Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 23, 2022
In the days of Herod, King of Judea,
there was a priest named Zechariah
of the priestly division of Abijah;
his wife was from the daughters of Aaron,
and her name was Elizabeth.
Both were righteous in the eyes of God,
observing all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.
But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren
and both were advanced in years.
Once when he was serving
as priest in his division’s turn before God,
according to the practice of the priestly service,
he was chosen by lot
to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense.
Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside
at the hour of the incense offering,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him,
standing at the right of the altar of incense.
Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him.
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
because your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,
and you shall name him John.
And you will have joy and gladness,
and many will rejoice at his birth,
for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.
John will drink neither wine nor strong drink.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb,
and he will turn many of the children of Israel
to the Lord their God.
He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah
to turn their hearts toward their children
and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous,
to prepare a people fit for the Lord.”
John the Baptist has always been one of my favorite New Testament figures. In today’s reading, Luke introduces us to his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, and causes me to reflect on how God answers prayer.
Every parent has prayed for their child at one time or another—it is a shared, universal experience. When the angel Gabriel appears and tells Zechariah that Elizabeth will bear him a son—the answer to their prayers—you get the sense that the new parents would have felt fulfilled and happy with that.
But then the angel goes on. The child will be great in the sight of the Lord and will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. And the child will be a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah. Wow. Zechariah and Elizabeth experience what Paul describes in Ephesians 3:20 as “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”
Many of my prayers have not been answered as I wished. There are many potential reasons for that—a lack of faith, maturity, or patience. But I think the primary reason is that those were times when I wanted only my will.
There have also been occasions when God has provided and done much more than I ever dreamed of praying for. Looking back, it was not due to any growth on my part. Instead, those times of greatest blessing were when I followed Christ’s teaching and prayed that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
May we all seek God’s will so that we, like Elizabeth and Zechariah, may be amazed by what God is doing.
Prayer
O Lord God, we are introduced for the first time to the one who will become the predecessor of Jesus the Savior, the great John the Baptist. Jesus will later describe him as the one who will introduce the kingdom of God to Israel and suffer death for his fiery speech. Help us in turn to speak truthfully and forcefully, as John did, for the truths in which we believe. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Nearly every saint has a feast day on the calendar that marks the date of their death because that is the day on which they entered eternal life in heaven. Mary and John the Baptist are both exceptions to this rule. We have feast days for both their births and entry into eternal life because of their proximity to the most important events in human history—the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Today, we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist because he came to announce to the world the coming of our savior.
John the Baptist falls under many of the familiar categories of holiness that are found among the saints: he was a great teacher and a martyr; he was chaste for his whole life; he was also a prophet—the last prophet, in fact.
His birth was foretold to his father, Zachary, who was a priest, when an angel appeared to him while he was offering sacrifice and prayers before the altar. Though his wife, Elizabeth, was infertile, and they were both approaching old age, she conceived and bore a son and they named him John.
John became a hermit and lived in the desert, fasting and praying. When he was 30, he began preaching and encouraging people to repentance and conversion, and he used the ritual washing of baptism to symbolize spiritual cleansing.
When Jesus began his ministry, he came to John, who baptized him and submitted to his authority. John continued to preach as Jesus went through Galilee. When John spoke out against King Herod’s adultery, the king had him arrested, and he was eventually beheaded.
The feast of the birth of John the Baptist is one of the oldest feasts in the calendar. It falls just after the summer solstice, at a moment when the days start to get noticeably shorter (until the return of the sun at the birth of Jesus at Christmas). St. Augustine thought that this was appropriate because when John’s followers were disturbed that people were following Jesus instead of him, he replied, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John the Baptist is often depicted with a lamb because he identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). A number of relics of John the Baptist rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, including a piece of the house he grew up in. He is depicted in the Basilica in a stained glass window shown here and in a wall mural. He is also shown baptizing Jesus in a tapestry that hangs near the baptismal font in the Basilica.
St. John the Baptist, you pointed the world towards the coming of Jesus, our savior—pray for us!