He wants us all to see our need for personal repentance and speak it to others. Sister, we are all called to be like Saint John the Baptist-for the Lord has truly formed all of us in the secret depths and given us a name through our parents. Like Saint John the Baptist, surely the hand of the Lord is with me. As I child I wondered at what I might grow up to be and as an adult I wonder at what God has led me to do. They helped me see that God has a special purpose for my life, unique to whom He created me to be. The other readings are more clearly about Saint John the Baptist, but since they were read on my birthday, I always felt that they applied to me. My mom always emphasized to me how God knew and loved me, watching over me as I grew inside her for nine months.
“Truly you have formed my inmost being you knit me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). I loved to recall the story of my parents deciding before I was born to name me “Susanna” and then at Mass that same day hearing the Gospel about the woman Susanna who followed Jesus (Luke 8:3). “The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name” (Isaiah 49:1). In fact, she still texts me snippets of the readings on my birthday.
After Mass, Mom and I discussed the readings that are read every year on my birthday, which I share with the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. My heart swelled with happiness: it was my tenth birthday, and I got to go with my mom to her usual daily Mass. The summer sun was already hot in the sky as my mom and I walked up the block to the seven o’clock morning Mass.
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