Father Christopher Zugger

The Church commemorates the conception, birth, and death of only two human beings on its calendar – the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist.

Jesus Himself calls John the greatest man born of a woman (Luke 7:28, Matthew 11:11), and he stands as the last of the prophets, and the greatest prophet – in him we find the fulfillment of the role of Elijah as the precursor of the messiah, the one who announces the coming of the Christ. Even in his mother’s womb, he leapt up in joy to worship the Messiah in the womb of the Virgin Mary – one of the greatest statements we can use for those Christians who support abortion and the current slaughter of the innocents in our country. The devout Jewish people of the hill country of Judea wondered “what will this child be?”

What he became is illustrated clearly in all four gospels. In his preaching, he called for the people to repent of their sins, and to change their conduct. Saint Augustine writes that “John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, ‘The Law and the prophets were until John.’ So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb.” Yet we are who born of water and the Holy Spirit, heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, we can be as great or greater than John, says Jesus! We can do so through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can speak of the Lord, of the True Faith, and lead exemplary lives, through God’s grace and great mercy.

June 24 is close to the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. That demonstrates the fulfillment of the prophecy in John chapter 3, verse 30 that Jesus “must increase; I must decrease,” since after John’s birthday the days get shorter, or “decrease,” while after Jesus’ birthday on Dec. 25, the days get longer, or “increase.” God directs the forces of the universe, the very rhythms of life, and so we see these interconnections happening in the world around us.

As we sing in the Theophany hymn, John humbly steps aside when Jesus began his public ministry of preaching and miracle-working. But he does not stop his own ministry – he denounced the illegal marriage of Herod Antipas and his sister-in-law Herodias, which led directly to his murder at the hands of the king.

To this day, bonfires called  “St. John’s Fires,” are lit in the Americas, Philippines, and Europe in honor of the saint who “was not the light, but came to testify to the light (Jn 1:8).” He testified to the light – that is also our task today, to testify to the light in a country where church attendance has sharply declined but where so many people are searching for meaning and connection. Ask him tonight that we would be servants of the True Light, and like him be unafraid to testify to the truth to those who have walked away from the truth, or never known it.