Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Today we celebrate the solemnity of the birth of St. John the Baptist.
And the fact that we celebrate this feast at all reveals the great heights of holiness of St. John the Baptist.
Throughout the liturgical year, we only celebrate the birth of two other people.
And that's the birth of our Lord, the God-man, and the birth of our Lady, the Immaculate Conception.
And so St. John is grouped together with our Lord and our Lady.
Most of all, because he was sanctified in the womb.
Again, sanctified by Christ through the mediation of our Lady at the visitation.
And that sanctification which took place in the womb of St. Elizabeth
was just the beginning of the life of holiness, the life of grace for St. John the Baptist.
He would go on to,
make that grace develop within his soul.
First, by his life of prayer and penance in the desert,
where his food was locusts,
and where he wore a coarse garment made of camel's hair.
He was so holy that his own people thought that he was the Messiah.
But when they asked him, he of course humbly declined
and said that he was just,
the precursor, the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord.
Our Lord himself praises the holiness of St. John the Baptist in the gospel
when he calls him an angel.
And then another time he calls him more than a prophet.
And then still another time he says he was a burning and shining light
and that there is no man born of woman greater than John the Baptist.
And so,
finally, St. John the Baptist finished off his life in this world by his glorious martyrdom,
by speaking the truth to Herod. And so by reflecting on the great holiness in the life
of St. John the Baptist, it calls to mind the moment in our own lives of our own sanctification.
That is, our baptism. For each and every one of us, it was at our baptism
when we received that first grace and were sanctified, were really and truly
made holy by an interior renewal. And so as well, we're supposed to
make this grace grow throughout our lives. It should be the first grace
in a chain of graces, culminating in a chain of graces.
perfect charity. But we need to use the same means that St. John the Baptist used. That
is, we need to live lives of penance. As our Lord himself said, unless you do penance,
you shall all likewise perish. So we should live lives, penitential lives, that is, lives
of generous sacrifice in doing good works, in fulfilling our duty, which will help us
to remain properly detached from worldly things that can hinder us on our way to arrive
at perfect charity and can also be an obstacle to our salvation. We should live lives of
prayer. That is, we should take a little time each day to go into the desert, so to speak,
to be alone with God and converse with him and to ask him for all of the graces that
we need.
And this, too, is necessary for our salvation. As St. Alphonsus Liguori says, he who prays
is saved, and he who does not pray is lost. And so we must make time, just a little bit
of time at least every day, to pray to God. St. John the Baptist, pray for us. In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.