Homily for the Patronal Feast of Saint John the Baptist, 2004
John the Baptist is a prophet.
Everyone agrees on this.
Jesus affirms that he is the greatest of prophets.
The word "prophetic" has a certain cache about it,
even a glamour.
However, even a casual look at John the Baptist
pulls us away from the superficial to the reality.
Prophets like John have a genuine asceticism in their lives.
To be in such a close relationship with the word of God
and its meaning for our time
requires that nothing else can mean more to them.
Not food, or sleep, or drink.
Not possessions, not even their own lives.
Many prophets, such as Nelson Mandela, or Martin Luther King,
go to jail many times or spend a major portion of their lives in jail.
Others, like Dorothy Day, are ridiculed
or have their integrity or their sanity questioned.
There is a sense in which all prophetic calls begin in the desert, in solitude.
There is also the hardship and anguish of internal questioning.
Jeremiah describes the word that bums within him.
He makes the decision to be silent
but it is as if the word of the Lord will not be constrained.
For the true prophet the word is the source of constant questioning and suffering.
There is always the question of ego.
Is this just all about me?
Is this truly the word of God or is it just my word, my desire?
John the Baptist gives us a most wonderful, liberating response.
For John, it is all about Christ.
It is not about him.
"He must increase and I must decrease."
"I baptize you only in water,
he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire."
All of us as Christians have a prophetic call —
that is, to listen to the word of God
and to put all of our heart, soul, imagination, intelligence
into understanding what that word means for our time.
Monastic life has a unique vocation within the Church.
Our community prayer, our lectio divina, our work,
our desire that nothing come between us and Christ,
gives monastic life a prophetic role in the Church.
Everything in our lives has to point to Christ.
It is a wonderful grace to have
this great prophet,
John the Baptist, as our patron.
May we always live out of and into the grace of that call
and never turn away from its hardships.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
June 24, 2004
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