Second, this reading has no explicit connection to the resurrection. Jesus doesn’t mourn or raise his cousin, John, from the dead like he does with Lazarus. Instead, Mark’s Gospel tells us that John ...

Christ's baptism by St. John the Baptist at the Jordan River is depicted in a stained-glass window at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, N.Y. During Advent, we are extolled to prepare the ...

John the Baptist usually makes an encore just before Ordinary Time, on the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus which, in the United States, usually falls on the Sunday after Epiphany.

John the Baptist died struggling to understand if Jesus was the Messiah. He had promised someone who would bring God’s justice, and Jesus instead had proclaimed God’s unconditional mercy.

His followers had to confess their sins before baptism (Matthew 3:7, 9). John the Baptist was strange because he was going against the flow.