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| Saint John the Baptist. Constantinople, Turkey, circa 1300. |
Throughout the ages at
various times in their lives people in every generation have asked the
questions: "What
is the purpose of life? What is the point of life?".
Ancient, primitive
people, obeying animal instincts, decided that the purpose of life is to
multiply, to reproduce, to have as many offspring as possible, simply in order
to ensure the survival of the race.
We can see this near the
beginning of the Old Testament when Abraham was told “to go forth and multiply”.
Gradually, however, as revelation came upon revelation to the chosen people of
God in the Old Testament, this command was refined. It was revealed that people
were to multiply for a reason other than survival. Barrenness was a stigma, not
only because through it men and women failed to ensure survival, but also
because it was revealed that somewhere one woman was called to give birth to
the Messiah. The Messiah meant the Savior. Thus children were born to various
devout and often aged couples, to Adam and Eve, to Abraham and Sarah, to Jacob
and Rachel. Thus sons like Abel and Joseph or Joshua and Samuel and many others
all in some sense prefigured the Messiah.
Of course it is true that
even the intuition that a Savior was to be born of a woman was usually
distorted and the Jews imagined that the Savior would appear as some sort of
political and nationalistic hero, a freedom-fighter or terrorist, depending on
one’s viewpoint. Nonetheless there were those in the Old Testament whose vision
and understanding were so pure that they knew that the mother of the Messiah
would be no ordinary woman. Thus as a high point of this process of revelation
in Chapter 7 of his book, Isaiah the Prophet wrote that “a virgin would give
birth”.
At the very end of the
Old Testament there appeared a particularly devout but childless couple,
Zacharias and Elizabeth. It is their story that we have heard in today’s
Gospel. Elizabeth, said to be some eighty years old, was barren. This was a
particular stigma for her husband was a devout priest who was to set an example
by child-bearing with his wife. And then the miracle happened and Elizabeth
conceived. We should not that she conceived in the normal way, unlike the Holy
Virgin Mary. However, the intention of the parents was particularly godly.
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| Saint John with Saint Zachariah and Saint Elizabeth. |
Their son, the Baptist
John, thus came to be called "the Forerunner of Christ", a star compared to Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. Our Lord
Himself called him the greatest born of women. Thus in the Church he has become
the particular patron of monks and is called an earthly angel and a heavenly
man. This is why in icons which portray him, he is shown as having wings. These
are not of course physical wings, they are the spiritual wings of the dove, of
one who prays unceasingly, which is the task of all, but especially of those in
the monastic life.
The Holy Baptist stands
at the very end of the Old Testament, but also at the very beginning of the New
Testament. That is why he appears at the beginning of the Gospels. He opens up
a new way and answers in a new way the old question which people have posed
from ancient times and which I gave at the beginning of this sermon: "What
is the purpose of life?." John
the Baptist who never married, who remained a virgin, who prophesied, tells us
that the purpose of life is to be spiritually fruitful. This is his prophetic
revelation to us. Whether we are called to marriage and having children or not,
we are called to bring forth spiritual fruit, to improve the world and not to
worsen it, to be fruitful, and not to be barren, as his parents had been.
His spirit is thus
utterly opposed to the modern world. This says that if you marry, it matters
not if you have children or not. Thus the purpose of marriage is reduced to a
sort of legalized fornication. Worse still, some who do desire to have children
decide that they do not have to have children as nature decides. They can have
a career, amass huge amounts of money and then with the perverted lights of
modern science have a child when they are in old age. Then they can choose the
sex of the child, the color of its hair and eyes, the occupation of a
donor-father, even rent another’s womb for the child to be born in. They can
have a "designer
baby". The child thus becomes a toy, of as much
importance as a pet dog. And when you are fed up with the child, it can be sent
away to a private school, cast away like the old toys of a spoilt child.
But John the Baptist
tells us that we are to be spiritually fruitful. He is the model of all
children. We should have children because we desire them, because we pray to
have them. We should pray that our children will call us and others to
repentance. And if the Lord does not grant us to bear children or we have
already borne them, then we are to bear virtues instead. And we are to bring up
and refine and cultivate our virtues with as much care and love and commitment
as children. And thus our virtues will also be calls to repentance.
Today, through his birth,
the Holy Forerunner John calls us all to repentance. Let us make ready for the
Lord.
Reference:
http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/sermons_england.htm#_Toc55646603