When the Church celebrates the feast day of a saint, we are
usually celebrating the day of the saint’s death. For example the feast of
Aloysius Ganzaga earlier this week was on June 21, because he went to his
eternal reward on June 21, 1591.
Only three times during the year does the Church celebrate a
birthday: for Jesus, for His mother…and for John the Baptist. The Baptist is in
illustrious company, and this serves to remind us just how important he is to
our salvation history. We honor John, for the Lord Jesus himself honored John, when
he said, “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John”.
St. John the Baptist was a unique man. He is rightly called
the last of the Old Testament prophets—preaching the call to repentance in
preparation for the coming of the savior. And he is the first of the New
Testament preachers—the first to point out Christ for the world.
Augustine says, “John appears as the boundary between the
two testaments, the old and the new…he represents times past and is the herald
of the new era. As a representative of the past, he is born of aged parents; as
herald of the new, he is declared to be a prophet while still in his mother’s
womb.” Remember how John leaps in Elizabeth’s womb when the pregnant Virgin
Mary visits.
His birth came about after a time of great barrenness. Elizabeth and Zechariah could not conceive.
Yet, their barrenness is symbolic of a cosmic barrenness, it had been about 400
years since the last prophet. Creation seemed to be under the sway of the
powers of sin and death, God seemed distant to many. His birth represents an end of barrenness, a
new era in which Creation is invited into a new life giving relationship with
God through Christ, the Life Giver.
This feast should also remind us of our own baptism, when we
received new life from God. John was
born for a purpose. To point out Christ. And so were we. As children of God
through baptism, we were each born to a vocation which demands us to be heralds
and prophets.
Like in the time of John, there are people in our
communities and families who are barren of God, held under the sway of sin and
death. We are called to point out Christ for them, they are to witness us
leaping for joy in the presence of Christ.
Christians should have special devotion to John, especially
as we are urged to take part in the new evangelization. Like St. John, we are
commissioned to lead an anxious and searching humanity to repentance by which
it is drawn into the embrace of the Life Giver.
This day may we be infused with new life for the sake of the
Gospel and renew our commitment like John to bring others to Christ, for the
glory of God and salvation of souls.
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