“You yourselves can bear me out. I said, “I am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent to go in front of Him.” John 3:28
When we reflect on the life of John the Baptist, we realise that John was someone who was very clear about his mission - he knew exactly who he was and what he was sent to do. From his very childhood, he had given himself to God, and spent the years of his youth and manhood immersed in prayer, and while in prayer received the oracles of God in the desert. John teaches us that we too need prayer and penance to be able to recognise Jesus and stand for the truth, even at the cost of our own lives.