A Meditation on the Life of St John the Baptist

by Deacon Tracy Jamison, OCDS, PhD

Jesus is a divine Person. He is eternal and transcendent. He is our Creator and Lord. Every good thing that we have, including our very existence, comes from him. And he chose to enter space and time and walk among us. He chose to assume our human nature and live with us here on earth. He chose Mary to be his mother and Joseph to be his foster-father. He chose John the Baptist to be his cousin and his forerunner.

The Church points to St John the Baptist as a model of the prophetic vocation to call people to repentance and covenant faithfulness. He possesses the spirit of Elijah. He is the successor of Elisha. We all know the traditional Advent hymn:

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry

Announces that the Lord is nigh;

Awake and hearken, for He brings

Glad tidings of the King of kings.

Then cleansed be ev’ry heart from sin;

Make straight the way of God within;

Oh, let us all our hearts prepare

For Christ to come and enter there.

The Baptist was born just six months before the Christ. John said, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” The Nativity of John falls near the summer solstice, six months before the Nativity of Jesus. The Christian revolution begins with John the Baptist. John the Baptist came to bring hope to God’s people, enslaved by the Romans. His birth was surrounded in mystery. John himself became a messenger for the Lord, with a message of hope. The hand of the Lord was with him. From his mother’s womb Jesus called him to be the last prophet of the Old Covenant, to prepare the way of the Lord.

John’s elderly parents died when he was young. But he knew that he had to prepare for the mission that he had been given. So went out into the desert and lived the life of a Nazarite hermit. In the Jewish tradition, Nazarites were like religious of a primitive observance. They were men and women who received a special divine call. They were consecrated and dedicated to God by a special vow. Sometimes it was a temporary vow, and sometimes it was a lifelong vow. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Samson and Samuel, for example, are Nazarites. The vow included an obligation to abstain from wine and all fermented drink. So they basically drank only water. They lived a life of penance. They also kept themselves ritually clean at all times, according to the Jewish laws of purity. They also refrained from ever cutting their hair. They just let it grow out. Thus we have all the icons and statues of John of the Baptist with rather long hair. That was part of the Nazarite vow.

To our eyes, John the Baptist might look like a hippie right out the 70s, but he would not sound much like one. He would sound more like a moral reformer, like the other prophets of the Old Covenant. The Nazarites lived a life of strict self-denial and gave themselves totally to serving God. So John the Baptist grew up in the desert, living a life of prayer as a hermit. He wore a garment or a habit made out of a camel’s skin. He kept it in place with a leather belt. He lived off the land and ate mostly locusts and wild honey. When God called him to begin to preach, he went down to one of the main fords on the Jordan River, where many travelers would pass by.

What did he proclaim? “Repent and be baptized, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He called people to moral purity and to covenant faithfulness. He called tax-collectors to practice justice and to put an end to extortion. He called soldiers to stop all unnecessary violence and to be content with their pay. He defended traditional marriage and marital fidelity. He called everyone to the practice of charity. “If you have two coats,” he said, “give one of them to someone who has none.” “If you extra food, more than you really need, give it to those who are starving.”

And many people began to believe that he really was called by God. They accepted him as the new prophet. They repented and accepted his baptism. They began to live a better life and to follow the ways of God. They also began to wonder if he might be the Messiah, but he denied it. “What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. I am not the one. But, behold, one is coming after me. I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.”

“Get ready,” he said, “because he is already here, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And when Jesus came to be baptized, John said, “There he is. Follow him. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. He’s the answer. He’s the solution. He’s our only hope.”

A prophet is someone who receives the word of God, believes it and proclaims it boldly, and then suffers the consequences. Why was John thrown in prison? He dared to tell King Herod that he was in an unlawful marriage. John was exercising his prophetic vocation and informed the king that he needed to turn away from sin. And so the king’s unlawfully wedded wife asked for John’s head on a platter.

John the Baptist believed that his cousin Jesus was the Christ. Did he begin to doubt it when he was thrown into prison? It is difficult to determine from Sacred Scripture. It may be that only John’s disciples doubted. John simply sent them to Jesus to see for themselves. Many people were taking offense at Jesus. After all, he was making some very radical claims. How could they be sure that he is a true prophet? How could they be sure that he had the word of God? How did Jesus reassure John’s disciples? Jesus appealed to divine signs. Jesus invoked the criteria found in the Hebrew Scriptures. A true prophet is always accompanied by divine signs. Look at the signs of the kingdom of God!

Every true prophet must pass through the dark night of the spirit, in which we find ourselves overwhelmed with doubts and are tempted to despair. On the way of perfection, faith is always put to the test. The faith of Joseph, Mary, and John was put to the test. But they did not despair. John is a true prophet and more than a prophet. The Church is a true prophet and more than a prophet. Many people today are still taking offense at Jesus. We too are called to be prophets. We have received Confirmation, the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have an office and mission. Our faith in Christ must be put to the test. If we have any faith in him at all, we must set aside our doubts, proclaim the word of God boldly, and call people to repentance, in imitation of John the Baptist. We must tell people the truth about justice and marriage and human life, as John did. And we must be willing to suffer the consequences.

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About Deacon Tracy Jamison, OCDS, PhD

Deacon Tracy Jamison was raised in a Christian family as the son of a Scotch-Irish evangelical minister in the Campbellite tradition. As an undergraduate he majored in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Cincinnati Christian University, where his parents had been educated. At this institution he met Joyce, who was completing a degree in Church Music, and after graduation they entered the covenant of Christian marriage in 1988. Through the study of philosophy and the writings of the Early Church Fathers, Tracy was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church in 1992. Under the influence of the theological writings of St. John Paul II he began to study the works of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and entered formation as a Secular Carmelite of the Teresian Reform. In 1999 he completed the doctoral program in Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, and in 2002 he made his definitive profession as a Secular Carmelite. In 2010 he was ordained as a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Currently he is an associate professor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West.

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