus was the one who is to baptise them with fire.

We are anointed with truth that sets us free. Even before becoming visible, this truth, the wisdom of God existed. He was in the world that had its being through him, and the world did not know him. While speaking to the people who were waiting to be baptised John says, the one here stands among you – but unknown to you. Again, “He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him.” This presence, sure, yet unknown to us, is a call to realise, recognise, welcome, be convinced and to believe in the constant guidance of the Word lives in and among us. The anointing of the truth enliven our hearts to see the Word in the creation, experiencing as the baptism of fire, and transforming ourselves into an instrument of redemptive acts of Christ.

So, for us who follow him, St John writes, “live in Christ, my children.” It is to walk the path that Jesus walked. He is truly the anointed one, so the path is also a path of anointing. What this anointing does actively in our lives can be seen in what Jesus told the disciples of John the Baptist when they came with the question whether he was the Messiah. The blind see, the deaf hear, and the good news is preached to the poor. If they do not happen our proclamation seem to be a lie. If they do happen, we have known him, and have made him known. It is the power, and sign of the presence of the truth of the Gospel in us.

Live in Christ cannot be true simply by grouping as believers. It is becoming like him. Christ took upon himself our humanity, that we have a deeper touch with him. He has not abandoned his humanity, but continues to be united with his humanity. It is not that he has taken it to a transcendental super-spiritual world. He continues to be united with us in whom humanness is real and true, making it his body. So, live in Christ is to be united as one body of Christ.