Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Though I thought I had toiled in vain,

and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.

The Angel Gabriel faithfully reported to Mary that “Elizabeth is now in her sixth month for nothing is impossible with God,” and so we celebrate the birth of the Baptist six months before Christmas.

As I pointed out on this feast last year, the Baptist and the Messiah could have been rivals. Both were righteous, charismatic and attractive to the crowds. Both knew the Jewish religion badly needed reform and the mobs who followed them instinctively agreed. John had the head start over Jesus; he might have plotted against his cousin.  But he readily ceded leadership to Jesus.

Because of his obedient spirit we celebrate the similarities of John and Jesus. Both attracted popular attention and official suspicion. Both drew their crowds into the wilderness and away from the cities. Both called for repentance and reform. Both died a martyr’s death.

We might notice too, their ironic differences. While Jesus was publicly tried by empyreal, local and religious authorities, John never saw a courtroom. While the mobs and the officials demanded Jesus’ death, John was beheaded at the behest of a little girl. Jesus was publicly crucified for all the world to see; John was murdered in the darkness of a dungeon.  

Traditionally the Catholic Church has honored Mary the Mother of Jesus and her husband Saint Joseph. We have accorded high honors to Saints Peter and Paul. But the gospels honor Saint John the Baptist as second only to Jesus:

Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11: 11

The Prophet John remains as a challenge to us. Abraham Heschl wrote of the Hebrew Prophets:

"Indeed, the sort of crimes and even the amount of delinquency that fill the prophets of Israel with dismay do not go beyond that which we regard as normal, as typical ingredients of social dynamics. To us a single act of injustice--cheating in business, exploitation of the poor--is slight; to the prophets, a disaster. To us injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it is a deathblow to existence: to us, an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the world." 

The last of the Hebrew prophets ceded his authority to Jesus “but his soul is marching on.”