http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
John the Baptist
Nativity of John
the Baptist: The Exigency to Prophesy
I want to begin
today with a brief look at the Book of the Prophet Malachi. Malachi is the last of the minor prophets,
minor not in stature but in length.
Using the medieval division of the books into chapter and verse, the
major prophetic books, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are 66, 52, and 48
chapters. The longest of the twelve
books of the minor prophets are Hosea and Zacharia, 14 chapters. The other ten
are 3 to 5 chapters. Malachi is
always put at the end of the list of minor prophets because it has a dramatic
ending: “Behold I send my messenger to prepare the way before me.” and "Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.”
John the Baptist
was a prophet. We use that term prophet
rather loosely to refer to anyone who has made an educated guess or simply a
good guess about the future. Sports
figures and reporters are called prophets when they correctly predict the
outcome of a game or match. Political
hacks are called prophets when an election turns out as they expected.
In Sacred
Scripture, prophecy is much more than that.
In scripture prophecy refers the proclamation of the Truth of God. This Truth is timeless because God is
timeless. The prophecy might not always
refer to the future. For example, John
the Baptist, was being prophetic when he pointed to Jesus and said, “There is
the Lamb of God.” John the Baptist was also being prophetic when he told Herod
that the king was a sinner. That was the
truth, and John lost his head for proclaiming it.
“The time will
come to pass that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” That is
from the prophet Joel. That time is
now. The Holy Spirit has been poured out
upon us since Pentecost. We are called,
like John, to prophesy, in the full meaning of the term prophet. We are called to proclaim the Truth of God.Truth is not necessarily something that people want to hear. On Friday we celebrated the feast of the martyrs John Fischer and Thomas More. Both opposed the King of England, Henry VIII, in his declaration that he was the Supreme Head of the Church. He did not want to hear that he was committing adultery by marrying Anne Boelyn. He demanded that all the bishops and nobles sign the Act of Supremacy, declaring that the King had complete authority over the Church. Archbishop John Fischer and Sir Thomas More refused. Even after they were imprisoned, Fischer and More’s very existence irritated the King. These martyrs died because they were prophets, committed to the Truth of God.
There are times that I have had to tell people that their lifestyle is detrimental to their future. I can assure you that they don’t want to hear it. I have told many people that for them, this or that leads to deep problems. They don’t want to hear it. I have had young couples leave my office quite upset because I told them that there is a considerable increase in the percentage of unsuccessful marriages for those who cohabitate. They would rather that I lie to them, or make believe that I don’t know the truth. No, we are called to proclaim the Truth, even if it is unpopular.
I am sure everyone here has gotten into a squabble or two or ten with family members when you mention that a particular lifestyle isn’t proper. Certainly, if you ever told your children that something which is the other kids are doing is wrong, you have had a fight on your hands. Good parents put up the good fight. And, in the long run, the Truth always wins.
When John was born, his father Zechariah, his voice restored, proclaimed a great truth, “You, my child, shall be called the Prophet of the Most High.” The song, or Canticle of Zechariah, is prayed every day by the entire Church as part of the Morning Prayers in the Liturgy of the Hours, or Divine Office. This prayer reminds us both of the central event of mankind, the Christ Event, and of our call to join John in proclaiming the Truth. For when we proclaim the Truth, we proclaim Jesus Christ.
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Homily from
Father Phil Bloom
http://stmaryvalleybloom.org/
* available in
Spanish - see Spanish homilies
John the Baptist
The Herald of
Freedom
(June 24, 2012)
Bottom line: We
are at the beginning of the Fortnight for Freedom that will culminate on July
4. Today we celebrate the great herald of freedom - John the Baptist. He points
the way to ultimate freedom - Jesus. And he teaches the steps to freedom:
Virtue ("repent"), Solidarity ("share with the poor") and,
when government encroaches on basic freedoms, push back.
Today we
celebrate the Birth of St. John the Baptist. It is such an important feast day
that it replaces the ordinary Sunday readings. It is also important in the
sense that his is one only three whose birthdays we commemorate. The other two
of course are Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
He is the herald
of freedom in an absolute sense because he the forerunner of Jesus who is
Freedom itself. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth will
set you free." (Jn 8:32) Politicians sometimes quote this verse, but by
"truth" Jesus does not mean some kind of ideology or political
program. To understand what Jesus is saying you have hear the whole sentence:
"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know
the truth and the truth will set you free." By becoming disciples, we know
the truth - Jesus himself. By knowing Jesus through prayer and sacraments, we
experience freedom. Jesus himself is the Truth that makes us free. John,
therefore, is the herald of freedom because he announces Jesus.
John heralds
freedom in a very practical way. Do you remember his basic message? It is:
Repent, change your life. "Produce good fruit," he says, "as
evidence of your repentance." (Luke 3:8) And what is the good fruit? I
want to mention a word that has lost its meaning for us. That word is
"virtue." It might sound boring, but virtue is essential for a good
life. It comes from the Latin word for "strength" and it includes
things like courage, patience, fair-play, respect, sportsmanship and generosity.
Without virtue freedom becomes impossible. Our founding fathers envisioned a
"Republic of Virtue." They knew that democracy could not succeed
unless ordinary citizens practiced basic virtues: honesty, self-discipline,
habits of work, etc.* In his Farewell Address George Washington said, "Of
all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion
and morality are indispensable supports." It's only logical when you think
about it. The natural human tendency is to take the path of least resistance:
sleep in, turn on the TV, play video games, surf the Internet, get a six-pack,
use drugs, toss the wrapper on the ground, leave the task to the next guy,
watch out for number one. You know what I mean. We need religion to counter-act
self-indulgence.
In recent years
sociologists have made some embarrassing studies - embarrassing, that is, to
sociologists themselves who tend to be non-religious. Their studies show that
attendance at a weekly service (such as Mass) correlates with better health,
longer life, lasting marriages, young people avoiding destructive behaviors and
- surprise - happiness. God has given us a command to keep holy the Lord's Day.
It's not that he needs anything we can give him, but that we need to worship
him. Many people have fallen into the habit of only going to Mass when they
feel like it. Some even think that it wrong to go to Mass unless they feel like
it! Nothing could be further from the truth. You need to go to Mass especially
when you don't feel like it. Our natural tendency is downward. Let me say it
again: We need religion to counter-act self-indulgence. John the Baptist said
it better than I ever could: Repent, produce the fruits of repentance - don't
be afraid of virtue.
Virtue - which
is self-government - makes democracy possible. And as John the Baptist teaches,
virtue moves a person outside of himself. When the people asked him, What shall
we do? He said, "If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have
food, share it with those who are hungry." (Lk 3:11) Democracy depends on
people solving problems on the smallest possible level. Family members should
take care of each other, as best they can. We need community organizations to
address issues that families can't handle alone. St. John the Baptist teaches
us to not wait for the government, but pitch in and do our part. In showing how
everyone can practice solidarity, John the Baptist heralds freedom.
There's
something more - and this is the tough part. When a ruler departs from God's
law, John the Baptist teaches us to push back. He challenged King Herod for
marrying Herodias - his brother's wife. Herodias was not amused. She got the
king to imprison John and eventually to murder him. He stands at the head of a
long line of Christian martyrs, continuing into our times: St. Christopher
Magallanes, put to death for opposing laws of a repressive Mexican
government.** Saint Maximillian Kolbe and Edith Stein, who died in Nazi
concentration camps. And more recently Shahbaz Bhatti - a practicing Catholic
in Pakistan. He was murdered, as Time Magazine reported, "because he had
called for changes in a blasphemy law used to persecute religious
minorities."
Now, you and I
are not living in a country where people are being put to death for their
faith. But we are seeing disturbing government encroachment on basic liberties,
including the first freedom - freedom of religion. Our bishops give seven
examples. I have placed a summary in today's bulletin. Our bishops are asking
us to join them in pushing back. We do this by praying and by studying these
issues.*** Our first prayer of course is gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy.
Ultimately those freedoms don't come from the government, but from God
himself.****
We are at the
beginning of the Fortnight for Freedom that will culminate on July 4. Today we
celebrate the great herald of freedom - John the Baptist. He points the way to
ultimate freedom - Jesus. And he teaches the steps to freedom: Virtue
("repent"), Solidarity ("share with the poor") and, when
government encroaches on basic freedoms, push back. Amen.
************
*Charles Murray
identified four "founding virtues." He writes "Two of them are
virtues in themselves - industriousness and honesty - and two of them refer to
institutions through which right behavior is nurtured - marriage and
religion." In his book "Coming Apart: The State of White America,
1960-2010," he uses sociological studies to demonstrate how we are losing
those virtues - and how that loss is changing our country. As they say, it
ain't a pretty picture. I found the book very thought provoking, especially for
us who have the task of teaching those virtues.
Another perhaps
surprising book on the relationship of virtue and democracry is: "Why
Catholicism Matters: How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society in the 21st
Century" by Bill Donohue. He has a nice quote from Fareed Zakaria:
"Greece was
not the birthplace of liberty as we know it. Liberty in the modern world is
first and foremost the freedom of the individual from arbitrary authority,
which has meant, for most of history, from brute power of the state."
Zakaria puts his finger on how this first evolved: "The Catholic Church
was the first major institution in history that was independent of temporal
authority and willing to challenge it. By doing this it cracked the edifice of
state power, and in nooks and crannies individual liberty began to grow."
For this reason, he concludes that "the rise of the Christian Church is,
in my view, the first important source of liberty in the West--and hence the
world."
**Peter O'Toole
gave a wonderful portrayal of Father Magallanes in the new movie For Greater
Glory.
the foundation of human rights, justice, and the common good.
Grant to our leaders the wisdom to protect and promote our liberties;
By your grace may we have the courage to defend them, for ourselves and for all those who live in this blessed land.
We ask this
through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, our patroness,
and in the name
of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, with whom you
live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
****An online
sample homily states it this way:
Our Bishops have
identified several attacks on religious liberty. The mandate of the Department
of Health and Human Services that all employers, including Catholic agencies,
provide health insurance for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing
drugs, is a national assault on religious liberty without precedent in our
history.
There are other
worrying measures at the state and local level too, notably laws which prohibit
the spiritual and charitable assistance given by the Church to undocumented
immigrants.
When the
government says that we must do what our faith forbids us to do, or when it
says we cannot do what our faith mandates us to do – then we too might be
called to have the courage of John the Baptist to refuse those unjust orders.
It is a stark
question that we face: Shall the government increase, and Jesus decrease? The
Fortnight for Freedom reminds us that our liberty is not something we have
invented for ourselves, much less is it the largesse of the government. It is
God’s gift. We have been set free in Christ Jesus for freedom. The genius of
the American experiment in ordered liberty is that it recognized this. As
Catholics and Americans we insist again upon that recognition. We insist today
as John the Baptist insisted before King Herod; we insist today as Peter and
Paul insisted before the Emperor Nero; we insist today as Bishop John Fisher
and Sir Thomas More insisted before King Henry VIII.
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Homily from
Father Andrew M. Greeley
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
John the Baptist
June 24th 2012
A.D.
Feast of John
the Baptist
"For the
hand of the Lord was with him"
Background:
Though he
appears often in the New Testament, John the Baptist is still a man of mystery.
We see him through the lens of the early Christians with only a hint that the
Baptist’s disciples would argue that he was superior to Jesus. But the
Baptist’s followers were lost in the waves of history, so we know very little
about them or about him, save what the Gospels.
Were they really
relatives? The question is not relevant. Jesus did seek out John’s baptism,
though such ceremonies of renewal were common in the Second Temple era. John,
we should be confident, was contemporary of Jesus whose life and work reflected
the need of that time for a new era. John’s plea for metanoia – change and
renewal – anticipated Jesus. But John did not claim as Jesus did that the
kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Story:
Once upon a
time, there was this parish director of music, a young woman just out of
musical school. She found a children’s choir which everyone loved, an adult
choir which no one liked because they sang too long, a scola cantorum which
sang Gregorian chant, which some people liked a lot, and a teenage choir that
“jammed for Jesus,” which the young people liked totally, and they were by
their own admission the only ones that counted. She was also going on for her
master’s degree and had a boy friend, who was a baseball pitcher without a
future because he played for the Cubs. The pastor was delighted with the young
woman’s talent and work ethic.
After her first
year he recommended to the financial council that she receive a fifty percent
raise because, as he said, “She works harder than any priest I know.” We’re not
considering a raise, they said. She’s only a kid. Let’s not give her a raise
till she asks for one. If we do pay her more, she’ll be back in two years for
more. More likely she will be out of here, said the pastor. This is a case of
commutative justice said the pastor, who was kind of old and remembered these
words from his social ethics courses. They still said no. He gave her the
raise. Finance committee complained to the bishop who said that if she didn’t
get a raise he’d hire her for the Cathedral.
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Homily from
Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe,Pa
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/sunday_homily
John the Baptist
Sunday, June 24,
2012
Birth of John
the Baptist
Luke 1:57-66, 80
Luke introduces
his gospel narrative of Jesus with the events surrounding the birth of John the
Baptist. In prior verses related to our passage, we learn that a priest
Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth have no children, both being well advanced in
years. While Zechariah is performing his priestly duty in the sanctuary of the
temple, an angel appears and says to him that Elizabeth will bear a son who was
to be called John. But because Zechariah did not believe, and questioned the
angel, he became unable to speak. After Elizabeth did give birth to a son,
Zechariah wrote on a tablet, "John is his name." Immediately his
tongue was freed and he spoke, blessing God. The child (whose name means
"Yahweh has shown favor") grew and became strong in spirit for he was
to become a prophet of the Most High.
Life
Implications
The unbreakable
bond between the Jewish people and the people of the new covenant in God's plan
of salvation is clearly evident in today's feast. It is from the Jewish people
that John the Baptist, Mary and Jesus are born so that the tender mercy of God
will visit all people. It is from the Jewish people that the church receives
the revelation of the most fundamental truths of faith. In the words of the
Second Vatican Council, the church continues to draw "sustenance from the
root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild olive
branches of the Gentiles" (Nostra Aetate, #4).
The most
fundamental truth from which we draw sustenance is that God is present in human
history as one who extends to us the favor of merciful love. We also learn from
the Jewish people that the mystery of divine presence is beyond comprehension.
The "I AM" of the divine name is a name beyond names (Ex 3:14 and Jn
8:58). A child born of aged Abraham and Sarah or a bush that burns but is not
consumed before Moses signals a presence beyond human understanding and
control.
It is precisely
because the mystery of the divine presence is beyond comprehension that the
decision to trust or not to trust is inevitable for every one of us. Zechariah,
upon hearing the outlandish words of the Lord's angel, did not trust and became
mute, unable to speak a word (Lk 1:20). Luke immediately afterwards tells us
that the Virgin Mary, too, was not able to understand the promise of the Lord's
angel. However, her response "How can this be, since I have no relations
with a man?" is asked out of trust, not out of doubt. The mystery even of
human friendship can deal with a thousand difficulties and questions that are
asked out of trust, but is deeply wounded by even one question asked out of
doubt.
Today's feast
celebrating the birth of John the Baptist reminds us to pray again for the
faith to recognize the divine presence in our lives, to trust in God's tender
mercy with an undivided heart, and to bless God always and everywhere with a
glad and grateful heart. Further, in the difficult circumstances that life
brings to us all, only as a grateful expression of trust that God's will is to
love us can we with confidence pray, "Thy will be done."
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Homily from
Father Cusick
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
John the Baptist
TWELFTH Sunday
in Ordinary Time
Job 38, 1.8-11;
Psalm 107; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41
Storms or no
storms, in tempest and in peace, we must live by faith. The greatest test of
faith is the confidence of belief in God through the fear brought by the
terrors of darkness and the tempests of temptation. Faith is given by God
precisely to sustain our weakness by divine power through the difficulties life
will bring.
"Now,
however, 'we walk by faith, not by sight'; (2 Corinthians 5:7) we perceive God
as 'in a mirror, dimly' and only 'in part.' (1 Corinthians 13:12) Even though
enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and
can be put to the test. The world we live in often seems very far from the one
promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice, and
death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a
temptation against it." (CCC 164)
"Perfect
faith casts out all fear." The saints and martyrs, the witnesses,
including the Apostles who feared the storm and the seas, are the ones to whom
we look to learn how to be men and women of faith, even while enduring the
temptations and doubts that flesh is heir to.
"It is then
that we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who 'in
hope...believed against hope'; (Romans 4:18) to the Virgin Mary, who, in 'her
pilgrimage of faith,' walked into the 'night of faith' (Lumen Gentium 58; John
Paul II, Redemptoris Mater 18) in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering
and death; and to so many others: 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which
clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before
us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.' (Hebrews
12:1-2)" (CCC 165)
Faith is the
gift of God, and through this virtue he enables us to call upon him in every
circumstance, from desperation to joy, in tragedies and in blessings. Christ
commanded us to "pray always." Prayer is the necessary means of union
with God in every circumstance: "It is always possible to pray: The time
of the Christian is that of the risen Christ who is with us always, no matter
what tempests may arise. (Cf. Matthew 28:20; Luke 8:24) Our time is in the
hands of God:
'It is possible
to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling alone, or
seated in your shop,...while buying or selling,...or even while cooking.' (St.
John Chrysostom, Ecloga de oratione 2: PG 63, 585)" (CCC 2743)
"Prayer is
a vital necessity. Proof from the contrary is no less convincing: if we do not
allow the Spirit to lead us, we fall back into the slavery of sin. (Cf.
Galatians 5:16-25) How can the Holy Spirit be our life if our heart is far from
him?
'Nothing is
equal to prayer; for what is impossible it makes possible, what is difficult,
easy...For it is impossible, utterly impossible, for the man who prays eagerly
and invokes God ceaselessly ever to sin.' (St. John Chrysostom, De Anna 4, 5:
PG 54, 666)
'Those who pray
are certainly saved; those who do not pray are certainly damned.' (St.
Alphonsus Ligouri, Del gran mezzo della preghiera.)
Prayer and
Christian life are inseparable, for they concern the same love and the same
renunciation, proceeding from love; the same filial and loving conformity with
the Father's plan of love; the same transforming union in the Holy Spirit who
conforms us more and more to Christ Jesus; the same love for all men, the love
with which Jesus has loved us. 'Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he
[will] give it to you. This I command you, to love one another.' (Origen, De
orat. 12:PG 11, 452C)" (CCC 2744)
The greatest
prayer, the sacramental liturgy of the Church, is the place where prayer and
love meet perfectly. "In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the
mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and
communicates the mystery of salvation, which is continued in the heart that
prays. The spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar. Prayer
internalizes and assimilates the liturgy during and after its celebration. Even
when it is lived out 'in secret,' (Cf. Matthew 6:6) prayer is always prayer of
the Church; it is a communion with the Holy Trinity. (GILH 9)" (CCC 2655)
The best
antidote to fear is the heart at prayer, confident of the mercy of God and the
availability of salvation in the sacramental life.
Homily from
Father Alex McAllister SDS
John the Baptist
Birthday of St
John the Baptist
Today we
celebrate the Birth of John the Baptist, it is a midsummer feast just as the
Birth of Christ is a midwinter feast—John being born six months before Christ.
There is a sort
of theological logic in this, although some might call it a romantic logic(!),
in that one of John’s most famous prophesies is that I must decrease and he
must increase. From midsummer on the days do decrease until the arrival of
Christ at Christmas when they increase again.
You might wonder
about all the hassle they had over the choice of John’s name in our Gospel
reading; but names are very important and they were especially significant to
the Jewish people and, as we see in the text, everyone felt they had a right to
be consulted.
One thing about
St Joseph’s Parish is that there are a lot of Baptisms which is a great joy for
us all. I am sure that the parents think very hard about choosing a name for their
new child. They want a name that sounds good, a name that means something.
The name John is
made up of two words: Ja an abbreviation for God and the word for grace or
favour. So the name John means God will show him favour.
This is an echo
of the Angel’s greeting to Mary: you who enjoy God’s favour. We are told that
John the Baptist lived an extraordinarily ascetical and penitential life in the
desert and that he preached an uncompromising and harsh message. We know also
that his life was brought to an end in a gory death at the whim of a dancing
girl. Nevertheless, despite all these things he did enjoy God’s favour.
There is a good
lesson for us here. We often think we know how someone will turn out in life,
we often have very firm ideas about what we ourselves will do, but even more
often God has his own ideas.
In the case of
John he was marked out from his very birth to be the herald of Christ. God has
marked each one of us out for special work in the world. Maybe we already think
we know where God wants us to go and what he wants us to do, maybe not.
John is the one
who brought Baptism into being for the Church and maybe this could give us a
clue. Each one of us is Baptised, each one of us has made those Baptismal
promises to reject Satan and to embrace belief in Christ. This is more than a
clue to what God wants for us. He has chosen us to be his witnesses in the
world.
We can surely
say that John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament Prophets but you
could just as easily say that he was the first of the New Testament Prophets,
the first of the witnesses to Christ.
Maybe we aren’t
all given the same gift of ‘holy brusqueness’ as the Scottish Cardinal, but
each of us can make our own impact in our own way. Each of us is capable of
being a Prophet of the New Testament. Each of us can find ways of making an
impact for Christ on our neighbours.
We receive the salvation Christ won for us but we are also, like John, its heralds. We too proclaim a Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. We too reject sin and proclaim our belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Let us do so in the traditional formula used at Baptism.
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