This is a very unusual feast in the annals of church worship; it is, as we said yesterday, one of the only three birthdays which the Church celebrates in her yearly cycle of celebrations. And that is because we know of only three persons who were BORN in the state of sanctifying grace. They are Our Lord, His Blessed Mother, and Saint John the Baptist. Christ is always and totally without sin and “full of grace” because He is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. His immaculate mother was conceived totally without sin and “full of grace,” as the archangel greeted her at the moment of the annunciation. And Saint John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in the womb of his mother who had conceived him far after the normal time of childbearing. Our Lady went to visit her pregnant cousin Saint Elizabeth to assist her in her preparations for the birth of this miraculous child. When the two women met and embraced, the two unborn children in their wombs, namely John the Baptist and Jesus Our Lord, were pressed close together. The unborn John, six months farther along than Jesus, leaped with joy when he sensed the presence of the Savior very close by. Thus, even in the womb, John becomes the forerunner, the prophet who announces to the world the coming of the Redeemer promised many centuries before.Another interesting element of this feast of the birth of Saint John the Baptist is that it occurs on June 24, just three days after the longest day of the year and thus as the days begin to grow shorter again. We really don’t know when either John or Jesus was conceived or born. So early in church history, when the sacred calendar was being structured, the church fathers decided to take as a sort of clue the words of John the Baptist when he was grown and introducing Christ to the world. John said of Our Lord, “He must increase; I must decrease.” So the calendar-makers placed the celebration of the birth of Saint John at that time of the year when the days begin to grow shorter, and that of Jesus when they begin to grow longer, four days after the winter solstice. Thus we have the birth of John on June 24th and that of Jesus, six months later, on December 25th.

Finally, let us reflect on the words of Jesus where He says that John is the greatest ever born of woman, and yet the least in the kingdom is greater than John. What he means there is that John had the tremendous privilege of actually introducing the promised Savior to the world, thus the greatest of the Old Testament figures. But John was not given the privilege of becoming a Christian in the full sense of the term. He did not receive any of the sacraments, even though he baptized Jesus by a non-sacramental rite. Nor did he receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders to become a priest and celebrate Mass, nor did he receive the body and blood of Our Divine Lord in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In this sense, the least in the kingdom of Christianity is greater than John, and we should often reflect upon these immense privileges that our position as members of the Church of Our Divine Lord confers upon us. Thank you for seeking God’s truth. God bless you. Father Victor Brown, O.P.