Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
June 24, 2021
Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
Mass during the Day
Lectionary: 587
Reading I
Hear me, O coastlands,
listen, O distant peoples.
The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.
He made of me a sharp-edged sword
and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.
He made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me.
You are my servant, he said to me,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm
- (14) I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
O LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.
R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
My soul also you knew full well;
nor was my frame unknown to you
When I was made in secret,
when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.
R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
Reading II
In those days, Paul said:
“God raised up David as king;
of him God testified,
I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;
he will carry out my every wish.
From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise,
has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.
John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel;
and as John was completing his course, he would say,
‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’
“My brothers, sons of the family of Abraham,
and those others among you who are God-fearing,
to us this word of salvation has been sent.”
Alleluia
- Alleluia, alleluia.
You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
But they answered her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?”
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
The child grew and became strong in spirit,
and he was in the desert until the day
of his manifestation to Israel.
Reflection: PREPARATION FOR MINISTRY IN THE WILDERNESS
There is a detail in this Gospel that we usually overlook. That is the last sentence. "The child grew and became strong and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel." Let us have a look at what this child was doing in the desert until he came into the public eye. In the first century, there was a group of ultra conservative ascetics who lived in the Judaean desert, leading a pure life, preparing for the arrival of the Messiah. They were called the Essenes. They studied the scriptures, lived in total celibacy, practiced the Torah to the letter and practiced all the rituals. Biblical archeology has discovered the Qumran caves in the middle of last century, and the findings threw a good amount of light on their lifestyle and beliefs. It is probable that John joined this group in the desert at some point of his youth. This is strange because John was the son of a priest in Jerusalem. The priest married and led a well provided life in the city! His going off to the desert must have been the result of an early sense of a special call from God, which John obeyed. In his formation he is in complete contrast with his cousin, Jesus. Jesus was the product of the simple agrarian peasant society, and his speech would prove that. John's language, behaviour, beliefs, and even his food and clothes were of a specialized hermitic group. Jesus himself made this contrast once when he said: "John the baptizer came without eating and drinking and you said that he is possessed by a demon; the Son of Man came eating and drinking and you call him a glutton and a friend of tax collectors!" So, Jesus and John were a complete study in contrast; they were utterly unlike each other. And yet both were children of the Wisdom of God and they are borne out by their fruits. This is the beauty of the Catholic sainthood. We have all kinds of saints, but all of them saints! From the one who sat on a pillar all his life, to the one who made wine all his life, from slaves to kings, from the most learned to the totally illiterate, we have all kinds of interpretations of holiness. There is no one way to heaven. All of us, from wherever we are, can find out road to salvation.