NATIVITY of

St. JOHN THE BAPTIST

Isaiah 49:1-6, Acts 13:22-26, Luke 1:57-66, 80

little brother avi bala bitra                                            23rd  June , 2022 

Today is the great feast: that of the Birth of John the Baptist, who was chosen by God to prepare the way for the coming of his Son Jesus into this world. It is indeed a great feast, a feast of joy, but above all a feast of mercy.  Elizabeth, the mother of John, who was called barren received the gratuitous gift from God, the extraordinary favour of conceiving a son in her old age.

 John the Baptist played a unique role in the history of God’s people. He acted as the bridge between the Hebrew and Christian Testaments. He basically belongs to the former but was present at the beginnings of the latter.

He encouraged his disciples to follow him and he becomes the bridge in the building of the kingdom of God on earth. In fact, that is still the role of the missionary today – to plant the church and then withdraws, leaving it in the hands of the new local community.

 The First Reading of today from the Book of Isaiah speaks of the divine choice in the life of the Servant of God.  The passage tells us of the pre-knowledge of God in the life of the prophet as it is in the life of every person.  Even before he was born, while he was in his mother’s womb God chose him and gave him a name. 

It is God who makes use of him as his own instrument in the proclaiming of the word. When he proclaimed the Word of God, it was like a sharp sword that pierced even the hardened hearts. The people paid attention to his teaching and heard the message of God.

All the nations were called to gain their blessings through the Jewish nation. While this was God’s original calling for His people, their desire for political greatness had obscured their original calling.

  In the Second Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul insists that the coming of Jesus is the consummation of history.  He outlines the history of the Jews and shows how it culminates in Christ. It is planned according to the divine purpose. Paul here uses purely the Jewish argument as he speaks of the criteria that God set when he chose David as king.

Both, birth of Jesus and John the Baptist were announced in advance: in John’s case to his father Zechariah and in Jesus’ case to his mother Mary. The birth of John was a special blessing to his parents, who were already advanced in age, and particularly to Elizabeth. They in fact had lost hope of having any child.  So when the birth took place it was a special occasion of rejoicing among relatives and neighbors. The Gospel tells us that when they heard “that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy”.

Everyone knew what a shame it was for a woman not to give a child, especially a son, to her husband.  On the eighth day after the birth of the child, they did the Jewish ritual of naming the child and indicating that the child belonged to God’s own people. It was also the day on which the child was officially accepted into the community. A name is what expresses the entire personality of a being. And when the Lord himself bestows a name upon someone, this means that he who receives this name is truly known as such in the very Spirit of God.

Now, the name of John means “grace”. By naming him thus, the Lord already sees in him his own Son; John is not the Son of God made man, but it is he who announces him, it is he who is his living sign.

Truly, the birth of John the Baptist took place at a decisive moment, one that was crucial to all humanity. Zechariah, his father, was the first witness of this: he proceeded from being incredulous to becoming a believer; from being dumb to becoming the one who proclaimed the praises and the blessings of the Almighty.

Everyone has a call from God and has his own vocation. John the Baptist had an unusual vocation, to be interiorly prepared for the mission that had been entrusted to him. This was his hidden life which he spent quietly in the desert in prayer and penance. This was his life with the Spirit of the Lord who would lead him later into life even to the level of Martyrdom at the hands of evil Herod.

 John the Baptist’s life has a special meaning for all of us. We are, through our baptism, also called to be precursors of the Lord. Our baptism imposes on us an obligation to share our faith and to give witness to the Way of Jesus, both in word and action. There is no other way by which the average person can come to know and experience the love of Christ. In that sense, we are all called to be “preachers”.

Our lives individually and collectively are meant to send out a message and an invitation: “Come and join us and share our experience of faith, love, and fellowship.”

Let us ask John the Baptist today to help us by the way we live our lives to clear a path which will draw people closer to knowing and experiencing Christ. We may not be prophets but we are still called to testify to the Light.

 

 - @Avinash Bitra OFM Cap.