Preview: John Keble on Saint John the Baptist

Monday, June 22 is the feast of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More (and Saint Paulinus; both are optional memorials in the USA; the Anglican Ordinariate celebrates Fisher and More with a Liturgical Feast). It's no surprise that the Anglican minister John Keble DID NOT write a poem celebrating them, but he did write a poem about another great martyr, Saint John the Baptist. The Feast of the Nativity of the Saint John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24, so we'll discuss this poem on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, June 22.

As I noted six years ago on the National Catholic Register blog, Henry VIII had two decisions to make: first, would he commute the death sentence to the less brutal beheading, instead of what had been pronounced after he'd been found guilty of treason?:

John Cardinal Fisher, the former Bishop of Rochester — Henry VIII had stripped him of that title — was sentenced to death on June 17, 1535. The sentence pronounced against him brought a flush of color to his sunken cheeks, eyewitnesses remarked. As a traitor, he would be drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle, hanged, cut down still alive and then endure vivisection. Finally his head would be cut off and his body would be divided into four parts: Henry VIII would decide where his head and his quarters would be displayed. In other words, he would be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

Henry VIII did commute that sentence: the Cardinal Bishop would merely suffer beheading.

The second decision: when to carry out the sentence?:

Henry VIII faced a dilemma with the selection of Fisher’s execution date as the great feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist was approaching on June 24; the Vigil of his Feast was celebrated solemnly too. Since Bishop Fisher had once cited St. John the Baptist as his model in the defense of marriage, beheading him on that that day wouldn’t do.

So Saint John Fisher was beheaded on June 22, the feast of the first English martyr, St. Alban.

In this poem, John Keble focuses on the link between Elijah the Prophet and Saint John the Baptist and the Church's constant need for prophets to proclaim the truth, inspired by verses from the Book of the Prophet Malachi:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. Malachi iv. 5, 6.

As the Angel told Zechariah in the Temple, his son John would "convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people." (Luke 1:16-17) Then Zechariah repeated that promise in the "Benedictus": "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways: To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins . . ." (Luke 1:76-77) 

That's what Keble is praying for in this poem for "Saint John Baptist's Day" as he weaves together the stories of St. Elijah and St. John, appealing to pastors in the Church through these nine stanzas:

Twice in her season of decay
The fallen Church hath felt Elijah’s eye
Dart from the wild its piercing ray:
Not keener burns, in the chill morning sky,
The herald star,
Whose torch afar
Shadows and boding night-birds fly.

Methinks we need him once again,
That favoured seer—but where shall he be found?
By Cherith’s side we seek in vain,
In vain on Carmel’s green and lonely mound:
Angels no more
From Sinai soar,
On his celestial errands bound.

But wafted to her glorious place
By harmless fire, among the ethereal thrones,
His spirit with a dear embrace
Thee the loved harbinger of Jesus owns,
Well-pleased to view
Her likeness true,
And trace, in thine, her own deep tones.

Deathless himself, he joys with thee
To commune how a faithful martyr dies,
And in the blest could envy be,
He would behold thy wounds with envious eyes,
Star of our morn,
Who yet unborn
Didst guide our hope, where Christ should rise.

Now resting from your jealous care
For sinners, such as Eden cannot know,
Ye pour for us your mingled prayer,
No anxious fear to damp Affection’s glow,
Love draws a cloud
From you to shroud
Rebellion’s mystery here below.

And since we see, and not afar,
The twilight of the great and dreadful day,
Why linger, till Elijah’s car
Stoop from the clouds? Why sleep ye? Rise and pray,
Ye heralds sealed
In camp or field
Your Saviour’s banner to display.

Where is the lore the Baptist taught,
The soul unswerving and the fearless tongue?
The much-enduring wisdom, sought
By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among?
Who counts it gain
His light should wane,
So the whole world to Jesus throng?

Thou Spirit, who the Church didst lend
Her eagle wings, to shelter in the wild,
We pray Thee, ere the Judge descend,
With flames like these, all bright and undefiled,
Her watch-fires light,
To guide aright
Our weary souls by earth beguiled.

So glorious let thy Pastors shine,
That by their speaking lives the world may learn
First filial duty, then divine,
That sons to parents, all to Thee may turn;
And ready prove
In fires of love,
At sight of Thee, for aye to burn.

As Wordsworth wrote in "London, 1802"--"Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:/England hath need of thee: . . .We are selfish men;/Oh! raise us up, return to us again;", Keble looks for someone like Saint Elijah or Saint John to revive the religious and moral spirit of the Church. I'm not sure what Keble means by the "season of decay" of the "fallen Church" or what two events he has in mind in the first stanza. Keble's pastoral concern is that the Church needs new prophets to encourage greater Christian love and fervor today.

As Keble traces the connections between the two saints in Heaven, he notes the contrast between them: Elijah was taken to Heaven in the whirlwind and chariot of fire, while John was imprisoned and martyred by beheading. He does refer to the scene of the Visitation, when John leapt in Elizabeth's womb at the presence of the Savior in His Mother's womb (Star of our morn,/Who yet unborn/Didst guide our hope . . .).

Keble wants Saint John to inspire a greater missionary fervor among Christians, to raise the "Saviour’s banner" and lead "the whole world to Jesus"--and he looks to the Holy Spirit to inspire the Pastors of the Church through "their speaking lives" (through example not just words) to guide families in greater duty and love, even in "fires of love" burning forever.

I think that Keble has too many images and parallels to balance throughout the poem with fires and eagles and clouds, but his zeal is obvious.

The zeal of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More was just as obvious in 1535! May they intercede for us on their feast and and every day to be as true and faithful!