{"id":607,"date":"2011-06-23T08:50:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T08:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html"},"modified":"2011-06-23T08:50:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T08:50:00","slug":"feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html","title":{"rendered":"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The following is a bit by St.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Augustine<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span><\/span>honor<\/span>\u00a0of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>solemnity<\/span>\u00a0of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on Friday (<\/span><\/span>tomorrow<\/span>). This feast is\u00a0<\/span><\/span>celebrated<\/span>\u00a0on the 24th rather then the 25th which is odd to many people since the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>annunciation<\/span>\u00a0and christmas both happen on the 25th of the months that they fall in (March and December\u00a0<\/span><\/span>respectively<\/span>). The reason for this is probably because ancient ways of counting dates would count back rather then forward). Eight days before January first is Christmas, eight days before April first is the annunciation, and Eight days before July 1st is the Nativity of John the Baptist (since June only has 30 days).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
The voice of one crying in the wilderness \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
The Church observes the birth of John as a hallowed event. We have no such commemoration for any other fathers; but it is significant that we celebrate the birthdays of John and Jesus. This day cannot be passed by. And even if my explanation does not match the dignity of the feast, you may still meditate on it with great depth and profit.<\/div>\n
John was born of a woman too old for childbirth; Christ was born of a youthful virgin. The news of John\u2019s birth was met with incredulity, and his father was struck dumb. Christ\u2019s birth was believed, and he was conceived through faith.<\/div>\n
Such is the topic, as I have presented it, for our inquiry and discussion. But as I said before, if I lack either the time or the ability to study the implications of so profound a mystery, he who speaks within you even when I am not here will teach you better; it is he whom you contemplate with devotion, whom you have welcomed into your hearts, whose temples you have become.<\/div>\n
John, then, appears as the boundary between the two testaments, the old and the new. That he is a sort of boundary, the Lord himself bears witness, when he speaks of the law and the prophets up until John the Baptist. Thus he represents times past and is the herald of the new era to come. As a representative of the past, he is born of aged parents; as a herald of the new era, he is declared to be a prophet while still in his mother\u2019s womb. For when yet unborn, he leapt in his mother\u2019s womb at the arrival of blessed Mary. In that womb he had already been designated a prophet, even before he was born; it was revealed that he was to be Christ\u2019s precursor, before they saw one another. These are divine happenings, going beyond the limits of our human frailty. Eventually he is born, he receives his name, his father\u2019s tongue is loosened. See how these events reflect reality.<\/div>\n
Zechariah is silent and loses his voice until John, the precursor of the Lord, is born and restores his voice. The silence of Zechariah is nothing but the age of prophecy lying hidden, obscured, as it were, and concealed before the preaching of Christ. At John\u2019s arrival Zechariah\u2019s voice is released, and it becomes clear at the coming of the one who was foretold. The release of Zechariah\u2019s voice at the birth of John is a parallel to the rending of the veil at Christ\u2019s crucifixion. If John were announcing his own coming, Zechariah\u2019s lips would not have been opened. The tongue is loosened because a voice is born. For when John was preaching the Lord\u2019s coming he was asked: Who are you? And he replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The voice is John, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John was a voice that lasted only for a time; Christ, the Word in the beginning, is eternal.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a bit by St.\u00a0Augustine\u00a0in\u00a0honor\u00a0of the\u00a0solemnity\u00a0of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on Friday (tomorrow). This feast is\u00a0celebrated\u00a0on the 24th rather then the 25th which is odd to many people since the\u00a0annunciation\u00a0and christmas both happen on the 25th of the months that they fall in (March and December\u00a0respectively). The reason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1678,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFeast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The following is a bit by St. Augustine in honor of the solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following is a bit by St. Augustine in honor of the solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Orant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-23T08:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/files\/oldfiles\/-HrNIs-VI5KM\/TG6Lom6rIZI\/AAAAAAAAAXQ\/XNzUp9BFHyc\/s400\/Feast+of+the+week.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Billy Kangas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Billy Kangas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html\",\"name\":\"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-23T08:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-06-23T08:50:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#\/schema\/person\/2c17428b1556df23f5982263d9dbd58d\"},\"description\":\"The following is a bit by St. Augustine in honor of the solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/\",\"name\":\"The Orant\",\"description\":\"Conversations About Following Jesus\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#\/schema\/person\/2c17428b1556df23f5982263d9dbd58d\",\"name\":\"Billy Kangas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c62caf5013b1314de00735bfe5204a74?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c62caf5013b1314de00735bfe5204a74?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Billy Kangas\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/author\/bkanga\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist","description":"The following is a bit by St. Augustine in honor of the solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist","og_description":"The following is a bit by St. Augustine in honor of the solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html","og_site_name":"The Orant","article_published_time":"2011-06-23T08:50:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/files\/oldfiles\/-HrNIs-VI5KM\/TG6Lom6rIZI\/AAAAAAAAAXQ\/XNzUp9BFHyc\/s400\/Feast+of+the+week.jpg"}],"author":"Billy Kangas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Billy Kangas","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html","name":"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-23T08:50:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-23T08:50:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#\/schema\/person\/2c17428b1556df23f5982263d9dbd58d"},"description":"The following is a bit by St. Augustine in honor of the solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, which we celebrate on","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2011\/06\/feast-of-the-week-the-birth-of-john-the-baptist.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Feast of The Week: The Birth of John the Baptist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/","name":"The Orant","description":"Conversations About Following Jesus","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#\/schema\/person\/2c17428b1556df23f5982263d9dbd58d","name":"Billy Kangas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c62caf5013b1314de00735bfe5204a74?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c62caf5013b1314de00735bfe5204a74?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Billy Kangas"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/author\/bkanga"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1678"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}