Homily for August 29th, 2015: St.
John the Baptist
Not quite 57 years ago, on the
afternoon of October 28th, 1958, an elderly cardinal named Angelo
Roncalli was elected Bishop of Rome. When he was asked what name he would take
as Pope, he replied: AI will be called John.@ It was the first of many surprises.
There had not been a pope of that name for over six hundred years. Almost all
of them had short pontificates, John told his electors. He was then just short
of 77. He would die only four and a half years later, on the day after
Pentecost 1963.
He loved the name John, the new Pope said,
because it had been borne by the two men in the gospels who were closest to
Jesus: John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Lord and, as we have just heard in the gospel reading, shed his blood
in witness to the One he proclaimed; and John the Evangelist, called throughout
the gospel which bears his name Athe disciple whom Jesus loved.@
The name John means, AGod is gracious,@ or AGod has given grace.@ The name was singularly appropriate
for the man we know as John the Baptist. He was commissioned even before his
birth to proclaim the One who would give God a human face, and a human voice:
Jesus Christ.
God called each of us in our mother=s womb. He fashioned us in his own
image, as creatures made for love: to praise, worship, and serve God here on
earth, and to be happy with him forever in heaven. Fulfilling that destiny,
given to us not just at birth but at our conception, means heeding the words
which today=s saint, John the Baptist, spoke
about Jesus: AHe must increase, I must decrease@ (John 3:3).
Those are the most important words
which St. John
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