NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
June 24
Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini
“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 would call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, ‘No. He will be called John.’ But they answered her, ‘No one among your relatives 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.”
Greetings to all.
Today, we celebrate the feast of the birth of John the Baptist, June 24, the solstice, when the sun begins to diminish in the Western hemisphere, and this is the reason why, since the time of St. Augustine (we are at the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth century), the feast of the Baptist is celebrated. Precisely because he had said: Now I must step aside because another light has appeared. And as the sun begins to set, so does the Baptist begin to overshadow because another light has come: Christ.
This is why this date was chosen to celebrate the Nativity of John the Baptist. You can see behind me where tradition considers the birthplace of the Baptist: Ain Karim. Zechariah and Elizabeth lived there, and it was there where Mary would have gone to visit her relative when she found out that in her old age, she was expecting a son, a gift of God for the world. You can see this city behind my back. To my right, you can see the church, considered the birthplace of the Baptist. This panorama of Ain Karim is very beautiful. In the background, you can also see the city of Jerusalem.
Another important place in this village is the springs of water, which already existed in the time of Jesus and Mary. You can see behind me this well called "The Fountain of the Virgin." It is said that it was there that the encounter between Elizabeth and Mary took place. You can see an old lady and a young one –participants of the group I took to Israel; this picture is intended to reproduce the embrace between Mary and Elizabeth.
Let us present the figure of the Baptist and the message we want to give in this celebration. To see the development of the devotion and cult of the Virgin in Jerusalem, we must wait until the fifth century, with the construction of a church dedicated to Mary. But since the first century, the devotion to John the Baptist was widespread everywhere. People always had an extraordinary veneration for this saint. He appears more frequently in the art of all the centuries. There was no altar where the Baptist’s portrait was not clothed with a camel’s skin, with a belt at the waist and the stick ending in the form of a cross in his hand. Many dioceses have him as a patron; there are sanctuaries... And the most common name in the world is 'John' – because of John the Baptist.
How do you explain so much devotion to this saint? Saints are generally remembered if they perform miracles, but the Baptist is not remembered for this. So, why is there so much widespread sympathy for this man? It is not difficult to answer why. Let us begin by saying that in the desert of Judah, where the Baptist lived, many monks have started to live there since the fourth century. It is estimated that in the desert of Judah, at one time, up to 10,000 monks had the Baptist who had also lived in that desert as a protector, a symbol, and a model.
Let's go to the gospel text that we have today. The first thing we notice is that the birth of the Baptist is not normal—his mother was sterile, therefore, a human inability to give life and the intervention of God. In the Bible, we frequently find this image when the author wants to say that there has been an intervention of God for the gift of a relevant person in the history of the world. To emphasize the work of God, it is always said that his parents were old, like Samuel and Samson. These characters are always presented as born of a couple of elderly parents or a sterile mother. All to show that God has given this person to the world. Every child born is a sign of God's paternal and maternal tenderness, who gives the world a son or daughter. Now, this child has had a very particular mission in the history of humankind.
After this intervention of God continues the evangelical text, it came to the name that would be given to the child. "On the eighth day, they went to circumcise him and wanted to call him his father, Zechariah." Surprisingly, Luke makes the time of circumcision coincide with the imposition of the name. He does it also with Jesus. That was not the case because the name was given at the time of birth; it was how the father recognized him as his son and gave him the name. Instead, Luke joins the circumcision with the name.
It is also surprising that Luke presented the fact that people expected to give him his father's name. This was not the tradition because the tradition was to give the name of the grandfather, not the father. It seems that Luke, instead of writing a detail—that may even be marginal—wanted to emphasize that the name 'Zechariah' did not have to be given to the Baptist.
Let's see the reason and understand why the evangelist places together the circumcision with the imposition of the name. Circumcision is a sign of belonging to the people of the covenant. With this rite, one becomes part of Israel, heir to the promise that God made Abraham and his descendants. Therefore, on the eighth day, the Baptist becomes an Israelite, like his father. And the name given to this Israelite—we know that the name indicated the person, the mission he should have—is, therefore, something significant. Zechariah ('zahar' - which in Hebrew means 'to remember')—hence, the Lord be remembered, or the Lord remembers his promises. The word "zahar" appears in the Bible about a hundred times. It happens when God remembers his covenant; he remembers the promises made to Abraham.
Therefore, they wanted to give the Baptist the name of Zechariah: the Lord remembers. It was to keep alive this certainty that the Lord is faithful to his promises; therefore, Israel was never to be discouraged under any circumstances of its dramatic history. Israel always remembered: 'zahar' - ‘remember,' remember that God is faithful, so do not worry. Why, then, is this name interrupted? He is not called Zechariah because Zechariah is the symbol of Israel that, throughout the centuries, has continued to transmit from parents to children, remembering God's promises without seeing the result. Now, the wait is over. There is nothing more to remember. Now, it is a matter of seeing.
This is why the Baptist cannot be called Zechariah at the moment when he becomes a member of Israel because he not only does not give continuity to the tradition of his father, as the relatives and neighbors think (who did not have the revelation of heaven), but the beginning of a new era, and so the time of remembrance, of promises, is over—for humanity, a new day dawned where the prophecies had been fulfilled. It is Zechariah who had the revelation; it was Gabriel who said to him: you will call him 'Yohanan'—John. John means that the Lord has given grace, manifested his goodness, and shown his benevolence. Therefore, there is nothing more to remember but to observe what the Lord has done now.
And when Zechariah recovers the speech, he will bless the Lord because he has visited and redeemed his people. The time of remembrance is over because we now see the fulfillment of what God had promised by the mouth of his holy prophets of old. And he remembered the oath of the covenant promised to Abraham, our father. Zechariah represents Israel, which for so many centuries has kept the promise alive, the certainty that God has promised his people; has seen a sunrise from above… arising to give light to those who live in the darkness and the shadows of death and to direct our steps on the path of peace.
The neighbors got scared... For in all the region of Judea (you can see it behind me), there was talk about these things, and all wondered: What will become of this child? The child grew, became strong, and lived in a desert area until the day of his manifestation to Israel.
Therefore, the Baptist leaves his family and the beautiful mountains of Ain Karim and settles in the desert. You can see the desert behind me. Some say that the Baptist went to the monks of Qumran. He spent his adolescence and youth in the desert. It prepares him for his mission, assimilating the spiritual riches that his people accumulated through the experience of the desert.
Let us see why the Lord wanted the people of Israel, whom he tried to educate, to make them spend all this time in the desert. From a young age, it is the experience that the Baptist does to prepare for his mission and make him grow authentically. Above all, the desert helps to live only with the essentials; there is detachment from clinging to goods and no room for accumulation. In the desert, one walks, and the land that belongs to the walker is the land that he treads. When he advances, that land is no longer his own.
It is the image of the path of our life. We build our palaces, and then we fancy ourselves to this world as if it were for us the definitive one. We're making a mistake. We must rethink this experience that the Baptist did to remain authentic. Return to this spirituality of the essential of uprooting. It's not that this world is not important, but we're just passing through, and that's why having this desert experience is important. Compared with people who wore splendid clothes, the Baptist wore camel skin. And with the people who wore jewelry and perfume to give themselves importance and be someone in front of others, he wore a leather belt. People ate refined, expensive foods, whereas he fed himself with wild honey.
Life in the desert is severe and challenging and teaches that one cannot reconcile an easy life with the authenticity of a life lived with meaning. If this experience of living with the essential, a return to the essential in our life, is not done. Bread that is only bread, not cake; water that is water, not Coca-Cola or Sprite. A return to the essentials.
Jesus' praise of the Baptist: "What did you go out to see in the desert? A reed blowing in the wind? A man dressed in fine clothes? People who wear fine clothes…are found in palaces. What did you go out to see? A prophet?... No one may be found more significant than John among those born of women” (Lk 7:24-28).
Along with the austerity of life is the commitment of this man; he did not bow his head to the mighty; he defended life, truth, and justice. This is another reason why the Baptist pleases us and comes as an example. In this feast, we can see the transformations we must do to be authentic Christians.
Preparing ourselves to receive Christ in us is impossible if we do not make this experience which the Baptist made: the recovery of the essential. In a society that forgets God, we must begin to rethink the meaning of our existence; get rid of superfluous things, refined things... those that occupy so much space of our life ... television, and other distractions that prevent us from finding the time to think about the meaning of our existence or to carry out the work of love. I want to emphasize another aspect of the desert in this experience that the Baptist did: silence. Noise—the noise in which we live is a great enemy of God. What fills the space of our day are the discos for the young, the television always on and at high volume, headphones, and cell phones.
We are afraid of silence. I believe that the evil one hates silence because, during silence, very important and profound questions in our lives appear. Only in silence can we hear God speaking in the silence of the heart. This is the first silence to be done, but there is also external silence. Those who have made the experience of the desert realize that it is a place of silence where one is invited to enter into oneself and ask important life questions. This is another message that the figure of the Baptist presents to us.
The gospel text concludes that John remained in the desert until his manifestation in Israel when he began his mission. In the third chapter, the Evangelist Luke begins by saying: "In the fifteenth year of the rule of Emperor Tiberius… the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert." And so begins the mission of this person who, in the feast of his birth, leaves an important message for our life.
A good week for all.
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