St. John the Baptist
Panegyric on the saint
Fr. Louis Bourdaloue, SJ
"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him." John 1:6-7
This is the true character of the glorious precursor St. John, whose feast we celebrate today.
A man raised up by God to serve as a witness for Him who, as the Son of God and the Word of God, was the uncreated Light; a man predestined to announce and to make known to the world God Incarnate; a man miraculously conceived by a sterile mother; a man of whom it can be said that the Spirit of God was in him, even in the cradle, and that the hand of the Lord was with him; a man whose mission was authorized by the most striking proof of truth, which is his eminent sanctity: And all this, to render testimony to Jesus Christ.
This is what the grand conceptions the Gospel gives us of him come down to. He was not the light: Non erat ille lux (John 1: 8), but he was the witness of the one who made the light itself, of that God-Man who alone had the power to say absolutely and unconditionally: Ego sum lux mundi, I am the Light of the world.
For, it was to attest to the truth of this word of the Savior that John the Baptist came into the world; and here we have a formulation, a summary of his praise: Hic venit in testimonium, ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine. [This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light.] A praise, my dear listeners, which you should not consider as a mere panegyric of the saint whom the Church honors today, but instead as a fundamental discourse on the principal points of our religion; as an essential instruction on Christianity; as an exposition of that great mystery of our Faith, which is the divine Incarnation. For, between Jesus Christ and John the Baptist were bonds so close that one could not know one well without knowing the other. And if eternal life consists in knowing Jesus Christ: Haec est autem vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te solum Deum virum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum (Joan., 17:3); so also a part of our salvation consists in knowing St. John: now, it suffices, to know him perfectly, to comprehend well that he was the witness of Jesus Christ and that he came for this purpose: Hic venit in testimonium. From the moment of his birth, he loosened, by a visible miracle, the tongue of his father Zachary to make him proclaim the praises of God…
Five things, Christians, are necessary for anyone chosen as a witness to fulfill that duty: fidelity and freedom from personal ambition in the testimony he bears, exact knowledge of the subject he bears witness to, evidence of proofs upon which he supports his testimony, zeal for the truth for which gives testimony, and finally, constancy and firmness to sustain his testimony.
Now, I find that St. John had these qualities in the most eminent degree; for, he had a testimony for the Savior that was faithful and selfless, a well-instructed and fully illuminated testimony, a testimony certain and irreproachable, a testimony zealous and ardent, and a testimony constant and firm. From which I conclude that he answered perfectly to the plan God had for him, and that nothing was lacking for him to verify the full meaning of the words of the text: Hic venit in testimonium.
[Translation by Fr. John Rickert]
