Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Many years ago, I experienced the bonfires of Saint John’s Eve in Ireland – a truly spectacular sight. To me, they represented Christ, the Light of the World. For hundreds of years, these bonfires were a way of giving thanks for the longer days. When John says, “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30), it is possible that he is alluding to the fact that the days are the longest when he is born and the shortest when Jesus is born. John also suggests that he becomes less important even as Jesus becomes most important in the economy of salvation.

We are supposed to keep John’s remark in mind as we move through life — our goal must be to become more like Christ and less like ourselves. Our egos must decrease to accommodate the increasing Jesus in us as we ask daily, “What would Jesus do?” I must always do what Jesus would, working to make his kingdom come and for his will (not mine) to be done.

In today’s First Reading (Isaiah 49:1-6), Isaiah declares that the Lord “called me from birth, from my mother’s womb gave me my name.” The Lord “formed me as his servant.” In the Responsorial Psalm, “you have probed me; you know me” — words that apply to John the Baptist and us. In the Second Reading, David is an anticipation of the Baptist: “he will carry out my every wish,” as each of us must also do. In the Gospel Alleluia, the Baptist “will go before the Lord, to prepare his way.” So we must follow the Lord to reinforce his will and make his way ours.

Prayer:

Help us, Saint John the Baptist, to become reflections of the great bonfire, the light of the world, to do the Lord’s will rather than our own, as Zechariah does at the Baptist’s birth. Help us to follow Christ by loving others as well as ourselves.