IN PRAISE OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
Today, August 29, 2022 is the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
“Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:11) The praise of John the Baptist by Jesus is unique in Scripture.
John the Baptist was the last prophet of the everlasting covenant between Yahweh and the children of Israel. He is also the first prophet of the New Covenant under Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
John the Baptist is greatly honored in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Besides his Beheading, another feast is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church in his honor, his Nativity. Only one other Roman Catholic saint (excluding the Blessed Virgin Mary) has two feast days celebrated in their honor, Saint Joseph, as Spouse of Mary and as the Worker. The Blessed Virgin Mary has eight feast days.
“The commemoration of his Nativity is one of the oldest feasts, if not the oldest feast, introduced into both the Greek and Latin liturgies to honour a saint. ...The celebration of the Decollation of John the Baptist, on 29 August, enjoys almost the same antiquity.” (“St. John the Baptist,” Catholic Encyclopedia)
John the Baptist is widely recognized in the monastic tradition as among the first and most exemplary hermits of the New Covenant. Together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, John the Baptist is one of the two principal saints of the legendary Carthusian order.
John the Baptist lived the perfect life. Holy from birth, he displayed the virtues of a saint, particularly those of the monk and ascetic, and died a martyr, brutally executed for speaking God’s truth to worldly power wielded in violation of God’s law.
Image is a naturalistic representation of the baptism of Jesus that strongly evokes the event as it took place about two thousand years ago. We can almost locate ourselves in the scene and watch it as it happens.
ReplyDeleteImage is widely used and available online.
Gonzalinho
All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.—Romans 3:23
ReplyDeleteWe note that some theologians have argued that John the Baptist wasn’t a sinner. I can’t say that he wasn’t, but he was surely extraordinary in holiness, Jesus’ words witness to it.
I say “perfect” in a manner of speaking. John the Baptist’s life is admirable in all the aspects testified by Scripture and in this respect it is perfect.
Gonzalinho
I must emphasize that the Catholic Church has never taught that St. John the Baptist was born free of original sin. There is theological and scriptural speculation that he was, though. This speculation has never been condemned by the Church and one can either believe or not believe this theory and still be considered to be a Catholic in good standing with the Church.
DeleteLet us look at why someone may believe that St. John the Baptist was born free from original sin.
When the archangel Gabriel announces to Zechariah that St. John will be born to him, the archangel says, “he will be great in the sight of [the] Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). We understand that sin cannot dwell where God takes up residence. So if St. John the Baptist is prophesied to be full of the Holy Spirit from the womb of his mother, then there cannot be sin in his soul. This means that, at some point, God must have cleansed his soul of this first sin of our parents.
Now when might this cleansing from original sin have taken place? Let us look later in this same chapter from St. Luke’s Gospel. When Mary, now bearing Jesus in her womb, enters and greets Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist leaps in her womb (Luke 1:41). It is understood that St. John the Baptist leaps for joy because salvation is so near to us. The “Catholic Encyclopedia” goes one step further than this understanding. It states that at the moment St. John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb, that he was cleansed from original sin (www.newadvent.org/cathen/08486b.htm).
This cleansing from original sin would be different than the cleansing from original sin Mary received. It has been defined by the Church that Mary was immaculately conceived, meaning that from the first moment of her existence, Mary was cleansed from original sin. St. John the Baptist, in contrast, would have been conceived with original sin, but cleansed roughly 6-7 months after being conceived.
https://www.archstl.org/dear-father-was-st-john-the-baptist-cleansed-from-original-sin-scripture-might-give-us-clues-5507
—Father John Mayo, “Was St. John the Baptist cleansed from original sin? Scripture might give us clues,” St. Louis Review, July 20-26, 2020
…Father Mayo is pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel Parish in St. Louis.
Gonzalinho
Nearly every saint’s feast day is celebrated on the day of the person’s death, the day presumed to mark that saint’s entrance into heaven. The only two exceptions are Our Lady and John the Baptist, who both have feast days marking their births; long ago, St. Augustine noted that the reason for this is the church’s common belief that John entered the world freed (in the womb) from original sin.
Deletehttps://catholicphilly.com/2016/11/catholic-spirituality/was-john-the-baptist-free-from-original-sin/
—Father Kenneth Doyle, “Was John the Baptist free from original sin?””CatholicPhilly.com, November 2, 2016
Gonzalinho
Some have complained that the image of Jesus in this post is Caucasian. My response is that many Jews today have light skin, some even have blond hair. No doubt many light-skinned Jews walked around during Jesus' time, and because they were of Levantine stock, they probably tanned easily. I seriously doubt that many of them had blond hair.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
Named Elijah after the greatest prophet of the Covenant, John the Baptist is the last and the first - the last prophet of the original Covenant, the first of the new. His singular appointment by God testifies to his greatness.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho