THE VOICE IS JOHN; THE WORD IS CHRIST
Happy New Year! I hope that your Christmas season and the beginning of 2025 has been a blessed time for you and your families.
Several years ago, I happened upon a passage from St. Augustine’s Sermon considering the role that John the Baptist played in preparing the way for Christ. It was so beautifully written and the perspective was at once so simple and profound that it became one of those bits of text that weaved itself into my mind to return to regularly. On this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, I offer the following excerpt for your reflection, and I hope that it touches your heart as it has mine.
“John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives forever.
Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.
However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine.
In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.
When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.
Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.”
On a separate note, January is Respect Life Month, and Catholics and others around the country pray and advocate in a special way for the protection of all human life from conception to natural death, especially the most vulnerable among us. I’m excited to announce that this year, a group of parishioners led by Noah and Melanie Maldonado are beginning a Culture of Life ministry at Holy Cross that will be founded in fidelity to prayer and intercession for families and the unborn and seek to provide material and spiritual support and accompaniment to those in our parish and wider community. They are organizing a group from Holy Cross to attend the 2025 Prayer Service for Life at the Cathedral of St. Paul and March to the Capital afterwards on Wednesday, January 22. If you are interested in connecting with the group to attend this event and/or getting involved with the Culture of Life ministry in general as it starts up, please email me at laura@ourholycross.org.
~Laura Anderson, Family Life and Baptism Coordinator