“John – The Fiercest & Sweetest of Men”

Today, August 29^th, is the memorial of “The Passion of St. John the Baptist”. John the Baptist is an incredible figure in the life of the church. He was chosen by God to prepare the way for his son Jesus. As much as we know of John, there always seems to be more. The church also celebrates his birth on June 24^th.

We certainly know John as a giant. Jesus says it pretty definitively…”no one born of woman is greater than John” (Mt. 11:11). John was the toughest of cookies …. dressed in his desert garb, shouting at the Pharisees, intimidating King Herod. Woe.

Yet John was so much more than the man from the desert. He was the dearest of friends to Jesus. Jesus knew John and respected him and was grateful to him for preparing the way for him. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus somehow needed someone to prepare the way for him, a first act, someone to “soften up the crowd”, to announce the main act. And when his first act was getting famous, John made sure to get out of the way and not think that he was the main act. “I must decrease and he must increase… I baptized with  water, he baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 3:30-35).

Recently I’ve been touched in a new way by the life of John the Baptist. I was moved by a statue of John that I saw at the  St. John Lateran  Cathedral in Rome last year, and then by a number of recent commentaries and homilies about him.  Cardinal Jean Daniélou († 1974), spoke of the greatness of John The Baptist. He describes him as the fiercest and sweetest of men. What a beautiful description.

 “And John was the friend of the Bridegroom, that is to say that, as was the custom in weddings of old, he was the one who brought him his betrothed…. He was the one to hear the Bridegroom’s voice, the voice that Abraham had not heard, that Moses had not heard, that David had not heard. But John the Baptist heard it. It was in John that mankind met the Bridegroom; it was he who went before him, and who, therefore, was present at the dawn of his marriage, celebrated in the Incarnation, and consummated in the Passion and Resurrection. That is why we find the terrific violence of John the Baptist coupled with great gentleness. He was at once the fiercest and sweetest of men. He was the most violent because he really realized the holiness of God, and had, therefore, a tremendous sense of sin and of penance. He stands out as the saint of purification, and he is at the same time a saint of great joy, of great gentleness. But in fact the two things are most closely linked….

John the Baptist had the great joy of knowing that his testimony was heard, as those who had been his disciples recognized Christ…. John showed him to them as the Lamb of God. And there lay John’s great joy—the joy of seeing the bride meeting the Bridegroom. That was all he wanted. His one wish was to lead souls to Christ, to take them to meet him.” (ref. Cardinal Daniélou († 1974), a French Jesuit theologian and an advisor at Vatican II)

So, John the Baptist… the fiercest and sweetest of men. What a great model for all of us to follow. May our one wish also be “to lead souls to Christ, to take them to meet him.”