Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Happy Feast of St. John De Baptist



A very fine morning from Frascati and happy feast of St. John De Baptist. I celebrated the mass and preached a homily. I recounted my two experiences of childhood. One is the tradition of burning a banana sapling tied with hay and sackcloth. The children would then beat up the sapling calling out San Joan. After which we would go and jump into the well for a bath. The whole day of 24th June is spent in festivities and celebrations. We prepare special sweets with grams and other stuff. Today is the day of the son-in -law who is invited by girls house and gifted with some ornaments. 
The second experience is as a child i found difficult to accept john de baptist as a saint. while reading his life one would get scared, a wild man with camel's hair cloth, eating wild honey and locusts and living in forest. How could he be a saint, when he literally shouted at people to repent and called them by kinds of names. But later on understood that he was one of the greatest saints in the catholic church.
We learn many things from his life like simplicity, humility, Christ centredness, fidelity, repentance and man of integrity. 

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