The angel told Zechariah that his son would be “great” and the Lord himself called him the “greatest born of woman”. The Liturgy takes the same view. In our Roman Liturgical year, he is commemorated twice, today and on the 29 August, his birth and his death, therefore. After Jesus himself, only our Lady and he are feted on their birthdays. In the Roman Canon, his name heads the second list of saints, as Mary’s heads the first. And so Mary and John flank the heart of the Mass, the account of the Institution and the consecration. In the Eastern liturgical tradition, he has 6 feasts in the year, and on the icon screen which separates the sanctuary from the nave in Eastern Churches, he is portrayed beside the icon of Christ coming in glory as Ruler and Judge. Mary stands praying for humanity on Jesus’ right, John on Jesus’ left. Just as John and Mary in their complementary ways prepared Israel for the first coming of Christ, so now in heaven they prepare the whole human race for the second coming.
Thinking back to our procession on Sunday, surely we can imagine Mary and John flanking us either side of the Eucharistic Lord, praying with us.
What then was, or rather is, St John’s role in the plan of salvation? Who is he? The best word seems to be Forerunner. The Preface calls him the Precursor – the same thing. And when he’s born, his father says: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” John goes before the Lord in his birth, in his preaching and baptising, in pointing Jesus out to his first followers, and in his dying. In him the Old Testament comes out of the shadows and crosses over into the New. John’s whole life was focussed on the coming intervention of God in his people’s history and his realisation that Jesus of Nazareth was the embodiment of this intervention. Everything in him, his habitat, his lifestyle, his speaking and acting prepared for Christ. He becomes the friend of the Bridegroom, ready to give way to him, to grow less so that the Lord might grow more, to disappear so that the Christ might appear. If ever there was a Christ-centred person, it was – after Mary the Mother – John the Forerunner. And this is the reason for his greatness.
In consequence of giving such space to the One coming after him, there’s room in this Spirit-filled man for the whole Church too, for each and all of us. HE embodies the Church’s mission. Like Mary again, and in his own masculine way, he is a type of the Church. Aren’t all of us – laity, clergy, religious – called to prepare the way of the Lord – in ourselves and our own circles? John’s often portrayed in art as pointing to Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God”. He has a famous finger! He didn’t refer people to himself. He referred them to someone Greater whose sandals he wasn’t worthy to unstrap. As St Augustine beautifully put it, he was a voice at the service of the Word. Ad so he is a model for us. What he was for the First Coming of the Lord, each and all of us can be for the Second Coming.
Sometimes, I say that my hope for us is that Christ be real, more real, to us. And I’d love it if John the Baptist could be a little realer to us too. He has so much to share. Some of Jesus’ first disciples were John’s first; we do well to go to the school of John the Baptist.
He lived, for example, an austere life; we can at least avoid some superfluities.
He had a strong sense of the need for repentance and the forgiveness of sins; we can cherish the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
He was very clear as to his mission, on who he was and who he wasn’t (cf. Jn 1:19-23): he grasped both the limits of his authority and the reality of his God-given mission, not an easy thing.
He could give very measured, practical, doable advice (cf. Lk 3:10-14); he wasn’t a fanatic. He encouraged people to share with one another, food and clothes. He told taxmen to be honest, not to play the system. He told soldiers not to throw their weight around and be content with their wages.
In what seems like a moment of crisis and doubt, he messaged Jesus and received his reassurance (cf. Lk 7:18-23).
He died at the hands of Herod because he upheld the divine law regarding marriage. I would have thought this was very contemporary.
And most of all he was a joyful disciple. He “danced” in the womb when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth, and one of the Advent Prefaces has him “singing” that the Lord is coming. And at the end of his mission – the Lamb of God revealed – he can say, “this joy of mine is now complete” (Jn 3:29). May we, like John, follow the Lamb wherever he goes and, even if wounded, never cease to love! May we have joy in our discipleship!
