Today we celebrate the nativity of St John the Forerunner, the only saint on our liturgical calendar besides the Mother of God (and, of course, the Lord Jesus) whose nativity is specially celebrated. Most saints are celebrated on the day of their death, which is, as it were, the day of their “birth” into the new and everlasting life of the Kingdom of Heaven. But St John is one of the few whose earthly life was so important in the mystery of our salvation that his birth as well as his death is celebrated.
It is fitting on this day of his nativity to recall these words of Jesus: “among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Mt. 11:11). One can hardly imagine higher praise. Yet Jesus immediately adds: “yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.” What does that mean? It almost sounds as if Jesus is putting him down immediately after He raised him up. But Jesus is doing a thing here similar to that which He did concerning his own mother. When someone blessed her for giving birth to Jesus and nursing Him, Jesus responded that the higher blessing is in hearing the word of God and keeping it. He wasn’t putting Mary down, because she in fact heard the word of God and kept it better than anyone else on earth. So she was doubly blessed for being both the mother and the most faithful disciple of the Lord.
It is similar with St John. Being the greatest of men on a merely human level cannot compare with the greatness and the glory that belong to even the most lowly member of the Kingdom of Heaven. But John was not only the greatest of men; he would also be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, honored as one of the Church’s greatest saints. So as long as John would remain only humanly great, he (like any one of us)
would remain less than the least in Heaven. But since his whole life was dedicated to God and to the coming of the Messiah, he was great both on Earth and eventually in Heaven.
Let us now take a look at this great man of Earth and saint of Heaven. His greatness was intimated even before his conception. This event was announced by the Archangel Gabriel, who appeared to the priest Zachariah, and something of John’s mission was described to him. He would be an ascetic, that is, he would live a rough and demanding life, without even the comfort of a little wine, which was not a luxury but a staple in that time and culture. He would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, and this would enable him not only to live a holy life but also to fulfill his mission as a prophet, that is, as one who speaks for God. John was to “turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God… and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” This describes well his mission, and this is why, in the Eastern tradition, St John isn’t usually called the “Baptist” but rather the “Forerunner.” He is to go before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah. He is to announce the One who will baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire. It is true that much of John’s claim to fame comes from being the one who baptized Christ in the Jordan, which event occasioned the first public manifestation of the All-holy Trinity. But that is a specific element of his larger mission of preparing the way of the Lord as his Forerunner. His preaching was also an important element of his mission, and that is something that is emphasized in Zachariah’s inspired canticle, which was a prophecy about the Forerunner’s mission as they were celebrating his birth.
This newborn child was named “John” over the objections of his relatives, because it was the name that the angel told Zachariah to give him. Zachariah had learned the hard way the consequences of doubting the angel’s words, so he wasn’t going to disobey a second time! He insisted that the boy’s name was to be John. The name “John” means “the Lord is gracious,” and this can be taken to mean that the advent of the Forerunner is also the prelude to the time of grace which Christ would soon inaugurate.
Zachariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to his newborn son, granted him by the graciousness of God: “And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” Again we have here a concise summary of the mission of the Forerunner, as prophet and as, well, forerunner! But what will he say when he speaks for the Lord and what will he do to prepare the way of the Lord as his forerunner? Zachariah continues: he will “give knowledge of salvation to his people through forgiveness of their sins.”
We ought to dwell on this a bit, for we come here to the heart of John’s prophetic ministry. The two main elements in this part of the prophecy are “knowledge of salvation” and “forgiveness of sins.” He would give knowledge of salvation to the people by pointing to the Savior. When John first appeared at the Jordan, many thought that he himself was the Messiah, but if he had accepted their accolades he would not be giving them knowledge of salvation. He had to decrease while Jesus, the true Messiah, had to increase. But “knowledge of salvation” doesn’t consist merely in knowing who the Savior is. Zachariah’s canticle says that knowledge of salvation comes through forgiveness of sins. This means salvation isn’t a knowledge of facts, something that you can learn in a book, even in the Book of the Scriptures. It is knowledge in the Hebrew sense of the term that implies a personal and even intimate relationship. Sin touches the deepest part of our soul, the secret place where our guilt and shame dwell. To know salvation is to receive forgiveness of sin, and the only way to receive forgiveness of sin is to know in a personal way our Lord Jesus Christ, who, as we just heard in last Sunday’s Gospel, has authority to forgive sin.
This knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sin is so important that all of John’s preaching can be summed up in a single word: repent! And he preached in the most direct and unambiguous way. He never said: “Hey, don’t worry, relax, everything’s going to be OK. God is a tolerant fellow, so he’ll let you off the hook. Enjoy yourself, just be kind to animals and save the trees and try not to hurt anyone while you’re having your fun.” No, instead he said, or rather thundered, this: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! You brood of vipers, bear fruit that befits repentance! Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!”
St Paul confirms this in the epistle chosen for this feast: “It is full time now for you to wake from sleep… the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:11-14).
The Church needs to hear the preaching of the Forerunner today, the preaching of him whom Christ called the greatest man on Earth, and who is now among the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And the Church needs more forerunners to prepare the way of the Lord; she needs more prophets, who are not afraid to call sinners to repentance, to give them knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. The Church needs more men and women who will turn people’s hearts back to the Lord their God, and who will turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous.
We know there is much evil in the world today, and to our shame we must admit that there is also much evil in the Church, as the revelation of various scandals testifies (not only pedophilia, but homosexual activity, embezzlement, and a widespread disregard for the tradition and teaching of the Magisterium among bishops, priests, and laity as well.) Too often and for too long the leaders of the Church have turned a blind eye to, or even covered up or lied about all these evils, but the searching Light of God is finally exposing them, for only wounds that are exposed to the Physician can be healed. The Lord wants to save his people and to make all things new.
The Forerunner is proclaiming once again that the axe is laid to the root of the tree, and fruitless trees will be cut down and burned. He is telling the Church to recover her knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of her sins. The Church will always and essentially be the pure Bride of Christ, but her sinful members have done much to soil her wedding dress, and have given such scandal and bad example to the world that some people decide to leave her, and others refuse to join her. All this will have to be accounted for on Judgment Day.
So let us heed the Apostle who calls us to wake up and put on the armor of Light. And let us heed the Forerunner who calls us to repent. His name is John, “the Lord is gracious.” May the Lord be gracious to us and forgive us our sins, that having gained the knowledge of salvation we may, like St Zachariah, be filled with the Holy Spirit and intone joyful canticles unto the Lord.
