St . John the Baptist
St. John the Baptist
I woke up to a blasting sound on the 24th
June . The sound was coming from the
streets outside my window. There was a lot of commotion going on and I was
wondering what it was about. Annoyed I looked out of the window and saw some
celebrations going on. I enquired what was going
on, and the reason why it was happening. It was the feast
of San Joao ( or St. John the Baptist). The celebrations had already started
for the day. The chapel was near my house in Goa and the procession was going
towards the chapel. As the procession went towards the chapel I thought about
St John the Baptist. M,
Many of the people who were
celebrating this great saint did not know much about him. They celebrated the
feast as it was a matter of custom and a source of enjoyment, with a lot of fun
and frolic happening. No issues about that but people need to know the reason
of the feast that they are celebrating.
Who is this great saint they are celebrating for? Why are these
celebrations done for him. Why do they jump in the river for him. What is his
source. To begin with people think about baptism when they think about St. John
because he was the one who baptised Christ and informed the people of the
Messiah, bringing many to our Lord Jesus Christ.
St. John was a cousin of the baby Jesus and the son of St. Anne and
St.Joaquim. At the time when Mother Mary paid a visit to St. Anne , John was
filled with joy at the presence of the Lord and kicked in his mother’s womb,
and he was cleared of original sin.
Throughout his life, he preached
of the coming of the Messiah Jesus who would come to save the world and was the
one who baptized Jesus . Through him many Jews and gentiles were to come to
Christ, and receive the wisdom of the Church
He always asked the people of the
world to repent by saying that “ The
Kingdom of God is at hand” and to repent of their evil and sinful ways.
Living a very modest life, he
wore a thick rugged camelskin and lived off the produce of the land. He ate
things like locusts and honey. What a simple life for this grand prophet of
God. To live a life that most of us frankly would detest. In these times, I
never heard of anyone even eating in locust, except in Africa. Still would be a
life of sacrifice, considering I can’t even think of eating it. Honey is a good
option though.
People know and speak of the Holy
Spirit today however the truth , but John was the first one who spoke about it
when he spoke about the ‘Baptism of Fire” and the baptism through fire and the
Holy Spirit which would come through Jesus.
St. John was very outspoken as
that is what a prophet’s duty is , calling out the sins and wrong-doings in society
and in one of these instances criticized Herod of taking a second wife after
leaving his first wife. The second wife schemed “ Herodias” schemed through her
daughter to get the head of St. John and That is how St. John left this world.
Today people celebrate on his
feast of St. John throughout the world and there are different traditional
practices. People burn furniture on the beaches, they have a traditional
procession and also they take dips in the beach or pools on the feast day. So
enjoy, but its good to know about St. John.
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