Today is a Solemnity, one of the Church’s highest feast days. The Birth of St. John the Baptist is one of only three births the liturgical calendar celebrates (the others: Christ and Mary). We mark June 24 as his nativity, but today we remember that the forerunner’s whole life pointed to Someone else.
Who John the Baptist was
John was born around 1 BC to Zechariah, a Temple priest, and Elizabeth, a kinswoman of Mary. Both parents were elderly and childless when the angel Gabriel announced Elizabeth would conceive. Zechariah doubted and was struck mute until the child’s naming. John grew up in the Judean wilderness, living an ascetic life that prepared him for his singular mission.
He began his public ministry around AD 28–29, preaching repentance at the Jordan River. He baptized with water as a sign of interior conversion. When Jesus came to him at the Jordan, John protested: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14, RSV-CE). He baptized the sinless One anyway. His ministry was brief. Herod Antipas imprisoned him for denouncing the tetrarch’s unlawful marriage, and John was beheaded around AD 30–32.
He is the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets, the hinge between the old covenant and the new. Jesus called him the greatest born of women (Matthew 11:11).
What he’s known for
John’s entire spirituality is decrease. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, RSV-CE). He is the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way. His camel-hair garment and leather belt echo Elijah. His diet of locusts and wild honey marked him as a Nazirite set apart. He is always shown with a lamb or a scroll reading Ecce Agnus Dei (“Behold the Lamb of God”) because that is what he said when he saw Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
He held nothing back and pointed everything forward. His staff with a cross at the top (a later iconographic addition) reminds us he pointed to the Cross before it happened. John saw the whole arc: the Lamb would be slain.
For today
Practice pointing away from yourself. When someone praises you today, redirect the credit in one short sentence. When you’re tempted to explain how much you’ve done, try John’s posture: make the introduction and step back. Before bed, pray one line from John’s witness: “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Say it slowly. Let it reorient the day you just lived.
Carry his name through the day.
