Ein Karem

A depiction of a ragged man with wildly unkept hair, clothed in a coarse animal hide, fingers contortedly pointing upwards, his lively eyes attentive to a mission: this is the icon of John the Baptist which hangs in the Church of the Nativity of Saint John. He looks upon the pilgrim who prays before him seemingly saying only one thing: “He—Christ—must increase, you must decrease.”

Today we visited the birthplace of John the Baptist nestled along the green hillsides of Ein Karem. The earliest church on the site goes back to the fifth century, over the cave traditionally held to be the home of Zachariah and Elizabeth.  (The use of caves as a sort of building block upon which one drafted the rest of one’s house is a common architectural practice still seen today.) It is in this holy site that the seemingly impossible was made possible. While Elizabeth was barren and both she and Zachariah were advanced in age, nevertheless, they were told by an angel that Elizabeth would conceive and bear a son. It is in this house that what was foretold by the Angel came to pass. Nothing is impossible for God.  

John the Baptist’s miraculous birth must have made him keenly aware of one thing: it is the power of God which makes possible the impossible, not one’s own power. And so he intuitively grasped the need to let go and allow God to take over: “He must increase, I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). Valuable advice for men only months away from ordination.