"...Three months have elapsed since the archangel Gabriel (March 25) announced to Mary that Elizabeth would have a son. The same archangel had announced to Zachary that "many would rejoice in the birth of St. John the Baptist." Indeed not only "the neighbors and relations of Elizabeth" solemnized the event, but every year, on its anniversary, the whole Church celebraes this "Summer Christmas." In the Middle Ages it was even a custom in some places to celebrate three Masses on this day, in order to imitate the Winter Christmas.
After the feast of the Nativity of St. John, the days become shorter, while, on the contrary, after the Nativity of the Saviour, of which this feast is the prelude, the days become longer. The Precursor must efface himself before Jesus who is the true light of faith. "He must increase," says St. John, "and I must decrease." [St. John 3:30]
The solstices were the occasion of pagan feasts when bonfires were lighted to honor the orb which gives us light. The Church gave them a Christian meaning, seeing in them a symbol of St. John who was "a burning and brilliant lamp," [St. John 5:35] that precedes the "true light." [St. John 1:9]
CALL TO ACTION: Beware of how the pagan world is trying to turn Christian celebrations back into pagan feasts... for example, "Christmas in July" sales.
Source: St. Andrew's Daily Missal, page 754; the E. M. Lohmann Co., St. Paul, Minnesota (copyright 1949); Nihil Obstat: J. Gerard Kealy, D.D., Cens. Theol. Deput.; Imprimatur: Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archrepiscopus Chicagiensis
Photo by Luna Davidson