We Must Decrease

Timothy Gardner O.P.

24 June 2007
Solemnity of the Birth of St John the Baptist

fr Timothy Gardner shows why the birth of John the Baptist is suitably celebrated so close to the summer solstice.

The disciples were frequently at a loss when it came to understanding Jesus because of his tendency to talk in parables (or, as some would see it, riddles). One of the most curious things that Jesus says concerns the saint we celebrate today:

Among those born of women none is greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Saint John the Baptist, in whose honour we celebrate this feast, is in many ways a curious and contradictory figure himself. Even this feast is unusual. Ordinarily the Church observes the day of a saint's death as his or her feast, because that day marks one's entrance into heaven. To this rule there are two notable exceptions, the birthdays of Our Lady and of St. John the Baptist. Thus it is clear already that John the Baptist is no ordinary saint (if such a being exists).

We celebrate the birth of John six months before the birth of Christ, his cousin. Comparing the two we can identify both similarities and differences. Both we born to women in unusual circumstances: John's mother had been written off as barren and elderly, our Lord's mother was a virgin not yet living with her husband. The conception of each was announced by an angel. The two met and recognised each other while still in the womb, and the birth of each was greeted by a throng of confused well-wishers: in John's case the neighbours, in Jesus's case some nearby shepherds. And yet there are significant differences, too.

John strikes us, from descriptions of him in the Gospels as a rather 'Old Testament' figure, clad in the traditional garb of a prophet, a camel's hair garment. His natural habitat was the desert, that place of purity and self-denial where the prophetic message may be heard in all its clarity. Yet if he was an Old Testament prophet, then his message was a 'New Testament' one. St. John the Baptist was the last of the prophets who was sent by God 'in the power of Elijah' to prepare his chosen people for the coming of the Messiah, the anointed of God, the saviour. In this role, he was to point to the Messiah, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. He is the Forerunner, the Precursor of Christ. As God's messenger he came to announce the arrival of God's kingdom in the person of Jesus Christ.

John then is a sort of hinge between the Old and the New, between the Law and the Kingdom. In John and Jesus we get a sort of complete and complementary picture of things.

Among those born of women none is greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

In the birth of our Lord's forerunner and in our Redeemer's birth we begin to penetrate this mystery: in John's birth we see our humility, but in the Lord's our exaltation. As a representative of the Old he was born to aged parents, as the herald of the New he recognised the Messiah while yet unborn.

I must decrease and he must increase.

John's birth is celebrated as the days begin to grow shorter, Christ's as they grow longer, because it is right that man's reputation should decrease and God's glory increase. John is the polished arrow which is hidden in a quiver. He was sent ahead like a voice before a word, a lamp before the sun, a servant before his master, the best man before the bridegroom. And though John is elder, though he comes before, he who comes after will be the greater. John's voice lasted only for a time, but Jesus is the Word which lasts for eternity.

This feast calls us to prepare a way for the Lord who is to come into our hearts; to remove the obstacles of sin by confession and repentance, to straighten the paths of our life that lead us astray from the way of Lord. We, like John the Baptist are called to point to one greater than ourselves, the one by whom all things were made. His humility in the midst of his greatness reminds us that it is not us who convert people, it is not us who save souls; it is one greater than ourselves, Christ the Lord. We, like John, are called to 'make straight the way of the Lord' for our brothers and sisters; not to be the obstacles and occasions of scandal that we too often are.

To preach the gospel of repentance is the mission of all the baptised, and in this task we could wish for no better patron than John. Saint John the Baptist, pray for us!

fr Timothy Gardner lives at the Priory of St. Dominic, London, where he works as a hospital chaplain and a school chaplain.

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© Text 2007 Timothy Gardner O.P.
© Web Presentation 2008 The English Province of the Order of Preachers
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