Fr Thomas Hopko visited the Cathedral last weekend. He gave the homily at both the Saturday (nativity of John the Baptist) and Sunday liturgies and was the main celebrant on Sunday morning. It was great to have him around. When he prays and leads the faithful in prayer during liturgy, he has such spiritual conviction, force and sincerity. And the choir sang well both days. Two absolutely beautiful liturgies.

John the Baptist is truly a saint among saints. "And the violent take it by force." John the Baptist truly took the kingdom of heaven by force through living a severe life of fasting, preaching and what must have appeared to most people, complete madness. With his whole being, he laid hold of the kingdom of heaven in both the figurative sense of having seized it through the practising and preaching of repentance but also even more literally, by baptising the very Lord of the Kingdom for whom he was the forerunner.

In the prayers for Theophany we say that John the Baptist was not only the forerunner in this life but also on the other side of the grave, that he even preached the gospel to those who were in Sheol. After wandering in the deserts of this world, preaching the coming of the Kingdom and baptising many, he wandered the deserts of Sheol preparing the way for Jesus Christ. This is the kind of life of holiness, when contemplated, that twists my stomach and makes me feel small.

I can only hope to prepare the way of the Lord in my life and the lives around me and in some small way say, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."