The Catholic cult of the saints is a bit more than an annual calling to mind of the holy, each properly annotated and brought out for display on the appropriate day. Just as the newspaper will feature an article or two on Lincoln, or Washington, or whomever, when their dates turn up.

Our approach would be more in the nature of a family reunion and the honored guest would be a living presence. For we are in communion with the saints. They are part of the Church as we are, and we are in touch. And all of us, Church Militant, Church Suffering, Church Triumphant in Heaven, are united in the love of God and one another.

The whole Christian thing has a sort of timelessness which at once removes it from the confines of time and yet essentially unites it with every moment of time. The Passion, Death and Rising are not only historical events, they are mystical events which step out of time. And so are present in all time. We do not merely read the Scriptures: we do them. In the mystical dimension that is essential to our Faith we participate in the most significant events of history. It is far more than recall, than memory or recollection. The Church lives, and lives always, not merely in time past.

So our celebration of John the Baptist is no mere pausing in a busy week to think of him and his life and work and reflect on it. John is not gone. John lives. His ministry continues. He is martyred in new Johns and new Johns give testimony to Jesus: "Behold, the Lamb of God!"

Fascination with the Baptist continues. His name is still a most popular name. He is at once Old Testament and New. He is a son of the desert, devotee of silence and solitude, whose preaching infuriated because it exposed the follies of his time and people.

He continues. His scorn is poured out on our new breed of millionaires --now two million of them. While workers' pay stagnates and declines, this greedy brood of vipers cares not. The incompetent president of Ford, who earns eight million a year, had to issue a recall of eight million Fords for defective and hazardous equipment. We, one of the richest of the world have the highest poverty rate for children:  one out of five below the poverty line. And we are stingiest of major nations in helping other less developed lands. We have five million citizens behind bars or on probation or parole. Half our marriages collapse. And abortion destroys life with savage abandon. John's voice is heard. He may as well bay the moon and scream in the night for the good it does. No matter. His ministry continues and very much matters. Do not be too sure it is not heard.

And we are involved in it. For Christianity is not a memory trip, a cult of the past. It has no past. It is timeless. It all goes on now. And we are present. And make a response.

Nor are we permitted merely to stand by and watch, wringing our hands at the state of things, hastening to tell the latest bad news to the next we meet.

For John was born as summer begins. It is actually the beginning of winter, for now the days grow shorter, the nights longer. And only in the deeps of that deep darkness is Christ the Light born. And John points Him out.

Our call then is to live John by an honesty of vision which is not deceived by the corruption of our times, however elegant. And not in bitterness, but in joy do our Faith in hope and trust. And in the darkness sing of light. We retreat into the desert of the heart and there nurture the light that redeems the world.  Amen.