John the Baptist

BIRTH OF THE BAPTIST: 24TH JUNE 2007

Something becoming known that has been planned since the foundation of time…… a secret…. taking shape ….. a mystery, coming to resolution……….

This is what this weekend’s special feast is about this weekend…………

This is a concrete expression of the later words of Jesus….. what you hear in whispers… will be shouted from the rooftops……..

God knows each one of us….. calls us by name…… forms us in secret….. and intends and plans to bring one or more different facets of God’s own plan to fruition in each one of us…… for us… it may not be the profound and unrepeatable role of John the Baptist……. (God’s warm up man, if you like)….. the herald…… whose role was TO PREPARE the way for the Messiah…. call us all to open our hearts, repent of our sins, turn back to God and clear any obstacles to the coming of Christ and his good news….

John the Baptist,…. who mixed with Kings and everyday citizens….but was uncompromising and equal in relating to all…. he was not overawed or blinded by the respect of famous and rich, but called them too, to the repentace of sin that he noted…

If a painting were to be done representing John the Baptist… it would capture his simplicity, his asceticism, and also, I reckon, it should show him pointing….. for he (in a gracious way) pointed to what was wrong and pointed to how to set it right…. and even more importantly…whenever anyone looked at him, so to speak, he pointed them back to Jesus…. saying… “I am not the one you seek….. he is the one who is to come….’

The gospel passage is an extraordinary moment…. when John’s name is revealed….. the parents of John needed to trust in what God was doing in their lives…. and they also had to be prepared to break with tradition when it was God’s will to do otherwise…… tradition is good…. but the principles on which tradition is based, are even more important ….. so… the tradition of the time said that a son should be named after either his father or a relative in the family….. but God asked this child to be named John and breaking with tradition… to achieve God’s will….. Zaccheriah spoke his first words in months and said….. his name is JOHN.

We too, have a part to play in God’s plan for the world…… each one of us is called to be a herald of Christ in our lives and act in a way that keeps pointing back to jesus and his life-giving message……..

we too, when necessary, need to put aside the letter of tradition and go with what is needed in the circumstances of a specific issue…. especially if to do so is in furtherance of Jesus mission in the world…..