Saint Luke - Chapter 1
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| Childhood of John the Baptist. J-J Tissot |
And the child grew, and was strengthened in spirit; and was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel.
''Tradition indicates as the desert in which the child who was to be called the 'Prophet of the Most High' spent his early years, that on the west of Aïn-Karim, amongst the rugged rocks skirting the Teberinth valley. It was from the bed of the torrent which flows through this valley that David took the stones for the sling with which he went forth to meet and slay Goliath. There grew the so-called locust tree or St John's bread-tree with various shrubs and roots, and there, too, were plenty of the locusts and wild honey which we are told formed the food of the Prophet. The Rabbi Hanina B.R. Abahon mentions eight hundred varieties of 'locusts' which are good to eat.
About the middle of this desert a cave is still shown as that occupied by the Prophet, near a spring called Aïn-Habise. In the fifteenth century the hills of this desert were still, as in the days of David and of the Prophet John, covered with dense woods, but now they are bare and, except in the rainy season, the streams which flowed through the numerous ravines are dried up.
John the Baptist paid his first visit to the Desert and spent some time in it with hhis mother Elizabeth after the Massacre of the Innocents. Later, probably after the death of his parents, he returned to prepare for his mission.''
[Extract taken from The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J. James Tissot, Sampson, Low, Marston, London, 1897]
And the child grew, &c. As John grew in body, so also he waxed strong in spirit, because the Holy Spirit from day to day filled him with greater wisdom, grace, and strength. Hence we conclude that the use of reason, which was bestowed upon John in the womb, continued after his nativity and increased. So Theophylact says, “The more the child grew, the more the powers of the Spirit were manifested in him, being an organ capable of receiving them.” And Titus says, “according to the proportion and increase of his age, he advanced in grace and spirit.” The same is said of the child Jesus, but after a different manner and sense.
And was in the deserts. Hence we conclude that John from a boy retired into the desert, and there remained till his thirtieth year, when he began to show himself to the people, and to preach repentance to them, and faith in Christ.
Baronius is of opinion that this retirement and flight of John into the desert took place through fear of the infanticide Herod; for although John was not living in the coasts of Bethlehem, yet on account of the fame of his wonderful nativity the fear and anger of Herod extended to him; for fearing that he was the king of the Jews, i.e. the Messiah, whom the Magi were asking for, he commanded him to be killed. Wherefore, that he might not be murdered by Herod, he was taken away by his mother when two years old into the desert; and was hidden there in a cave. Cedrenus adds, that his mother died after forty days in the same cave, and that an angel undertook the charge of bringing up John. Peter Alexandrinus adds, that Herod commanded his father Zacharias to be killed between the temple and the altar, because he had removed his son out of the way.
The cause, therefore, of the retirement of John into the desert was the fear of Herod; but there were besides other and greater causes both on the part of God and John. (1) The first was that in the desert he might avoid the occasions of sinning which are supplied by associating with men. (2) The second was that he might freely reprehend the vices of the Jews without fear of any one, inasmuch as he knew no one, but like an angel come down from heaven, preached heavenly truths. Theophylact says, “He departed that he might be brought up beyond the reach of the malice of the multitude, and might not be afraid of censuring any one. (3) The third cause was, that as a future preacher of repentance he might himself first give a pattern of it by living severely in the desert; for austerity of life gives great power to a preacher. (4) The fourth was that by conversing continually with God and the angels, he might lead an angelic life; according to the words, Behold, I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before Me, Mal. 3:1. For John, living apart from the world in the desert, had time for fasting, prayer, and contemplation; “that,” as Origen says, “he might have leisure for prayer, and might hold converse with the angels, and call upon God, and hear Him answering and saying, ‘Behold, here I am.’ ” (5) The fifth was that he might be a witness to Christ above all exception; for in the desert he could have been taught by no man, but only by God and the angels. Wherefore he was taught of God θεοδίδακτος. John therefore in the desert was an inhabitant of heaven, both because he had the heaven for a home and a roof, and because by continually contemplating heaven, he in mind dwelt in heaven, and emulated the life of those who dwell in heaven.
Gregory Nazianzen (in orat. 20 in praise of S. Basil) calls John the highest Philosopher; “Basil,” he says, “retired hence with us to Pontus, and ruled over the schools of piety which were in those parts, and with Elias and John, the greatest philosophers, embraces solitude.” Elias of Crete, commenting on orat. 1 of S. Gregory, gives another reason for the solitary life of John; “Since Christ and John were relations, therefore lest John might seem to bear witness to Christ because of his relationship to Him, it was brought about by the grace of the Holy Spirit that he should lead a solitary life during the whole period of his early years, that he might not seem to give this testimony (to Christ) through friendship or through some kind of artifice, but that he might announce the very fact as if he had learnt it from God; and therefore he said: I knew Him not; but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, ‘Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.’ ”
Symbolically, Nicetas (in orat. 38 on S. Greg. Nazianzen), says, “John is a figure of those who are sanctified from childhood, and by going onwards to the end preserve a most pious and constant habit of virtue. For when as yet he was in his mother’s womb, he recognised his Lord, and leapt with great joy.”
Lastly, the same S. Gregory Nazianzen, following the example of S. John, retired with S. Basil into solitude, the spiritual delights and fruits of which he thus describes (orat. 1):—“Nothing seemed to me so much to be desired by any one as that a man should lead a life superior to those things which we behold with our bodily eyes, with closed senses placed where he is free from the desires of the flesh and the world, and, except as far as necessity requires, coming into contact with no human things, and holding converse with himself and with God. Such a man ever bears about in himself visions of Divine purity, unmingled with any earthly and delusive forms; and he is altogether a pure mirror of the things of God and of Divine things, and receives light by means of light (that is to say, a clearer light by means of that which is less clear), and already in hope beholds the blessedness of the future life, and holds converse with the angels, and though still on earth he leaves earth behind, and is placed on high by the Spirit.” Wherefore the Fathers speak everywhere of John as a prince of the monastic life, of which Christ was the Leader; as I have shewn, S. Matt. 4:1.
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