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NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (B)
At this very Lectern some years ago, the Gospel for the Annunciation was read as follows: “Your cousin Elizabeth has also conceived a child and is now in her 6th year,
with God all things are possible,” There was some exaggeraration here certainly, but nothing can surpass Jesus’ own evaluation of his cousin who had been named John: “History has not known a man born of woman greater than John the Baptist!’
If we did not know better, we might think that today’s reading from Isaiah– are the
words of John the Baptist himself! Great men and women however, need not and do not speak highly of themselves. Their very lives and character speak for them. The Baptist is the only saint, along with the Lord and Our Lady, whose birth and death is celebrated by the Church. His Solemnity can even replace the Sunday Mass. (Actually, we had the 1st Vespers yesterday, Sunday.)
John and Jesus were very much alike. They were the same age, both had disciples.
In another respect, they were quite different. As St Augustine put it: “John is born of
an old woman who is barren. Christ is born of a woman who is a virgin. That John
will be born..is not believed, and his father is struck dumb. That Christ will be born
is believed and he is conceived by faith.” Again, St Augustine puts it very well:
“John is a voice, but the Lord – ‘ in the beginning was the Word‘. John is a voice for a time, but Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning.”
Today’s saint was not himself baptized; what served for his baptism occurred at
the meeting of his expectant mother Elizabeth – with her expectant cousin Mary -“When the babe leaped in her womb!” St Luke tells us : “John, from his mother’s womb was
filled with the Holy Spirit.”
In today’s reading from Acts, St Paul lauds John the Baptist for the coming of the savior, by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, claiming he himself was not the messiah, only his herald, unworthy – to untie his sandals.
John the Baptist is more than a prophet. In him the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. He completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah, he proclaims the immanence of consolation of Israel; he the “Voice” of the Consoler who is coming. As the Spirit of truth will also do, John came to bear witness to the light. In John’s sight the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the Angels..”Behold the Lamb of God!”
In being the ‘near-peer’ of Jesus, John the Baptist has given us a model of total commitment to God and to God’s will. This involves – real poverty of spirit, purity of heart manifested through humility, self-effacement and obedience, words that describe a
lifestyle far removed from that of our contemporary culture.
The exhortation of John the Baptist – to repent – is vital and is as necessary today as never before. The sins of Sodom and Gemorrah are ‘small fry’ compared to those of the this 21st Century. Rather than seeking the Messiah, there are increasing efforts to ignore the natural law, to place will over reason, repeating again the nazi ideology of the past Century., that is – truth will be what we will it to be!
There is every reason for the members of the Church, the Body of Christ in the world, to be faithful today to the priceless gift of our Baptism – and the promises we have all made; to be faithful to the natural law and a wholesome morality even at the risk of martyrdom. To paraphrase a great statesman of years ago: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for Christians to do nothing‘,
Like John the Baptist, we all have a specific calling to make Christ known. He realized
his mission was not to draw attention to himself but to point others to Jesus. For us to
grasp this – is our mission, our ministry also. We too, are to proclaim the Lamb of God
and bear witness to him.
(Is. 1:1-6, Acts 13: 22-26, Lk 1:57-66, 80) Fr Alan