24 June 2014
Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
Today is the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist. He and Jesus are the only two whose births and deaths are special days for liturgical celebration. Both were faithful to the Father’s will.
John’s fidelity to God’s commandment about marriage landed him in jail where he languished in darkness, alone, without the consoling presence of Jesus. What could have been his thoughts? How the devil might have made sport of him. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one to come?… Really? Then why don’t you get me out of here!”
Today in our country there are silent followers of John the Baptist, men and women who, according to their unique vocations, defend the sacrament of marriage. And what they see is not encouraging. In Herod’s courts today there is revelry and dancing. All is merry and gay and it looks as if the platter is being polished.
So, let us pray that, through the intercession of St. John the Baptist, that our country remain faithful in preserving the dignity of marriage, and that those who defend what marriage really is, remain faithful in the sometime seeming silence of God.