On this Second Sunday of Advent, the figure of St John the Baptist bursts onto the scene. As St Matthew gives no details of his origins, we must turn to St Luke, who tells us that he is the cousin of Jesus: six months his senior. John’s birth was foretold, and his name given to Zechariah his father by the angel Gabriel, who proclaimed that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb. In Elizabeth’s womb John leaps at the presence of Jesus, who is in Mary’s womb. John becomes strong in the spirit, and then “was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel”.