Today marks the feast of John the Baptist in the Catholic world, and he is a central figure in the faith. In so many ways, we need to “go through John to get to Jesus.” He is the untamed wild man who calls the wilderness his home. He is a water-keeper who initiates people into their local river and watershed. He speaks truth to power and doesn’t hold back just because he’s talking to a king. And he is the humble servant who knows what his role and purpose are in the bigger story.
There is really so much to take in with John!
I grew up in a French-speaking Catholic church in Manchester, NH, and the feast of St. Jean Baptiste was a very important one. I know that it was uniquely celebrated by the French-Canadian community in Manchester and was part of a wider tradition that had been carried from Quebec. My parents told stories of parades through the streets on Manchester’s “West Side” (the traditional home of many of the French-speaking immigrants) and parties into the night celebrating John the Baptist. I even saw an article about this holiday that exclaimed, “Happy St. Jean Baptiste Day! Live Free and Eat Poutine!”
Over the years, I discovered much more about this cultural celebration that, I think, has a lot to offer us in this moment.
First off, many of the traditions associated with the celebration of the feast of John the Baptist have their origins in the traditions celebrated by the Celtic (indigenous) peoples of northern Europe. Celtic feasts celebrating the solstice were marked by bonfires and dancing and singing through the nights. When these peoples first encountered Christianity, I am guessing that they felt a resonance with the figure of John the Baptist given their deep connection to land, to water, to light and to life itself. In him they probably saw a lot of themselves reflected. As time went on, however, the bonfires and parties were carried forward but the deep connection to the solstice and the land were lost.
Fast forward to the 1800’s (and I am skipping A LOT of history here…), and we see this celebration of John the Baptist take another twist. During this time of conflict between English and French settlers, some of the French settlers began to celebrate a public festival on June 24 as a reminder of how John the Baptist “struck down tyranny.” John’s life of living unfettered and free and speaking truth to the powers was taken up by the French-speaking people as a symbol of their cultural pride and subversion of British domination. Over time the tradition evolved to include parades, street festivals and civic events. In Manchester, as in many other places, the celebrations were meant to bring people back to their French-speaking roots and ethnic/cultural pride. What got obscured, however, was John’s deep commitment to confronting the powers of domination – even to the point of being willing to go to jail or even to lose his life.
So what might all of this have to do with today?
As I write these guidelines, heat waves continue to cook the East Coast and Midwest. Parts of Texas are flooded as wildfires are raging in New Mexico. And these are just some of the events happening across our country – let alone all that is happening across our world. The harsh realities of climate change are becoming front and center.
And as if this were not enough, our country and many parts of the world find ourselves in ongoing forms of social upheaval, rising authoritarianism/fascism and polarization.
Because the ending of these stories is not yet written, we could really use some John the Baptist energy right now to help us address what we face.
We need John’s commitment to live in closer relationship to the land.
We need John’s commitment to eat local and live simply.
We need to re-discover John’s deep connection to water and live in harmony with the rivers and lakes that surround us.
We need to reconnect with earth-based traditions like the solstice that ground us in deep cycles (disconnecting from our technology and dancing and singing more).
And we need to rediscover John’s commitment to truth-telling – in our own lives as well as in the broader society – and take more risks to speak up and/or interrupt what we know to be hurtful to life.
As I mentioned earlier, I do think that we need to “go through John to get to Jesus.” In fact, there are scripture scholars who suggest that Jesus actually “apprenticed” himself with John in the wilderness in order to get his own bearings straight. It may be that we need to do the same. So today, I celebrate the feast of John the Baptist because I need that energy in my life and want to live more fully into these attributes.