Jesus called John the greatest of all those who had preceded him: “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John” But John would have agreed with what Jesus added to that statement: “Yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Today, as we honor John in the celebration of his nativity, we go back to John’s mother and father receiving the news of his birth, to Mary who went to her cousin Elizabeth while she had Jesus in her own womb, to the announcement to the world that John would have a special role in the history of salvation.
For the last 10 years, starting on June 22, the Catholic Church in the United States has been celebrating religious freedom week. The Bishops ask us priests to preach about the importance of religious freedom in our country in the context of the solemnities and feasts we celebrate during this time period. John the Baptist proclaimed God’s word against the backdrop of a powerful Roman empire. Herod feared John the Baptist and his message so much so that John was ultimately imprisoned and killed for following God’s will. Herod did not want to hear the truth in the words of John the Baptist. As we see our religious freedom under attack in our own country today, the honesty and fortitude by which John the Baptist lived out his faith is a good example for us to reflect upon.
During the religious freedom week, we the faithful are to undertake prayer, education, and action in support of religious freedom. We are to undertake a national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty. John the Baptist paid with his life as he spoke the truths of our faith. Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of St John Fisher and St Thomas More, both of whom were beheaded for their faith by Henry VIII in 16th century England. Like King Herod with John the Baptist, Henry VIII did not want More and Fisher to speak the truth about the Church and about the holy bond of matrimony that Henry VIII wanted to break with his wife Catherine of Aragon. More was a lawyer and chancellor of England, while Fisher was a high ranking English Bishop in the Catholic Church. For speaking out for religious freedom, both of them became martyrs for the faith.
Our US Bishops have called religious freedom “our first, most cherished liberty.” Religious Liberty was important to the founding fathers of our country. Religious freedom is the topic of the first amendment to the US Constitution. In many ways, religious liberty is at the foundation of all the liberties we enjoy in our country, for if we Americans are not free to form and follow our consciences in our religious faith and to choose the way we live out our faith each day, how will we be able to live in freedom in any sense of that word? When our government asks us to do something that is against God’s holy teachings, then the American tradition of liberty is being trampled upon and destroyed. We saw Dr. Martin Luther King Jr stir up the religious consciousness of our nation during the Civil Rights movement; we need stirring of our religious consciousness in the midst our current reality.
We pray for the intercession of John the Baptist, St Thomas More and St John Fisher. We pray for the courage and fortitude that propelled these men to action, to stand up for faith and for freedom.
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