On Birthdays

Facebook makes a big deal about birthdays.  And often I forget or overlook those notices, even though many people just love receiving congratulations from people they never see, or often haven’t met. It might be the only time anyone makes a fuss over her or him to make the day really special with images of birthday cakes and balloons.

Father Peter John Cameron, author, editor and playwright, reflected on the birth of John the Baptist (celebrated June 24).  Just in case you don’t know that story from the Gospel of Luke, John was Jesus’ cousin. Their mothers, Elizabeth and Mary, were pregnant at the same time and John recognized Jesus in the womb and leaped for joy:

“The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist is a sacred reminder of the fact that every day I need born in my life:

someone who leaps with joy before the presence of the Lord, who makes me want to live my own relationship with Jesus with greater ardor and fervor;

someone to prepare the way of the Lord and to give me knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of my sins;

someone who turns my attention away from my distractions and preconceptions so that I will behold the Lamb of God as the true desire of my heart;

someone who models for me that there is no greater joy in my life than for Jesus to increase and for me to decrease, especially as regards my self-reliance, my self-assertion, my self-absorption;

someone who is a burning and shining lamp whose radiance gives light to my path and courage to my heart, making me want to live for others;

someone so committed to the truth that he is willing to lay down his life for the Truth-become-flesh—witnessing to me that all true happiness comes through self-sacrifice;

someone whose sanctity proclaims that there is no man born of woman greater than he is, but that I can share his greatness if I love Jesus as he did.”