John the Baptist played a unique role in the history of God's people. He acted as the bridge between the Hebrew and Christian Testaments. At the same time he died before Jesus had completed his work and before the Church came into existence. His mission was to go ahead of the Messiah and proclaim his coming. The success of his mission would eventually make him redundant. And that is still the role of the missionary today - to plant the church and then withdraw, leaving it in the hands of the new local community.

Today we celebrate the birth of John. In accordance with custom the child, like Jesus too, was circumcised on the eighth day after birth.This ritual showed that the child belonged to God's own people. To the surprise of many, he was called John. His calling to serve the Lord is expressed in the First Reading. "The Lord called me before I was born, from my mother's womb he pronounced my name." "He made my mouth a sharp swordˇK he made me into a sharpened arrowˇK" express John's effectiveness as a prophet and herald. The reading also implies the suffering and frustrations that were part of John's life. In the end he was thrown into prison and, on the whim of Herod's illegitimate wife, executed. John the Baptist's life has a special meaning for all of us. We are, through our baptism, also called to be precursors of the Lord.