Nativity of John the Baptist

Celebrating the birthday of John the Baptist, the only other person other than the Lord and Our Lady to have their nativity celebrated in the liturgy, is important, One reasons is that it prevents us from slipping into the heresy of Marcion who, in the first half of the Second Century AD, rejected the Old Testament completely and proposed a canon of Scripture of parts of the Gospel of Luke and the Pauline epistles. To him the God of the Old Testament was different to that portrayed by the New. When we celebrate the birthday of John the Baptist we acknowledge the continuity of salvation history which goes from the beginning of Book of Genesis to the conclusion of the Book of Revelation. I encourage all parishioners to study the Old Testament so as to be familiar with the sacred texts that Jesus himself knew and used. Seeing how God's promises are fulfilled in history, even in the presence of sin, idolatry and failure, can help us to realize that God is at work in the present and able to accomplish his purposes despite all of the obstacles that might sometimes be regarded as insuperable. The Church says: "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God'." (Is 49: 4) However, she also needs to listen for the response: "I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." (Is 49: 6)