Today is the Solemnity of the Birthday of St. John the Baptist

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist - Leonardo DaVinci - c.1499-1500

The Birthday of Saint John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist is honored with not one, but two holidays. Both his death (in August) and his birth (in June) are commemorated annually. This is fitting, as Christ proclaimed John to be the greatest of all human beings.

The greatest and most tragic at the same time. A foretold prophet who jumped for joy in the womb to herald the arrival of God made flesh, his mission was to herald the fulfillment of all prophecies, and by extension, his own obsolescence. And he did it, proclaiming with unparalleled bravery that he, the greatest of men, was the least in God's kingdom. His followers and the devil wanted him to fight for the sake of building his sect and defeating this upstart whom he had baptized. But he did not, and so he deserves his position and the praise of God.

The great and the talented are often the objects of our envy, despite our belief that they are unenvyable. But when they meet someone with greater gifts, as most of them will eventually do, they will experience what it is like to feel like us for the first time. Hope they can pass the test like John the Baptist did.

source: Universalis

From a sermon by Saint Augustine

The voice of one crying in the wilderness

The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s. This point cannot be passed over in silence, and if I may not perhaps be able to explain it in the way that such an important matter deserves, it is still worth thinking about it a little more deeply and fruitfully than usual.

John is born of an old woman who is barren; Christ is born of a young 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.

I have proposed some matters for inquiry, and listed in advance some things that need to be discussed. I have introduced these points even if we are not up to examining all the twists and turns of such a great mystery, either for lack of capacity or for lack of time. You will be taught much better by the one who speaks in you even when I am not here; the one about whom you think loving thoughts, the one whom you have taken into your hearts and whose temple you have become.

John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, The Law and the prophets were until John. So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb. You will remember that, before he was born, at Mary’s arrival he leapt in his mother’s womb. Already he had been marked out there, designated before he was born; it was already shown whose forerunner he would be, even before he saw him. These are divine matters, and exceed the measure of human frailty. Finally, he is born, he receives a name, and his father’s tongue is loosed.

Zachary is struck dumb and loses his voice, until John, the Lord’s forerunner, is born and releases his voice for him. What does Zachary’s silence mean, but that prophecy was obscure and, before the proclamation of Christ, somehow concealed and shut up? It is released and opened up by his arrival, it becomes clear when the one who was being prophesied is about to come. The releasing of Zachary’s voice at the birth of John has the same significance as the tearing of the veil of the Temple at the crucifixion of Christ. If John were meant to proclaim himself, he would not be opening Zachary’s mouth. The tongue is released because a voice is being born – for when John was already heralding the Lord, he was asked, Who are you and he replied I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

John is the 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.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, give your people grace to enter on the way of salvation. As they hearken to the voice of John, the Lord’s herald, bring them safely to Jesus, whom John foretold.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.