We need more John Baptists By Fr. Bel R. San Luis, SVD Published: June 23, 2013 Watch out! Tomorrow is the feast of St. John the Baptist’s birth and pranksters will take to the streets, dousing water on people. There’s more to the feast, however, than all the dousing of water. For the life of John the Baptist tells us about what it means to be a true Christian. John the Baptist was a prophet. When we hear the term “prophet,” not a few think that he is someone who foretells the future, like our manghuhula (fortune tellers) do. The truth is that the prophet’s chief role is not to foretell but to build the future by telling people how to live in the present. To be a prophet means to proclaim the message of God at all times, to all people whether they like to hear it or not. Hence, the prophet is the conscience of the people. Thus, John the Baptist lambasted the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees: “Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming!” Then he dared tell Herodias, the mistress of Herod and his brother’s wife, that their relationship was immoral. John’s words disturbed Herodias’ conscience and the only way to silence him was to get rid of him; this happened when he was beheaded. By the way, he was the first man in Scriptures to literally “lose his head over a woman.” There will be times, too, when we Christians have to stick to our moral principles and convictions, when we refuse to break the law even if some monetary consideration is dangled before us. Reminds me of a grieving balikbayan lady who approached his parish priest to request that a Requiem Mass be said for her imported dog, which had just died. “Mass for a dog?” retorted the priest. “Lady, that’s against the canon (church) law!” “You see, Father, I love that dear little dog very much. I set aside $500 for his funeral service. But if you don’t like, I’ll just go to the Protestant church,” replied the lady as she turned around to leave. On hearing the $500, the priest’s eyes sparkled. Running after her, he said, “Lady, you can’t do that. Your dog is a Catholic. Come back, I’ll say the Mass for your poor little creature.” That’s only a joke, of course, but don’t our Christian principles and convictions wobble when some juicy proposals are offered? Think, for instance, of certain multi-million-peso projects and purchases in government agencies to which certain officials succumb when they give or accept bribes. It’s not just government projects but in shows and movies where a nice girl consents to appear bold if “the price is right.” May we have more John the Baptists today!
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 04:08:08 +0000
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