St. John the Baptist

I am writing this entry for a dear friend of mine. May God give to her beautiful wings! Like the wings of St. John the Baptist, even!

St. John the Baptist's birth was prophesied to the High Priest St. Zacharias. Knowing that his wife was barren and had been for years and was even exceeding into her old age, Zacharias rebuked the Archangel Gabriel who had prophesied the birth. The Archangel Gabriel knew better. He informed the High Priest that he would name the child born unto St. Elizabeth, "John" and that his tongue wouldn't be able to speak until the child was born. Elizabeth remained in seclusion for five months. It was during the time the Theotokos was with the Child Jesus that she was visited by Our Lady. When Elizabeth met her, this child who was in her womb, who was gifted with the Spirit of the Prophet Elias, leapt for joy upon encountering Our Lord.  One cannot be a Catholic and in favor of abortion after reading such a text that shows the innocence of the human being in the womb. One cannot be a Christian and in favor of abortion after reading such a text. It is said to be here that St. John was filled with such grace, he was cleansed from the defilement of original sin. God is timeless though so let us not put a mark on when the filling with such grace occurred but let us accept that the filling did occur in God's timeless act. Only Our Lady has the same distinction as St. John the Baptist, their only imperfections being that they both needed the grace of God for their sinlessness. This is why the East retains the Nativity of Our Lady on September 8 and her conception on December 9. And for St. John, his conception is on September 23 and his nativity is on June 24.

Upon John's birth, it was asked of Elizabeth what the child's name would be called. St. Elizabeth insisted on the name of John. But none of her relatives held this name so the people protested until the High Priest Zacharias wrote down on a tablet, "his name is John". It was then that the speech of Zacharias was restored to him for it now had been confirmed that he accepted the message of the Archangel Gabriel. He prophesied of St. John that he would be a great prophet, making way for the Lord, and that he would be the Messiah's forerunner. All this would soon be fulfilled in due course of time.

After Our Lord's birth, during the Herodian massacre of the infants, St. John, who was one of the targeted infants, was hid away by his mother Elizabeth. We do not have any reliable sources as to his early infancy but this is commonly accepted that it was during the massacre of the infants by Herod that John was hid in the wilderness. According to our earliest source, The Protoevangelium of James, St. Elizabeth took her son with her and hid him in a cave while the High Priest Zacharias stayed in Jerusalem. It was while his wife was safe and hidden with her son that the soldiers of Herod confronted the High Priest inquiring him of his son. Not giving away St. John's location, Zacharias was sacrilegiously murdered in the Temple by the men of Herod. St. Elizabeth would repose in the wilderness either around the same time or a little bit afterward. There, St. John the Baptist would feed on locusts or locust beans, the translation is not entirely certain, and honey for the remainder of his life.

St. John would start an apocalyptic movement where he would baptize any one who genuinely confessed and repented of their sins. It was this ministry of St. John the Baptist where he would meet Our Lord for the second time. St. John always knew who he was and who the Messiah was for he had known from the womb that the Son of Mary would come to redeem the world from its sin. It was under the inspiration of this leap for joy that he prophesied to the people repentance in the spirit of the Prophet Elias. Among those baptized by St. John is Thaddeus of the Seventy, Equal to the Apostles. To those who receive the message that John has to deliver, John is Elias. But to those who refuse the message, John is John. John always has on mind that there is one greater than he is. This man is Jesus. When Jesus approaches St. John, he asks for baptism. St. John is confused by this for he deems himself unworthy to baptize the one he is only the forerunner of. He insists that Jesus should baptize him. But Jesus insists on the baptism. This baptism was necessary to bestow the waters of the Earth with the sanctifying gift of the Holy Spirit so that when we are baptized, we become sons of God. The Holy Spirit descends upon Christ foreshadowing our own anointing with chrism. A voice from the Heavens declares that Jesus is His Son. This reveals to us the Triune nature of God for it shows that the Son is not the Father, nor is the Son the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit is not the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit the Son. For the Sabellians of the modern era to think otherwise would turn the incarnation into an illusion.

It is after this that the baptismal ministry of St. John ends and the baptismal ministry of Christ begins. For St. John only could baptize with water but now Christ baptizes with both fire and the Spirit. Jesus begins this ministry after his discussion with Nicodemus. St. John accepts that his ministry is over for Christ must increase and St. John must decrease. It is in the close of his ministry that St. John finds himself in the prison cell of Herod Antipas, the son of the Herod who slew the infants. Herod had put away his lawful wife, the daughter of Aretas, and married his brother Phillip's wife, Herodias, in an unlawful manner for his brother was still alive. John the Baptist would not stand for this defilation of marriage and publicly chastised Herod for it earning him a seat in prison. Herod would not put St. John to death voluntarily for he feared the people but during a banquet in his court of Sebastia in Galilee, Salome, the daughter of Herodias and Phillip, performed a dance which pleased Herod. Herod in his drunkenness promised to give anything to Salome which she would ask of him and Herodias inspired Salome to ask for the head of St. John the Baptist on a silver platter. St. John was beheaded in prison and his disciples buried the body honorably while Herodias pierced the tongue several times and buried it in an unclean place.

But God would have his vengeance on these evildoers. Prince Aretas, whose daughter was unlawfully put away by Herod, waged war on Herod with his army and the defeated Herod was sent away to exile by the Emperor Caligula. Herod and Herodias lived in poverty. Salome died on the Sikaris River after having set out across it one day when it was frozen. The ice broke and she fell into the water up to her neck with the shards jamming around. She began to struggle but the shards ripped apart at her flesh. Dancing about in the water as she once danced about in Herod's court until a shard of ice finally severed her head. Her head was brought to Herodias on a platter (The Prologue of Ochrid, August 29). St. John's head would be found by Joanna, the maidservant of Herodias and wife of Chuza, who was a pious follower of St. John. She had discovered where Herodias had buried the head of St. John and moved the head to an honorable place of burial in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. Much later, an eminent landowner who had become a monk named Innocent took up an abode on the Mount of Olives where he built an abode for himself. In digging, he had discovered a head which was revealed to him to be the very head of St. John. He reverenced and reburied it on the same spot. At the time of Patriarch Ignatius during the reign of the Empress Theodora, wife of Theophilus, and her son Michael, the head was translated to Constantinople where it performs many miracles. During his life, St. John performed no miracles, but his relics have been attributed many miracles (The Prologue of Ochrid, February 24).

St. John the Baptist has several feast days. The discovery of his head is held on February 24. His nativity is held on June 24. His beheading is celebrated on August 29. His conception is celebrated on September 23. And his synaxis is held on January 7. The Theophany, one of the Feast Days of Our Lord, also puts him in a very special place as the Forerunner. This Feast Day is on January 6. Because of his mission as a messenger, people began to think of St. John as an angelic emissary. Thus, in iconography, he is frequently depicted with wings. As I stated in the opening, this was written primarily for a dear friend of mine. May St. John the Baptist give her beautiful wings!