SPEAKER_00: Today the church celebrates the nativity of Saint John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: There's only three birthdays the church celebrates the birth of Christ, the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the birth of Saint John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: That alone tells us how important John is in the history of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Most saints are celebrated on the day of their death, the day they entered eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But John is different.
SPEAKER_00: The church celebrates his birth because from the very beginning his life was bound up with the mission of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Before he could speak, before he could preach, before he could baptize, God already chose him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the first reading is so fitting.
SPEAKER_00: It says, The Lord called me from birth from my mother's womb, he gave me my name.
SPEAKER_00: The church has always seen these words fulfilled in a special way in John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Before he was born, God already had a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Before he took his first breath, God already had a mission for him.
SPEAKER_00: The same is true for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: One of the great lies of modern culture is that we invent our own purpose.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures teach us something different.
SPEAKER_00: You're not an accident.
SPEAKER_00: You're not some random person.
SPEAKER_00: You're not the product of chance.
SPEAKER_00: God knew you before you were born.
SPEAKER_00: God loved you before you were born.
SPEAKER_00: God created only one of you for all eternity, and he created a purpose for you.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is not a question mark.
SPEAKER_00: It is an answer to a question God has already asked.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge is discovering what that answer is.
SPEAKER_00: And when we look at John the Baptist, we discover something remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: His entire identity is wrapped up in preparing the way for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John could have spent his life drawing attention himself.
SPEAKER_00: People flocked by great numbers to hear him preach.
SPEAKER_00: Crowds and crowds would gather in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: Some even wondered if he was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: He was very popular.
SPEAKER_00: And yet every time attention turned towards him, he redirected it towards Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What do you suppose that I am?
SPEAKER_00: I am not he, he says.
SPEAKER_00: John understood something that many people spend their entire lives trying to learn.
SPEAKER_00: Your purpose is not to point people to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Your purpose in life is to point people to God.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest tragedy in life is not failing.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest tragedy is succeeding at the wrong things.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest accomplishment is fulfilling the mission of God, the mission he created you to fulfill.
SPEAKER_00: Jaden did that.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps that's why the gospel places such an emphasis on his name.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone expected them to name him Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: That was a family tradition.
SPEAKER_00: Well it was people knew them as.
SPEAKER_00: It was what made sense.
SPEAKER_00: But Elizabeth said no.
SPEAKER_00: And Zechariah confirmed it.
SPEAKER_00: John is his name.
SPEAKER_00: Not John will be his name, John is his name.
SPEAKER_00: The name already had been chosen by God.
SPEAKER_00: The name itself means God is gracious.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, before John ever preached a sermon, his very identity proclaimed a message.
SPEAKER_00: His life was not about fulfilling other people's expectation, it was about fulfilling God's will.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lesson here for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Many people spend their lives trying to become what others expect them to be, trying to satisfy the crowd, trying to gain approval, trying to fit into someone else's plan.
SPEAKER_00: But holiness begins when we stop asking, what do people want me to be?
SPEAKER_00: And start asking, no, what does God want me to be?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's plan is always greater than our own.
SPEAKER_00: In the first reading, God tells his servant, it is too little for you.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful phrase.
SPEAKER_00: It is too little.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God always thinks bigger than we do.
SPEAKER_00: We like to settle for comfort.
SPEAKER_00: God desires sanctity.
SPEAKER_00: We settle for success and applause.
SPEAKER_00: God desires us to have holiness.
SPEAKER_00: We settle for a career.
SPEAKER_00: God desires us to have a mission.
SPEAKER_00: John could have been and could have become a respected rabbi.
SPEAKER_00: God made him the greatest prophet of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: John could have lived a comfortable life.
SPEAKER_00: God made him the voice crying out in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: John could have sought his own glory.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he spent his life preparing the world for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And because he lost himself in that mission, we still speak his name two thousand plus years later.
SPEAKER_00: Today on this solemnity of the nativity of Saint John the Baptist, perhaps the question is simple.
SPEAKER_00: What did God create me to do?
SPEAKER_00: What mission has he entrusted to me?
SPEAKER_00: How am I preparing the way for Christ and my family and my workplace, my parish, my community?
SPEAKER_00: Because every Christian in some way shares the mission of John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: We're all called to prepare a path for Jesus in the hearts of others.
SPEAKER_00: Does my life reflect that?
SPEAKER_00: And if people remember anything about our lives, may it be what they remembered about John's that through us they were led closer to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.