Waking up from a life of 'virtue'

We read in today’s Gospel that in response to John the Baptist’s call for repentance, people from Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan—the entire Israel—flock to him for baptism as they acknowledge their sins.

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Obviously, they see themselves as sinners and transgressors of God’s law. John, God’s messenger, accepts their repentance and submerge them into water. Going under water represents death, and rising from it symbolizes new life.But the Pharisees and Sadducees, who come to John, do not receive words of encouragement from him. Either they do not see themselves as sinners or they do not believe that John’s baptism is “from heaven” (Mt 21:25). But John, who is full of the Holy Spirit, is not one to be fooled. He sees in the religious leaders a disposition other than that of repentance, and warns them not to rely on their belief that they are true children of Abraham.