Make You a Light

June 24, 2012

Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.  Isaiah 49:6

John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel; and as John was completing his course, he would say, 'What do you suppose that I am' I am not he.  Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet."  Acts 13: 24-25

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.  Luke 1:64-66, 80

Piety

Piety is made up of all the ways we recognize Christ.  We honor the birth of John the Baptist, if for no other reason, then because he recognized Christ in Mary from the womb of his mother.  John pointed out Christ to his disciples.  He baptized Christ in the Jordan.  Each of the prophets was able to say something about the one who was to come.  John was able to point him out.  Piety is the source of our attraction to holy people.  Piety opens up our own hearts to live a presence of Christ in what we say and do.

Study

Our following of Christ reflects the touches of the divine in our lives.  We learn by looking at Christ and studying how he grew up how to put on the mind and the heart of Christ.  There is no one of us unable to be a better person by looking closely at how Christ lived his life.  He is the model of what we are meant to be by our Christianity.  There is simplicity to life when we realize we are created to the image and likeness of God by Christ being out brother and our developing and deepening the relationship by walking in his footsteps until his steps become our steps and we reach for the sky called heaven.  Psalm 139 says it neatly.  We have been formed in our inmost being by the knitting of us in our mother’s womb by Christ.  We have been created in him, for him and by him.  There is no shortcut to heaven apart from Christ.  His victory has been won on the cross and sealed by the resurrection.  We study how to apply the victory of the resurrection to our lives.

Action

David was testified to by God as a man after his own heart because he carried out the every wish of God.  Christ puts it to us by saying if you love me you will keep the commandments.  The wish of God was that John would be called John.  The hand of the Lord is with us when we are called Christian by the ways we are faithful to what God is asking of us.  The child John grew strong in the spirit and was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.  We all have calls by God that are discovered by the work we have to do and the needs of the people around us.  Our own salvation flows out of our diving into the ocean of God’ s love for us which is greater than we can ever imagine.  We are surrounded by God’s love in creation and it is in how we keep our world what God created it to be that fulfills our destiny with God.  The hand of the Lord is with us in the good we do for one another.  We are so much more than John because we are what John was pointing out in Christ.  We are the presence of Christ to our world in the good we do.  John could only point out Christ.  We can die to self to rise in Christ by the goodness of our love for one another.  Wherever there is love God is there.