Godzdogz

It is obvious that many people, both in and outside the Church, know about John Baptist and can say something about him. Muslims call him يحيى بن زكريا, read Yahya Ibn Zakariya (John, son of Zechariah). One reads in the Qur’an, Surah 19 (Maryam), verse (or ayah) 15: “So, Peace on him the day he was born, the day that he dies, and the day that he will be raised up to life (again)!” Muslims recognise the reverence of John to Jesus while both were still in their mothers’ wombs, as the first testimony of someone recognising Jesus as the word of God. It is reported that Ibn Arabi, a Muslim Sufi of the 12^th and the 13^th centuries, tells the story in a humorous way, attributing to Elizabeth complaints about her son bowing in her womb all the times she meets Mary! She might have suffered a lot for an old woman! Muslims claim to have the tomb of John the Baptist in Damascus in the Umayyad Mosque and a Franco-Algerian Muslim artist Rachid Koraïchi, who is very much involved in monotheistic religions’ dialogue, inspired by those relics, begun a project called Salomé in the French Centre Georges Pompidou, referring to the beheading of St John the Baptist after Salome’s beautiful dance, but would be more explained on the feast of the Beheading of St John the Baptist. Mentioning these non-Christian sources does not intend to look down or to deny the Christian version of the birth and infancy of John the Baptist. It rather aims at showing how much respected he is in different religious traditions and could be a central figure in the interfaith dialogue.

In conclusion, we could say that John the Baptist, as often stressed especially by the Eastern Church, was a bridge between both Testaments. The Benedictus gives us the full meaning of the nativity of John and invites us to rejoice in this day, when our salvation is announced. It calls to going out with joyful and positive minds, to preach the Good news of the loving-kindness of God to people who might have often been told that God is waiting for them around the corner to punish them severely. It gives hope to those living in dark times. It invites us also to understand that we share much with our brothers and sisters of other faiths, who obviously are children of the same God.