The birthof John the Baptist

Today is the Feast of St. John the Baptist as it is supposed to be his birthday. He was six months older than our Lord Jesus Christ who was born on Christmas Day, December 25, so June 24th is really six months ahead. Many towns celebrate San Juan Bautista when its parishioners sprinkle or splash with water people who visit their towns.

When I was a young boy living in what is now Barangay Parian, June 24 was the Feast Day of Parian. When my family moved to Capitol Hills where we reside today, the neighbors also celebrated the Feast of San Juan Bautista, making huge noise singing in bad voices using microphones. Our gospel reading today comes from the Birth of John in Luke 1: 57-66 and 80.

“57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. 59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”

“61 But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” 62 So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. 63 He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. 64, immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. 65 Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea 66. All who heard these things took them to heart saying, “what then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. 80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.”

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There is no doubt that St. John the Baptist was considered one of the greatest prophets in Israel for he foretold what God himself promised the Israelites that the Son of God would be born from among them to be their Messiah. The only difference is that majority of the Jews believed that the Messiah would free the Jews from Roman occupation. They did not realize that God sent a Messiah to restore us to the Paradise we lost through the sins of Adam and Eve.

Two women in Bible history were given prophecies of their coming male children by the Angel Gabriel. Mind you, it was only 30 years ago when the medical world came up with a way to find out whether the child in a woman’s womb is male or female. But Mama Mary and her cousin Elizabeth were told they would have sons.

After the Angel Gabriel told Mama Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant, she immediately “went to the hill country.” Such a short description of her journey, which is about the distance from Cebu City to Daanbantayan, the same distance from Nazareth to Ein Karem where Zechariah lived. During those days, it must have taken the Blessed Virgin Mary at least two to three days to reach the house of Elizabeth.

Today’s gospel from Luke tells us the events when John the Baptist was born, which is faithfully recorded in Luke’s gospel. If you’ve been to Ein Karem, you would see that Zechariah had a magnificent home; after all he was a priest in the order of Levite. So the big question is how come John the Baptist spent most of his life in the Judean desert rather than live in his luxurious home?

We learned the answer to this question when we visited Ein Karem, that Zechariah had to hide his son from the orders of Herod who ordered all the first-borns of Israel to be killed. For me, this is why St. John the Baptist spent all his years in the desert, to hide from the troops of Herod until Herod died. But then the desert is also a place for having a remarkable spiritual life.

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