Nativity of St. John the Baptist

The Church celebrates the deaths of martyrs as their birth into heaven. John the Baptist is one of three people whose earthly birthday is a feast: Jesus on December 25, Mary on September 8, and John on June 24. The reason is Luke’s chronology. When Gabriel comes to Mary, Elizabeth is in her sixth month. Six months before Christmas is late June. The traditional date is June 24, close to the summer solstice, as Christmas is close to the winter solstice. Augustine liked the symbol: John said he must decrease, and the daylight begins to decrease after his birth; Christ must increase, and the daylight begins to increase after his.

Luke 1 is almost entirely the Gospel of this solemnity’s vigil and day: the announcement to Zechariah in the Temple, his unbelief and his silence, Elizabeth’s greeting, and the birth, the circumcision, and the name John, which means “the Lord has shown favor.” Zechariah’s tongue is loosed and he sings the Benedictus, the canticle the Church prays every morning at Lauds. The child will be prophet of the Most High, to go before the Lord and prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation in the forgiveness of sins.

John’s later story is not this day. The baptism of Jesus, the witness “Behold the Lamb of God,” the sending of disciples, and the beheading at Herod’s court belong to other texts. The Roman calendar keeps the passion of John on August 29. June 24 is the birth, and the birth already contains the mission. He is filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, Luke says, which is why the tradition of his sanctification before birth is not a medieval extra. It is the Gospel’s own claim, and it is why a birthday can be a solemnity.

The day is a solemnity of white, with Gloria and Creed. It is not a holy day of obligation in the United States. If it coincides with the Sacred Heart or with Corpus Christi when those fall on June 24, the table of liturgical precedence decides which is celebrated and which is transferred. That collision is rare. In ordinary years June 24 stands on its own, often in the green weeks, a white solemnity in the middle of Ordinary Time, pointing both back to Advent and forward to the Lamb.

There is a vigil Mass and a Mass during the day, a structure John shares with a few of the greatest feasts. Isaiah 49, the servant named from his mother’s womb, and the Benedictus Gospel govern the day. The preface speaks of John as the forerunner who prepared the way and pointed out the Lamb. He is the last of the prophets and the first voice of the Gospel.