Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 24, 2025
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.
On this Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist, we hear the end of the narrative concerning his father, Zachariah, who had gone mute because he was afraid that the Lord could not bless him with a child at such an old age. This lack of faith prevented Zacchariah, a priest, from proclaiming the word of God as he normally would. His capacity to carry out part of his vocation and calling was stripped from him because of his fear.
Why did it take so long for his voice to be restored? I’m certain Zachariah said many prayers asking for his voice back sooner. Why now? I offer this: it is not just our words, but our actions that are our response to God’s will for our lives. It was in Zachariah’s active response to God’s will, by naming his son John, that his voice was restored and he was once again able to proclaim God’s word.
So when we find ourselves praying, asking the Lord to help us do his will, share the gospel, carry out our vocation, or love others better, and it seems as though we just can’t get it right, we should ask ourselves if our actions reflect the faith we claim to have: are we living as though God is capable of changing us? Do we have faith that he is greater than our failures, shortcomings, and imperfections?
When we are tempted to think that we will never change, that our current circumstance will never get better, or that we are not capable of doing what God is calling us to do, that is an opportunity to take a step back, ask the Lord for mercy, call on the Holy Spirit to work through us, and then take a step of faith. Trust as though the Lord is capable of overcoming whatever obstacle we face.
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, Zechariah, 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!