St John the Baptist (St. Giovanni Battista)
Today we celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
During this lifetime, Jesus had called St. John the greatest person out of all of those who had come before him: “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John….” However, St. John would have agreed more with what Jesus had added which was: “Yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).
St. John was an amazing man and he would spend majority of his time in the desert. St. John was a man who had announced the coming of the Kingdom, and he did the best he could to call everyone to a fundamental reformation of life. St. John’s true purpose during high life was to prepare the way for Jesus. St. John’s baptism, was for repentance. However, eventually one would come who would be baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. St. John was so humble that he said that he was not worthy to untie his sandals. St. John’s attitude toward Jesus was truly beautiful he said: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).
St. John was truly humbled to find among the large crowd of sinners who had gone to him to be baptized was the one whom he already knew was the Messiah. Jesus said to St. John “I need to be baptized by you” (Matthew 3:14b). Jesus constantly insisted, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15b). Jesus, was very true and He was a very humble human as well as eternal God. He was eager to do everything that was required to be done by any good Jew. Therefore, Jesus decided to publicly enter the community of all of those who had been awaiting the Messiah.
St. John’s greatness and faith, had a very important place in the history of salvation. During his life, St. John was able to attract many different people to the banks of the Jordan, and sometimes St. John would be mistaken by other people as the Messiah that they had been waiting for. However, his humility helped him talk to and teach others about Jesus, St. John would also send away some of his followers to become some of the first disciples of Jesus.
St. John had faced many obstacles and difficulties during his life however, he wanted to help prepare others for the Kingdom of God, this desire helped him overcome his obstacles. St. John himself suffered greatly many times during his life, and he ended up losing his life to the revenge of Herodias.
St. John is a truly beautiful saint his feast day is celebrated on June 24, and it is celebrated across the entire world by many people. St. John is the patron saint of baptism.
Prayer to St. John
St. John intercede and help us during intense moments of suffering, trial or temptation help us during these moments to turn to Christ in prayer so that we may be filled with the strength, wisdom and peace we need to overcome it. St. John help us to deepen our intimacy with Christ. St. John help us to get rid of any desires that may separate ourselves from Christ and help us to replace them with the desire to strengthen our devotion and love with Christ.
Amen
St. John pray for us
St. Joseph pray for us
May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.
Works cited:
Information (read from, not taken):
Franciscan media. “Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. ”Saint John Fisher | Franciscan Media. Accessed June 24, 2021.
Images:
Saint John the Baptist. June 24, 2021. Saint John the Baptist - Google Search.
Saint John the Baptist. June 24, 2021. Saint John the Baptist - Google Search.