St Jean Baptiste
The figure of Saint John the Baptist
In the prologue to St. John's Gospel, Pope Leon XIV points out that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14), adding that John the Baptist also bears witness (cf. v.15). For the Successor of Peter, "if we carefully reread the first chapters of the fourth Gospel, we can discover the key to every school of evangelization: bearing witness to what we have contemplated, to the encounter we have had with the God of life". This is what the evangelist also reveals in his first letter: "What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you may live in communion with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 Jn 1:3). This is "the mission of the Church and of every Christian: we must pass on what we have received, so that we may all become one in Christ".
