Voices in the wilderness

In today's Gospel (John 1:19-28), we hear the famous self-identification of John the Baptist:

Then said they unto him,
Who art thou?
that we may give an answer to them that sent us.
What sayest thou of thyself?

He said,
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make straight the way of the Lord,
as said the prophet Esaias.

Christ himself would later say (Luke 7:28) that no man born of woman was greater than John the Baptist, "but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

How much more then should we, as children of the kingdom of God in Christ, follow in the example of John the Baptist and not be afraid to be voices for God in the midst of the spiritual and moral wilderness of today’s world: being faithful (as we hear in today’s first reading - 1 John 2:22-28) to the truth handed down to us, to the Holy Spirit that has been bestowed upon us, and to the Lord Jesus Christ who embraces us.

Let that therefore abide in you,
which ye have heard from the beginning.

If that which ye have heard from the beginning
shall remain in you,
ye also shall continue in the Son,
and in the Father.

And this is the promise that he hath promised us,
even eternal life.

These things have I written unto you
concerning them that seduce you.

But the anointing
which ye have received of him
abideth in you,
and ye need not that any man teach you:
but as the same anointing
teacheth you of all things,
and is truth, and is no lie,
and even as it hath taught you,
ye shall abide in him.

And now, little children,
abide in him;
that, when he shall appear,
we may have confidence,
and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Abiding thus in Christ, may you and I be faithful voices in the wilderness.