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The Birth of John the Baptist
Sacred Scripture

Isaiah 49:1-6
Psalm 139
Acts 13:22-26
Luke 1:57-66, 80
"He must increase and I must decrease."
The late-John Cardinal Dearden reminds us, "...this is what we are about:  We plant the seeds that someday will grow.  We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.  We lay foundations that will need further development....It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.  We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.  We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.  We are prophets of a future not our own."

Cardinal Dearden truly summarizes what we celebrate today as we remember and thank God for the birth of John the Baptist.  John responded to the call to be a prophet.  He knew that he was not the messiah, but rather one who would point people to the Lord Jesus by his actions and words.  He died before seeing the fruit of his labor, long before Jesus died and rose from the dead.  He never had all the answers but he simply did what the Lord asked of him and nothing more.  He never allowed his ego to get in the way of God's will.  He did not seek to gain glory through his ministry but lived his entire life for God. 

We are called to recognize our own call and to live it in the same way that John the Baptist did.  We must not answer the call for personal glory or recognition.  Rather, we must allow the Lord Jeus to work through us.  In responding to a vocation, we must allow God's Spirit to accomplish the good works.  We can do nothing on our own.  Nor can we expect to see the results of responding to the Lord's call in our time.  Who knows how we have and are building up the Body of Christ?  Yet, everytime we choose to say "yes" to the Lord, we say yes to the future and we usher in the Kingdom of God one day at a time.

As we celebrate this special day, let us respond to the call to allow Christ to increase in our lives.  May we always allow the Holy Spirit, who calls us to the married life, the religious life, the single life and the priesthood, to overshadow us and continue the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus in our own time through us.  May we become the voices crying out in the wilderness reminding the entire world, starting at home, by how we live our lives that God is truly with us.

Peace,
Shaun Lowery
24 June, 2001
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