As disciples, we are to have the heart of God. In God's eyes, everyone is deserving of love, This means each and every immigrant on the face of the earth.

Nativity of St John the Baptist 2018

At Baptism, the first question the Church asks the parents of a newborn is:  “What name do you give your child?”  There’s more to the question than what they plan to call their newborn?  We might think of it in terms of hope for the future.  What dreams do your parents have for you?  What are the dreams you have for your children?  How do these plans align with God’s plan for your children?

As we celebrate the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, his parents were asked:  “What name do you give to your child?”  They responded “John.”  The name John reflected God’s plan for John the Baptist.  His parents Zachariah and Elizabeth named him John, rather than after his father Zachariah, because they knew even from his birth that God has a plan for John.  He was to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.  Zachariah and Elizabeth wanted their son John to be faithful to God’s call and God’s plan for his life.

In the first Scripture reading from the prophet Isaiah, the prophet says:  “The Lord called me from birth.  From my mother’s womb he gave me my name.”  The Christian calling is a high expectation.  Long before our parents started looking through books for baby names, we are named as children of God.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were committed to name their child John even though it meant  going against family traditions and community expectation.  They trusted God’s Word to them about this child.

John was to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.  John the Baptist is the mentor for all the baptized.  Following the example of John and seeking his intercession, we too are to make the Lord known and help others prepare their hearts for the coming of Jesus into their lives.

As we celebrate the Feast of John the Baptist, we need to pay attention both to the preaching of John and his mission.  His preaching needs to take hold in our hearts and his mission is to become our mission.  We too are called to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

We need to listen to the first words of the preaching of John: “Repent.  For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  For John, repentance was critical.  For us to be a disciple of Jesus, we need to repent in all the ways we have been flawed by our sinfulness.

For what do we need to repent?

Do I need to repent from being judgmental?  Many of us are too quick to make judgments about people who think differently than ourselves.  Can we love others as God loves them or do we get bogged down in our judgments?

Do I need to repent from needing to control everyone and every situation?    Many of us have our goals and plans for our life but are we able to trust in God’s plan for our lives?  This is what the parents of John the Baptist prayed for as they named their son John.

Do I need to repent from lust?  Do I get caught up in pornography and use the gift of sexuality for selfish pleasure?

Do I need to repent from my way of life in which I am too busy to pray each day?  As we week to develop a daily pattern of personal prayer, am I able to give 1% of each day over to God in prayer.  1% of each day is 15 minutes.  Am I able to set aside 15 minutes each day for prayer?  Or am I too busy to surrender to God 1% of each day?

Like John the Baptist, we need to spend time in the desert to repent, to experience metanoia, to have a change of heart.  On this Feast of John the Baptist, I invite you to name one area of your life which you need to repent?

John the Baptist preached the need for repentance and John’s mission was to evangelize, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and to prepare for the coming of Jesus into our lives.  We too are missioned to evangelize, to encounter the love of Jesus in our lives and to bear witness to others the love God has for them.

What does it mean for me to be a good Catholic?   For sure I need to repent and ask myself:  is God the center of my life?  We are all sinners under construction.  We need to repent of our sinfulness.

Our discipleship of the Lord Jesus does not stop there in the same way that the mission of John the Baptist did not stop there.  We are called to evangelize?  We are called to encounter the Lord, to develop a personal relationship with Jesus, and we are called to share and to bear witness to the love of God in our world.

In the words of Pope Francis, we are called to be missionary disciples.  Am I my brother’s keeper?  Absolutely.  By Baptism we are missioned to be for others, to be a community of disciples of Jesus.  We are to be for one another.

How am I called to witness to the love of God?  This doesn’t mean waving a Bible in the face of others.  It means having the heart of God.  It means sharing the Father’s love for each and every person on the face of the earth.  This means sharing the love of God with each member of your family, with each immigrant, with each gay person, with someone who is very different from you.  In God’s eyes everyone is deserving of love.  For us to evangelize, we need to receive the heart of God the Father.  When we evangelize, we share what we have been given.  Each of us is deeply loved by God.  In our prayer, may we encounter the God who loves us.  When we evangelize, we are to share the Good News with others that they too are recipients of the tireless love of God.

For us to be evangelizers of God’s love, I invite you to pray the prayer I seek to begin each day.  It’s a very simple prayer.  I say:  “Holy Spirit, what are we going to do today?”  Holy Spirit, what are we going to do today?

Have a Blessed day.