"John the Baptist answered them: "I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
Gospel of Luke
A Jesuit by the name of William Barry wrote a book called "Finding God in All Things". Below is a paragraph from his book that I would like to share.
"The deepest desire of our hearts is God. While we are in the throes of this desire, everything else we might desire takes a back seat, as it were. Everything else becomes relative before the "Absolute Mystery" we desire. That's Mystery with a capital "M". Moreover, insofar as this desire reigns in our hearts, we also desire to live out our lives in harmony with this desire. Hence, we want to live in harmony with God's creative purpose for us, to always choose what will be more in tune with our desire for union with God."
The desire that William Barry speaks about is perhaps most evident and lived out in the person of John the Baptist. I don't think we could find a greater example of what William Barry is speaking about - a man whose deepest desire of his heart was God; a man who let everything else, whether it be health, long life, security, etc. to take a back seat to that deeper desire of fulfilling his mission before God. On the Feast Day of the Birth of John the Baptist, the liturgical readings all speak clearly of this special quality of John. In Isaiah, we hear:
"Listen to me, pay attention remotest people; the Lord called me before I was born, from my mother's womb he pronounced my name."
Anyone who has an awareness of God's call, intuitively senses that this purpose has been planted within, even before one's birth. This is certainly the case for John the Baptist.
In psalm 139 used for this feast day we read:
"For it was you who created my inmost being; knit me together in my mother's womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being. Already you know my soul, my body held no secret from you when I was being fashioned in secret".
John the Baptist, born of Jewish parents and raised in his Jewish faith tradition, would possess this strong sense of being created for a purpose. And his one desire is directed towards fulfilling this purpose. What is it? His father Zachariah saw it and proclaimed it even before John saw the light of day. "You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way."
So what can we learn from John the Baptist? I've heard it said many times, and I believe it is true, that we live in a time where most of us have lost the awareness that we have all been created for a special purpose or mission by God. We live in a time when fewer and fewer people connect with a vocational call to serve God in a manner that has been pre-determined before out birth. Our focus or awareness is primarily on the life we can build for ourselves during this rather short and fleeting time on earth. For many, maybe most, this seems like all there is, so we say to ourselves; lets make the best of it.
But as William Barry S.J. says: "The deepest desire of our hearts, whether we are aware of it or not, will always be God." We can try to fill that desire with other things, but as much as we try, they will not satisfy us.
By human standards today, John the Baptist lived a very unsuccessful life. He was an itinerate preacher, sure. He momentarily caught some attention. He admitted his own nothingness in relation to the One who was to come. He died while still a very young man in his prime. His success is not to be found in the places where we may ordinarily look for signs of successfulness based on criteria used today. But his success can be found in the words of William Barry, S.J. John the Baptist was a man who lived out his life in harmony with God's creative plan for him, a plan to which he was called by God before he was born. In each of the events of his life, he chose what was more in keeping with his desire to be united with a God who called him for a special purpose.
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