A prophetic saint, from the womb to the tomb.
Saint John the Baptist was a prophet to his sandal-straps. Son of a visionary prophet Zechariah ('The Lord…has raised up a horn of salvation for us…', Matthew 1:69), he was surrounded by prophets - Elizabeth his mother, with her inspired insight into Mary her cousin, '…Blessed is the fruit of thy womb!' (Matthew 1:42); and his relative Mary herself, who has some claim to be the first true prophet of Jesus in His own lifetime ('He has brought down rulers from their thrones/but has lifted up the humble….' Matthew 1:52).
For heaven's sake, John was even a prophetic foetus! He leapt in his mother's womb when he sensed his cousin Jesus inside Mary's (Matthew 1:41).
Generally, prophecy has a bad history. Hilary Clinton will win the election. Britain will never leave the EU. The High Court will support Barnaby Joyce. Remember Y2K? Websites list the number of times the world has been meant to end; after a while, apocalyptic predictions are boring.
But Christian prophecy is not the same thing as prediction, and St John the Baptist was not just interested in the end of the world; he was passionately committed to a change in men's and women's behaviour before it happened.
As such he is the paradigm of the Judeo-Christian prophetic tradition, for that is always its purpose: when a saintly prophet predicts the future, it is a sort of spiritual version of the modern economist saying, 'We can see where this is heading!', meaning current self-destructive tendencies - which are to be replaced immediately by a better path. It is the quality of the insight into the problem that is the measure of the great prophet.
Clearly, St John the Baptist had profound insight, because we are told that the 'whole Judean countryside and all the people from Jerusalem' came out to hear him and be baptised for their sins (Mark 1:5). They weren't coming for his dietary advice ('locusts and wild honey', Mark 1:6)!
Nor did they come for platitudes and compliments. 'You brood of vipers!' was how he addressed them (Luke 3:7).
Nor did they come for easy answers. Share your clothes. Share your food. Tax collectors, don't collect more than your due. Soldiers, no extortion and no false accusations; and be satisfied with your pay (Luke 3: 10-14).
What is interesting is not so much his answers, but the fact that tax collectors and Roman oppressors were seeking his advice. This points to the other great truth of prophecy: Only those who have 'ears to hear' do so; that is, people respond who seek freedom from their own corruption. They know they are guilty of something - but how to become pure?
And that is John's next distinction as a prophet: his extraordinary - in the circumstances - humility. Because he didn't turn himself into an industry; he did not promise transformation at his own hand. His famous '…one more powerful than I is coming … (who) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit…' (Luke 3: 16) is the single greatest surrender of prestige in all history.
John's life has all the hallmarks of what it meant to be a prophet. He turned his back on the 'carrion comfort' of society's pleasures. He did not seek the praise of men and women, but rather their souls' salvation.
And he died the death of a prophet, at the hand of a far less worthy example of humanity, Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee - at his hand, and on the flimsy whim of Herod's daughter Salome, because she happened to ask for John's head on a silver platter while Herod was entertaining powerful social friends. The contrast itself is prophetic.
St John the Baptist
Feast day: 24 June