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Every year, the Church commemorates the Nativity – or Birth – of John the Baptist on June 24. This year, because that date falls on a Sunday, the prayers said at altars and the Scriptures read in ambos for disciples of Christ everywhere this weekend will be the prayers and Scriptures of the Nativity of John the Baptist. At Holy Name, let’s approach this unique celebration from two different directions. First, let’s go down the path of nature. I hate to bring this up, but from now until late December, the hours of daylight will be getting shorter. What!? With the first month of summer not even exhausted, am I suggesting the number of shopping days until Christmas? It’s a natural fact. The mighty St. Augustine noted the same phenomenon, also pointing out that the opposite is true in relation to the Birth of Christ. From Christmas Day until late June, daylight ascends. John the Baptist and Jesus are cousins. The Scripture tells us that at the Annunciation (March 25), the angel told Mary that Elizabeth her relative had already conceived in old age. With Mary having accepted her blessed vocation as Mother of God, the great tale of the Visitation gets told on May 31 – Mary and Elizabeth pronouncing words of great joy, realizing how blessed they were, celebrating bodies and souls full of Grace while the gestating Baptist leaps for joy in his mother’s womb. John and Jesus ride a teeter-totter in the rising and declining intensity of sunlight. This Sunday, John is up. He is born. Six months ahead, Jesus will be born again; and we will give witness to the triumph of light. Before we get trapped in details of why John’s birth is celebrated on the midsummer month’s 24th day and Jesus birth is proclaimed on December 25 (it has something to do with the late 16th century Gregorian reform of the Christian calendar and with the way Romans counted backwards towards certain feasts in order to allow time for an eight-day festival), let’s consider the second approach to John’s Birth in relation to that of Jesus. The Baptist was the last of the Prophets. Jeremiah was right; Isaiah was correct; Ezekiel, Joel, Jonah, Malachi, and all the rest were pointed in the same true direction. In the Name of God, a Prophet tells the Truth. Modern culture confuses prophesy with fortune-telling. If you want your fortune told, buy a cookie. If you want to hear the Truth past, present, and future - read a Prophet. Better yet, listen to a Prophet. The most dramatic was John the Baptist. He stands with one foot in the Old Testament and one foot in the New Testament. His sole vocation is to point to Jesus Christ and to say, “Look. There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” When he completed his sacred mission, John died. We remember that holy event with August 29th’s prayers each year. Today, we rejoice in the Birth of the Baptist, the one who clearly announces the presence of Christ our Savior. Every priest ordained since the Apostles were chosen does the same thing. We point to Christ alive in the middle of His Church, of His disciples, of our world. Jesus Christ is Risen! That’s what the priest says today in his role as prophet. John the Baptist was a drummer who aroused the expectation of Christ’s coming. Eastern Churches, those of the Orthodox denomination, frequently refer to John as the Forerunner. That’s a great title used to appreciate John’s unique vocation. With Christians of several streams, we celebrate today the Day of John the Baptist, the Forerunner, the Prophet. So why should any of us 21st century dwellers get enthused about the Feast celebrated this weekend at the Mass we attend, the Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist? We are caught up in the game of John and Jesus on the teeter-totter of time. The sun rises; the sun sets. The days get longer; the days get shorter. Yet, in the middle of the rhythms of life, we recognize the dominance of Jesus Christ with us. He is here on June 24. He is here on December 25. He is here and all over our God-blessed world every day. On this weekend of prayers from the treasury of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, recognize the truth the Prophet, the Forerunner, the Baptist pointed out to us. Jesus Christ the Truth is here! No matter the circumstances of life, rejoice with John the Baptist. Look; there is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. Jesus is here. That’s the truth! The Chicago Catholic Scripture School will award Holy Name Cathedral parishioners Joan Brugger and Cathy Judge certification Sunday with each having completed their course of studies at Dominican University in River Forest and at the Office of Catechesis on Michigan Avenue. I hope the Office of Catechesis will let us know how Holy Name Cathedral can use Cathy and Joan in their experience. Cathy & Joan, congratulations! The Oblate Sisters of Jesus the Priest are a community of Religious Sisters founded in early 20th century Mexico who have been present in Chicago since 1961. Their first convent was on the campus of the college seminary in Niles. They remained there, caring for the kitchen and praying for the seminarians and for their vocations until that seminary closed in the 1990s. By that time, the Sisters had been welcomed to similar duties at the major Seminary in Mundelein. The day before the horror of September 11, a community of Oblates began their mission at Holy Name Cathedral. They tended to the rectory kitchen, the laundry for the priests at the Cathedral, and some sacristy duties. When I arrived four months later, the Superior told me that “we take care of your kitchen; we take care of your laundry; we work in the sacristy. Most of all, we pray – for you, for the priests of the Cathedral, for the priests of Chicago, and for vocations.” She was absolutely correct. Today, there are five Sisters. Sister Amada Hernandez, an original of the Cathedral convent, is Sister Superior. Other “originals” include Sister Rufina Ferreira and Sister Guadalupe Torres, both of whom were in the Niles College Convent when I was a student in the early-1970s. Also at the Cathedral are Sister Lorenza Pat (unique in that she is a Mayan, a native Mexican) and Sister Consuelo Vazquez who has been undergoing treatment for cancer, the third occurrence in three different organs in recent years. Please, pray for our friend, Sister Consuelo. On June 30, most of the Sisters will go to Mexico for a month of prayer, of vacation, and of religious community meetings. Sister Consuelo will live with Sister Guadalupe’s relatives here in Chicago so that Consuelo can continue the excellent cancer treatment she has received at Northwestern Hospital. When the Sisters return in August, Sister Rufina will become Sister Superior. Sister Amada will be transferred to her former mission at Menlo Park, California, where she will become the Superior of the Oblate House at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, California. Hermana Amada, you will be missed. Please continue to pray for us. Sisters Lorenza, Consuelo, Guadalupe, and Rufina will be joined by Sister Marguerita Ramirez most recently from the Oblate mission at a great Paulist parish in New York City. These holy women do more for Holy Name Cathedral and our archdiocese than anyone realizes.
Fr. Dan Mayall |
