Apart from Mary and Joseph, John the Baptist is the only saint who has two feasts to himself: One, in August, that celebrates his death; and one, in June, that celebrates his birth. This is as it should be, for as Christ himself said, John was the greatest of the sons of men.
John, it seems, represents a kind of boundary between the Old Testament and the New. He was a prophet of the Old Testament when he declared the need for repentance of our sins. But he also was present at the start of Jesus’ ministry, heralding the New Testament. Even his life highlighted his role as a boundary. Because he represents the old, he was born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he was revealed as a herald of Jesus while still in his mother’s womb. John is the voice, crying out in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord; but he whom he was announcing was Jesus, the Word, who has always been present. John is a voice for a time, but Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning of creation.
John was the greatest of the sons of men, but perhaps also the most tragic. A prophet from before his birth, leaping in the womb to announce the coming of the incarnate God, his task was to proclaim the fulfilment of all prophecies – and thus his own obsolescence. And he did it. With unequalled courage he spread the news that he, the greatest of the sons of men, was the least in the kingdom of heaven. His disciples, and the devil, would have preferred him to fight to build his own sect, to defeat this upstart whom he himself had baptized, to seize his place in history.
But he did not – and so, rightly, he has his place, and he has glory in heaven.
Often, we envy the great and the talented, and sometimes we think that they themselves are beyond envy. But when the great and the talented come across someone with greater gifts, as one day all of them will, they will see for the first time what it means to feel like the rest of us. Let us pray that they, like John the Baptist, may pass that test.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!