The Nativity of Sant John the Baptist
24th, June
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” John was
“filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” by Christ
himself, whom the Virgin Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth thus became a visit from God to his
people.
John is “Elijah (who) must come.” The fire of the Spirit dwells in
him and makes him the forerunner of the coming Lord. In John, the
precursor, the Holy Spirit completes the work of “[making] ready a
people prepared for the Lord.”
John the Baptist is “more than a prophet.” In him, the Holy Spirit
concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of
prophets begun by Elijah. He proclaims the imminence of the consolation
of Israel; he is the “voice” of the Consoler who is coming. As the
Spirit of truth will also do, John “came to bear witness to the light.”
In John’s sight, the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search
of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the angels. “He on whom you
see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit. and I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son
of God…. Behold, the Lamb of God.”
Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the
restoration to man of “the divine likeness,” prefiguring what he would
achieve with and in Christ. John’s baptism was for repentance; baptism
in water and the Spirit will be a new birth.
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(Información obtenida de Dominican Province of St. Joseph, EE.UU.)
