Vigils Reading – Nativity of St John the Baptist

THE NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux2

◊◊◊

Let us rejoice, dearly beloved, on the Nativity of blessed John [the

Baptist], on the solemnity of whose birth is celebrated today, and let us rejoice

in that very nativity. Our reason for remembering [John] is certainly rich, and

the source of [our] rejoicing sundry. Listen, brothers, to what is said about

John: “He was a burning and shining lamp,” [Scripture] says. A great testimony,

my brothers: great is the one to whom it is given, but greater is the one who

gives [it]. “He was a burning and shining lamp.” Only to shine is nothing; only

to burn is not enough. To burn and shine is complete… He burned for himself;

he was shining for us. Let us rejoice in his fervor for the purpose of imitation;

let us also rejoice in [his] light—yet not remaining there, but that in his light we

may see light, the true light, which is not [John] himself, but the One to whom

he bears witness.

It is especially said to the apostles and to apostolic men: “Let your light

shine before people.” [This is said to them] as to people who have been kindled,

and mightily kindled, who are not to fear any situation whatever, or the winds’

force. It was said even to John, [while] they but hear it in the ear, John, like an

angel, is instructed in the Spirit. Assuredly, he [was] as close to God as the voice

is near the Word. No other voice, which would sound outwardly as an

intermediary, was needed for him to be taught.

Inspiration, not preaching, taught John, whom the Spirit filled in his

mother’s womb. Truly burning and mightily kindled [was] he whom the

celestial flame so possessed that he perceived Christ’s coming when he could

not yet perceive even himself. That new fire, recently fallen from heaven, surely

penetrated the Virgin’s ear through Gabriel’s mouth, and through the Virgin’s

mouth and his mother [Elizabeth’s] ear [that fire] entered into the little child,

so that from that moment the Holy Spirit filled his chosen vessel, and prepared

a lamp for Christ the Lord. Then he was already a burning lamp, but [he was]

still for a time under a bushel, until he could be placed on a lampstand and shine

for all who were in the Lord’s house. At that time, he was able to illuminate only

his own bushel, and to shine for a while to his mother alone, revealing the great

mystery of holiness to her by the motion of [his] singular joy!

“Why,” [Elizabeth] says, “does the mother of my Lord come to me?” Who

made the Lord’s mother known to you, holy woman? [So Mary asks Elizabeth,]

“How do you know me?” “When the voice of your greeting,” [Elizabeth] says,

“came to my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”

Already then he illumined the bushel under which he lay hidden, but the

burning lamp under the bushel did not leave hidden the One whom it would

soon afterwards make known to the whole world with unheard of brightness.

2 From Sermons for the Summer Season: Liturgical Sermons from Rogationtide and Pentecost; translated, with an

Introduction, by Beverly Mayne Kienzle; additional translations by James Jarzembowski (CF 53); Kalamazoo, MI:

Cistercian Publications, 1991, pp. 88-96.5