24 TH JUNE IS ST JOHN THE BAPTIST’S DAY
T
he Baptist is the only Saint whose day is his Birthday, not the day he
died, although he also died a Martyr’s death. The Church put the day
of his birth exactly 6 months before Jesus’ birth, since the two mothers
met each other when John’s mother Elizabeth was in her sixth month of
pregnancy.
That does not actually mean that John would be six months older than
Jesus, but both were allegedly born at the solstice, John at Midsummer,
Jesus at Midwinter. In this way the church put these births on pagan festivals
to make them into church festivals.
At every birth people would be asking: ‘what do you think will become of this
child.’ There were certainly great things foretold for John, yet when he grew
up, he must have asked this of himself. He had had a great career as a
Baptist, his fame went from the Jordan up to the capital, he criticised the
mighty in the land, it pleased the crowds and he attracted many followers.
But then this Jesus turned up and became a competitor, he also was
baptising, both had their fan followers, and these started to quarrel, as we
were told in St John’s Gospel (3, 22 ff) But instead of standing his ground,
John, at the height of his fame, surprised them by his reaction.
He said: “He must become greater, I must become less”. (3,30) Luther
translates this in astronomical terms: ”He must wax, I must wane” (in the
dictionary this is translated as ‘to diminish’), which somehow fits in with
John’s birth at Midsummer, from whence the days grow shorter. John says
this without resignation, in fact he speaks in terms of a wedding, he sees
Jesus as the bridegroom and himself as part of the festival. Not many men
would react like this, many have a midlife crisis as they see their powers
diminish.
Many stories were told about this man John, he was seen as a wild man,
eating locusts and honey, but also some folklore attached itself: St John’s
wort with perforated leaves, which were to remind us of his ragged clothes,
is used in herbal medicine not only for wounds of the skin, but also as an
antidepressant, as if John was a healer of mental illness. John was
conscious enough to seize the moment in his life when he let go of his ego
and submitted to the greater power.
Maybe this is what we all should do, all of us who are in the second or last
part of our lives: to see it as a challenge to find this greater power and be
content to let ourselves be found by Him. It is necessary to let go of own
vanities, to diminish the ego, in order to find new energy for something
greater.
Brigitte Williams
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