ENCOUNTERING CHRIST IN THE WILDERNESS

Entering the monastery of St. John the Baptist

A Pilgrimage almost necessarily suggests a certain “turning away” from the luxuries of everyday life back home. One could even call this pilgrimage a “desert” or “wilderness” experience. We had the opportunity to encounter THE patron of desert asceticism: St. John the Baptist.

The Scriptures tell us that St. John the Baptist was “…in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4 NAB). Ein Karem, a modern day suburb of Jerusalem, is home to the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness. Staffed by a lone Franciscan Priest.  This mountain site houses many oral traditions surrounding St. John the Baptist and his parents, Saints Elizabeth and Zechariah.

One tradition suggests that Zechariah lived on the mountain while not acting in the temple. Another tradition holds that, during Herod’s slaughtering of the innocents (Matthew 2:16-18 NAB), St. Elizabeth hid the infant St. John the Baptist in a cave on the same mountain. It is also speculated, moreover, that St. John the Baptist himself lived in the wilderness of Ein Karem feeding “…on locusts and wild honey” (Mark 1:6b NAB).

St. John the Baptist's monastery

Oral traditions aside, his calling particularly informs our visiting the Holy Land for an extended period of time. The desert has always been associated with asceticism in the Christian tradition, and St. John the Baptist used the physical wilderness to ready himself to “prepare the way of the Lord” (Matthew 3:3b NAB).  For the sake of this pilgrimage, “familiar” cellphones, television, food, and friends are set aside to encounter the Christ with all the distractions stripped away. Most of my brother seminarians assure me that their prayer life has “skyrocketed” since our being here.

This is a truly privileged time to encounter the Lord. May our desire for holiness be invigorated through the intercession of St. John the Baptist. Echoing the words of St. John the Baptist, may he “increase” while we “decrease” (John 3:30).

St. John the Baptist, PRAY FOR US!