The Nativity of John the Baptist is the first joy sent down by God to the human race, the beginning of its deliverance from the power of the devil, sin and eternal death. — St. John Maximovitch
June 24, 2026, “today we celebrate the birthday of one of the most unusual and important people in the history of our faith: St. John the Baptist. He has the titles of prophet, forerunner, and baptist because he fulfilled all three roles, speaking the word of the Lord as he prepared the way for the coming of Christ, calling God’s people to repentance and baptism, and even baptizing the incarnate Son of God at the very moment when the Holy Trinity was revealed by the voice of the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove upon the Lord in the Jordan. Even before St. John was born, he pointed to Christ, leaping in the womb of St. Elizabeth at the arrival of the pregnant Theotokos, who contained within her the Savior of the world.
“John’s own birth was miraculous, as his parents were an old, childless Jewish couple. We’ve heard that story before with Abraham and Sarah. But even though Zacharias was a priest actually serving in the Temple when the Archangel Gabriel brought the news that Elizabeth would bear him a son, he did not believe the message. ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife advanced in years,’ he said. Zacharias used the exact same phrase that Abraham did in Genesis to question how he could know that God would make him the father of a multitude in the promised land. Zacharias surely knew the story of Abraham, and he should have welcomed this wonderful news with faith and joy. Instead, he doubted and was disciplined by losing the ability to speak until John was born.” — Fr. Philip LeMasters
Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
