Basilica remembers Baptist

Editor's note: Third in a series on the sacred places and tombs of saints included in The Compass pilgrimage to Rome and Paris that retired Green Bay Bishop Robert Banks will lead May 3-13.

By Tony Staley

	Sites of Compass Tour Pilgrimage to Rome and Paris
	What: Compass tour of Paris/Rome Where: May 3-13, 2008 What: Bishop Robert Banks will lead a tour of holy sites in Paris and Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica Information: Call Amy Kawula, Compass marketing manager, at 1-877-500-3580, ext. 8212 or check out this pilgrimage page

The first day of touring in Rome will include a stop at the pope's cathedral, St. John Lateran Basilica, which is dedicated in part to St. John the Baptist. (Also to John the Evangelist.)

This first-century saint was last in a long line of Old Testament prophets, whom the prophet Isaiah had foretold as a "voice crying out in the wilderness to make straight the way for the Lord."

Luke's Gospel says John the Baptist, or Baptizer, was Jesus' cousin, whose birth was promised by the angel Gabriel to Zechariah the priest when he was in the Sanctuary of the Lord in the Temple.

Gabriel told Zechariah that, despite their advanced age, he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son, and name him John. Their child, the angel said, would be filled with the Holy Spirit at his birth and would prepare the Israelites for the coming of the Lord.

When Zechariah asked how this was possible, the angel made him mute. He did not speak again until after the child's birth, when Zechariah wrote on a tablet that his son was to be called John.

John first proved that he was special when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, went to help Elizabeth during her pregnancy. Luke tells us that, as soon as John heard Mary's voice, he leaped for joy in his mother's womb.

Thirty years later, John was in the wilderness in the Jordan River Valley, proclaiming a baptism as a way to repent for sins.

Despite John's appearance - wearing a rough coat of camel's hair and eating locusts and honey - he had developed a strong following (see Mt 3:4-6).

That seems especially surprising because he called people the brood of vipers; told them to share their food and clothing with those who had none; ordered tax collectors to take only what was owed and soldiers not to bully or blackmail (see Lk 3:7-14). Instead, they were to repent and do penance "for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand" (Mt 3:2).

John made it clear that he was baptizing only with water, but that one mightier - whose sandals he is not fit to untie - was coming who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Lk 3:16-17).

In John's Gospel, the message is stronger. Here we find John the Baptist telling people that he is preparing them for Jesus, God's only Son, the only one who has seen God and who is nearest to God's heart (Jn 1:17-18.)

When Jesus presented himself for baptism, John objected, saying, "It is I who need baptism from you" (Mt 3:14). But Jesus insisted and was baptized.

After that, Herod, the governor of Perea and Galilee, had John arrested and imprisoned at Machaerus Fortress on the Dead Sea. Herod was angry because John had called the king's marriage to Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, Philip, adulterous and incestuous.

Herodias wanted John killed, but Herod feared John's holiness. Herodias finally saw her chance at a birthday party that Herod had hosted for many political officials and important people. Herodias' daughter, Salome, had so pleased the guests with her dancing that Herod told her she could have whatever she wished. Salome responded as her mother had told her: She demanded the head of John the Baptist. A distraught Herod delivered.

(Staley is a former Compass editor and a member of Resurrection Parish in Allouez.)

Next: St. John the Evangelist