St. John the Baptist, therefore, had no concupiscence, but only a life in sanctifying grace. As far as possible, with prevenient grace, he was spared for his work as the new Elijah, preparing the way of the Lord. He is honored greatly in the Eastern rites of the Church. The Byzantines seem always to have his icon on the iconostasis. The Western, Latin Rite would do well to pay more attention to him.
At his birthplace, this iconostasis separates the sacred place of the priest from that of the people.
In Advent, we read about St. John, of course. I shall only quote a snippet from today's Gospel in the NO.
Matthew 11:11-25
Douay-Rheims
11 Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.
Christ is referring to the Old Testament prophets and to us-the violent bear the kingdom of God away, into their heart, their minds, their souls.
Again, the violent are those who are willing to allow God to be violent with them-those who willingly suffer.
Those who cannot accept suffering may have this passage--The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and those who seek comfort will lose it.
St. John lived in the desert eating locusts for protein and honey for sugars. He drank water and presumably no wine. He mortified himself, although he was not sinful.
Why? For OUR sake-he was doing penance for sinners and to help those who were to be called by Christ recognize Him.
We do something similar in the process of dying. We are mortified in illness, poverty, whatever suffering.
In Advent, we cannot get away from St. John the Baptist who tells us to repent, to be purified, to accept and even seek suffering. Let us follow him.
Death is the final mortification.
