47th Anniversary

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

Picture: At the Nunraw Guesthouse Dom Donald hosting pilgrims from St Columba Viewpark 19 May 07 Nunraw

SOLEMNITY OF THE NATIVITY OF JOHN THE FORERUNNER

Sunday 24 June 2007 was the 47^th anniversary of my Ordination to the priesthood. On Solemnities one of the monks marks the occasion with a Homily in community. On this day it fell to me to celebrate the Feast of St. John the Forerunner as the Orthodox name the Nativity of John the Baptist.

The following is a shortened version of the talk.

There is a Russian Orthodox Church in California dedicated to Saint John of Shanghai & San Francisco

The Parish Bulletin tells us that, "Among the Church's feasts, there are three in honour of God's saints which in their significance stand out from the others devoted to the saints and are numbered among the great feasts of the Church of Christ. These feasts glorify the economy of God for our salvation.
These three feasts are the Nativity of St. John the Forerunner, his Beheading, and the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

It is the title "John the FORERUNNER" which is most apt for this Solemnity which we share with the Orthodox.

To speak of John the Forerunner brings us into not only the dynamic mode in referring to the Nativity of John the Baptist but into the framework of 'a kingdom not of this world'.

John the Forerunner starting from way back in the Patriarchs Prophets and reaching way beyond into countless generations is not an isolated individual but is united in the one lineage of Sacred History and in the future bonds of the Body of Christ.

The announcement of the holy Archangel Gabriel to Zechariah in the Temple begins the New Testament Gospel. The announcement of the same Archangel Gabriel six months later in Nazareth to the Virgin Mary concerning the birth from Her of the Son of God, Who was to become incarnate, is a continuation of the revelation of the Pre-eternal Counsel concerning the salvation of the human race.

Mary, the older second cousin of John, gets nothing like the spotlight that is accorded to Zechariahs' son. In liturgical history the feast of Nativity of John the Forerunner is celebrated as early as can be. Only much later is the Nativity of Mary given a similar status. St Bede does not seem to have known about it in his time. Joachim and Anne were the only real heralds of Mary's Birth and of course the immediate family but all in a very low key. On the other hand the birth of John has all the ritual of sacred ceremony of the Temple, the Priest on duty, the choosing of name for the child, the mother Elizabeth having an inner conviction, and final prompting of the father Zechariah reiterating the Name to be chosen for the child, John, "Yahweh is gracious".

In the climax the father's lips are released and he utters a special prophecy which resounds, from that day to this, proclaiming the role of the FORERUNNER. Lk 1-76, "And you little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way for Him".

The Acts of the Apostles also clearly registers both Forerunning and Arriving in almost a word, "To keep his promise God raised up Jesus as Saviour, whose coming was HERALDED BY JOHN" (13-23/4).

It is all the more dramatic, then, to read in the fourth gospel: "On the following day John stood there again with two of his disciples. Jesus passed. John looked hard at him and said, 'Look! There is the lamb of God!' Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus (Jn 1:35f). A business man would say he was ruining his own trade! But that was the greatness of John: that he was able to recognise greatness in another. For such a strong rough man, John himself appears as gentle as a lamb. That has the stamp of truth on it; all posing and posturing is from the ego. John, said Jesus, was the greatest man that ever lived.

- - - But do not forget the trailer to those words, "even the least in the kingdom of God is greater"