Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Today's Mass Readings

Yesterday, Hezekiah’s house stood because of a true trust — he carried the threatening letter up to the Temple and let God read it. But that leaves a question hanging: where does a foundation like that come from? Can we manufacture it ourselves? Today’s feast answers, and the answer goes deeper than anything we build: the truest foundation is one laid in us before we could lay anything at all.

Listen to what God tells Jeremiah. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I dedicated you.” Jeremiah protests — I am too young; I do not know how to speak. And God will not hear it: I knew you before you were you, and I have already put my words in your mouth. The prophet is founded before the prophet exists.

The same with John. Gabriel comes to Zechariah at the altar and notices the first word out of his mouth — the word we have heard all week long: “Do not be afraid.” Your son will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Named before he is conceived. Chosen before he can choose. The wilderness preacher, whom no wind could ever shake, stood that firmly because his foundation was set before he drew a single breath. And Peter tells us why such a foundation is laid at all: the prophets, he says, served not themselves but us. John was founded before birth, not for John’s sake, but to prepare a people.

This is the rock beneath the rock. On Sunday, we heard that the hairs of our head are numbered — that is how closely God attends to us now. Today, we learn that he attended to us before we existed at all. Before you ever trusted him, he knew you. Before you could carry anything up to him, he had already named you his own. And because that knowing came before you did anything, nothing you do can undo it: it is the bedrock of your dignity and the proof of a love you did not earn and therefore cannot lose. You can build badly on it; you can ignore it; you cannot destroy it.

So when you ask what your house is built on, go all the way down. Underneath everything you have built is a foundation you did not lay. God laid it first, and it will hold when you cannot. Build on that.

Reflection by Fr. Etienne Huard, OSB