Jesus and Saint John the Baptist

The Holy Rosary draws us deeper into the meaning and purpose of Jesus’s life on Earth and his salvific mission for humanity.  The Holy Rosary ranks up with the Lord’s Prayer (Pater Noster) as one of the most powerful and important prayers given to humanity by the Thrice Holy God.  There is always something new that we can learn from praying the Rosary and contemplating its Mysteries.  I experienced this earlier today while praying the Luminous Mysteries.

 
In praying the Luminous Mysteries, I noticed profound similarities between the 1st Luminous Mystery (the Baptism of Our Lord by Saint John the Baptist) and the 2nd Joyful Mystery (the Visitation of Our Blessed Mother to Saint Elizabeth).  

 
As a prophet commissioned by God, Saint John the Baptist prepared the way for the Son of God (Jesus) to perform his salvific mission on Earth.  He was the one foretold by the prophet Isaiah, “A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths’”  (Matthew 3:3). 

The Gospels record only two direct meetings between Jesus and Saint John the Baptist.   The first occurs when Our Blessed Mother visited with her cousin Saint Elizabeth.  At the time, both women were pregnant.  Thus in this encounter, both Jesus and Saint John the Baptist were pre-born, in utero.  Famously, Saint Elizabeth greeted her cousin by saying “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.  Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:42-45).   Thus inspired by the Holy Spirit, Saint Elizabeth immediately recognized the significance of this moment:  the Mother of Our Savior and Our Savior had come to visit her and her pre-born child.

 
The Visitation is commemorated as the 2nd Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.  

 
The second direct meeting between Jesus and Saint John the Baptist occurred when Jesus was baptized by Saint John the Baptist in the River Jordan.  St. John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing in the River Jordan when Jesus approached him and requested that he be baptized too.  Saint John objected to baptizing Jesus, saying “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” (Matthew 3:14).  To which Jesus replied “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).  Saint John the Baptist accordingly baptized Jesus.  Then the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove and God announced from Heaven:  “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).  

 
Matthew’s account of the baptism of Jesus is the most detailed.  See also Mark 1:9-11 and Luke 3:21-2.  

 
The Baptism of Jesus by Saint John the Baptist is commemorated in the 1st Luminous Mystery. 

 
The similarities between the Visitation and the Baptism of Jesus are profound.  In both instances, the Holy Spirit was present.  At the Visitation, the Holy Spirit inspired Saint Elizabeth and the pre-born Saint John the Baptist to instantly recognize that the Savior of humanity and his Mother have come to visit them.  The Holy Spirit thus inspired them not only with discernment but great joy as well.  At the Baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus after he was baptized.  Coupled with the voice of God coming from Heaven, we have direct Biblical evidence of the reality of the Trinity, that God is Three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in One God.   

Another similarity is how Saint John the Baptist experiences meeting with Jesus.  In the Visitation, the pre-born Saint John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mother’s womb.  Saint Elizabeth experienced wonder and awe at this visit by Our Blessed Mother and the pre-born Jesus.  She marveled at why her/our Savior and his/our Blessed Mother had come to visit her and her pre-born child.  No doubt Saint John the Baptist also experienced wonder and awe.  In the second meeting, the adult Jesus came to the adult Saint John the Baptist at the River Jordan.  Though the Gospels did not record this, Saint John the Baptist must have experienced great joy when Jesus came to him to be baptized.  The Gospel of Saint Matthew did record Saint John the Baptist’s wonder and puzzlement at Jesus’s requesting to be baptized by him.  There is also great humility in Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist when they encounter Jesus, the Son of God and again, Saint John the Baptist experiences humility when he meets Jesus at the River Jordan.

 
The most important similarity between the two meetings of Jesus and Saint John the Baptist is that on both occasions Saint John the Baptist recognized who Jesus really was, ie. the Son of God come to redeem the world.  In the Visitation, Saint John the Baptist leaped for joy in utero because he recognized (and Saint Elizabeth too) that Our Blessed Mother was carrying the Savior of the world in her womb.  During Jesus’s baptism, Saint John the Baptist also recognized that Jesus was the Savior.  He did not state this but one can infer it from Saint John’s statement “I need to be baptized by you.”  Furthermore, in the Gospel of Saint John, Saint John the Baptist testified “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”  (John 1:29).  

In considering these two meetings between Jesus and Saint John the Baptist, there is a valuable lesson for us.  Saint John the Baptist and Saint Elizabeth both show us how we should be when we encounter Jesus.  We should encounter Jesus with humility, joy, awe and wonder, especially when we encounter him in the Holy Eucharist.