The Freedom we resist for the sake of the false self - self indentity - self esteem

Humans cannot attain a state of happiness without conversion, a complete reorientation of their entire existence. It cannot be achieved by their own effort; it can only result from the supreme freedom which God bestows as soon as we cease to hedge ourselves round with self-sufficiency, isolation, and arrogance.  The question is: how can human beings cross the borderline of human limitation to that divine intimacy which calls for complete surrender, and in return gives us all the resources of the infinite?  To find the answer we must turn to Saint John the Baptist,... he confessed and did not deny...  It is not I.  We must know the truth about ourselves without equivocation; we must be brought to the point of absolute honesty before ourselves and before others.  Again and again we will be tempted to stand on the pedestal of our own self-esteem, and this temptation must be overcome at all costs. We may cavort for a time on our high horse of vanity and self-deception, but sooner or later the animal will throw us and make off leaving us stranded in the wilderness.  We must abandon the fictions we have labored to polish so as to increase their plausibility.  An honest self-appraisal combined with a sober summing-up of one's own capacities and potentialities is the first step toward truth in life.  The truth shall set you free - and freedom, in every part of life, is all that matters. -- Fr Alfred Delp, SJ in Magnificat, May 2010, p. 396

We are "called" (as in vocation) out of these false and deceptive illusions of autonomous individuality to a Freedom of and in Grace - not by anything we have done, but rather by acknowledging that the world does not revolve around "me" and instead, re-presenting the One for whom Life revolves.

Why Do We Celebrate the Birth of John the Baptist?

In this month’s issue of Magnificat, Father Peter John Cameron, OP, provides a great litany for why we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist.

The nativity of Saint John the Baptist is a sacred reminder of the fact that I need born in my life every day:

* someone who leaps with joy before the presence of the Lord making me want to live my own relationship with Jesus with greater ardor and fervor;

* someone to prepare the way of the Lord and to give me knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of my sins;

* someone who turns my attention away from my distractions and preconceptions so that I will behold the Lamb of God as the true desire of my heart;

* someone who models for me that there is no greater joy in my life than for Jesus to increase and for me to decrease, especially as regards my self-reliance, my self-assertion, my self-importance;

* someone who is a burning and shining lamp whose radiance gives light to my path and courage to my heart, making me want to live for others;

* someone so committed to the truth that he is willing to lay down his life for the Truth-become-flesh - witnessing to me that all true happiness comes through self-sacrifice;

* someone whose sanctity proclaims that there is no man born of woman greater than he is but that I can share his greatness if I love Jesus as he did.

In the tender compassion of our God, the Dawn from on high has broken upon us through the birth of John the Baptist. - Father Peter John Cameron, OP


I read this over and over and found that each time re-reading I was identifying with yet another from Fr Cameron's list of reminders why I need born in my life and every day the birth of John the Baptist.

Nativity of St. John the Baptist - Abu Gosh

Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist
Hans Baldung Grien - 1511

On this Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (the Church only celebrates three births on her liturgical calendar -- guess the other two), I want to make mention of an interesting place if you ever make your way to the Holy Land on pilgrimage. It is a place that (a) may be the historical site of Emmaus, (b) is the site of a magnificent Crusader church similar to that of St. Ann's Church in Jerusalem, and (c) bears the name, alternatively, of St. John the Baptist and the Church of the Resurrection, commemorating the birth of the former and the post-resurrection appearance of Our Lord at Emmaus of the latter. The frescoes in the nave were being restored when I visited in 2001. Also, a chamber music festival takes place there utilizing its magnificent acoustics each year.

This Crusader church at Abu Gosh, Israel also bears the dubious honor of being the setting for a climactic scene in The Dionysus Mandate. Here is a brief excerpt:

He backed Aly down the steps to the grotto holding her arm in one hand and the pistol in the other. Aly recognized the mistake Neesam was making in the darkness as he walked them closer and closer to the edge of the deep, spring-fed baptism pool. She did nothing to warn Neesam or slow their progress. They stepped off and splashed simultaneously into the baptismal’s shockingly cold waters.

Aly had a split second to gulp a deep breath before going under. She felt herself going down in the dark waters with her hands tightly bound in the small of her back. Neesam disappeared. She thought, He’s up and back to the surface already. I can’t swim and I can’t breathe. And I can’t get my hands free.

But Lucent Neesam, though a naturally gifted swimmer, at that moment found himself slowly yet inexorably moved under an ancient stone archway once stood upon by chaplains to the Crusaders. His head struck solid rock when he tried to surface making him wince. All right, son of a buggering b**ch, he told himself. Let’s get out of this infernal puddle. He twisted, sweeping a hand through the further reaches of the baptismal pool. His lungs burned, and he lurched in the direction, he thought, of the opening beyond the massive walls of the Crusader church ...

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May the good saint forgive any exploitation the author of The Dionysus Mandate may have perpetrated by using the church commemorating his birthplace. Did Neesam and/or Aly get out of the baptismal pool's dark and dangerous waters? Ah, well ...