The Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Saturday, June 24, 2023

Isaiah 49, 1–6

Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory. Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God. For now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, that Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him; and I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength! 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.

These words, spoken by the Prophet Isaiah, also illuminate for us the interior life of John the Baptist.  Certainly, John showed himself a worthy descendent of Isaiah, who seems also to have come from a priestly family, and who preached repentance and prophesied future salvation both in his words and in the deeds the Lord told him to perform.  John likewise preached repentance and set forth signs such as in his clothing and food, and most especially in the sign of his baptism, which pointed to the baptism initiated by the Lord Jesus which conferred grace.

“The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.”  Now, we do not read of God telling his parents what to name Isaiah in the way John’s parents were told, but these words mean that God had charge of the child from his birth, and had prepared a special vocation for him.  As the son of a priest, John would have received an education in the Law and the Prophets such as would prepare him for service in the Temple.  The forerunner of the Savior, then, was guided by God to know the Scriptures and to know him.  “He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.”  John spoke of Jesus as an “axe” (Matthew 3, 10), and the Prophet speaks of John as a “sword”.  As a sharp-edged sword in the hand of the Lord, John spoke plainly of the sins of the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, cutting through their pretensions and false interpretations of the Scriptures.  He was “concealed” in that he lived quietly for most of his life in Judea, praying and doing penance, and attracted crowds only in the last few years.

“You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory.”  God calls him “Israel”, who went into Egypt with his sons and did not live to see the nation sprung from his loins enter and inhabit the land God had promised to Abraham and his father Isaac before him.  John lived to see the beginning of Christ’s ministry, but did not live to see his Resurrection.

“Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.”  The Prophets suffered periods of frustration and questioning.  Jeremiah especially poured out the darkness that sometimes filled him.  It is not impossible that John felt this too now and then in the long years of waiting for the Messiah as well as during his imprisonment in Herod’s fortress. He would have taken consolation from the fact that he was doing the will of God.  “For now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, that Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him.”  John knew deep inside his heart that he was the chosen instrument of God for beginning the work of calling Israel to return to God.  He knew that he was the voice who would cry out in the wilderness that the Kingdom of heaven was approaching.  

“I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength!”  Just as the Virgin Mary could say that all generations would call her blessed for all that the Lord has done for her, so John the Baptist knew that he would be made glorious by what God had done for him in calling him to be the forerunner of the Son of God.  “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.”  God praises John for his commitment to doing his will, for prophesying in an age long after the prophets had ceased to come, living in the wilderness instead of a city, as most of the prophets had, and giving up the chance to serve in the Temple, the highest honor a Jew could receive.  “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”  And not only would he call the Jews together but his preaching went out to the Gentiles as well so that they began to look for a Savior from Israel.