Isaiah 49:1–6
Acts 13:22–26
Luke 1:57–66, 80
When we first hear this story of John the Baptist’s birth, we easily recognize the main characters: namely Zechariah, Elizabeth and, of course, their newborn child whom they name John. Indeed these people stand out. But if we listen closely we will hear also what the film world calls the supporting actors. It might be well to remember that in some cases the supporting actors get the reward. Among the supporting actors today are the neighbors and relatives of Zechariah and Elizabeth. And perhaps they give us a real clue as to what is happening in the story. And perhaps they are our entrance into the story. After all, we are not John nor his parents. But today we are those who are present to the events.
Unknowingly perhaps, it is the neighbors and relatives who give the real title to the story. They recognize that this is a story of mercy. They hear in this birth story that God has shown mercy to the aging Elizabeth. And this brings them joy. What are we about on this birthday but recognizing that the mercy of God has broken into the world. It has appeared in an unlikely place. It has come at the end of a couple’s life, not in their first fervor of love or youth. It has come when we would all say it is impossible. God’s mercy has arrived in the midst of a life time of shame for Elizabeth…her identity on the outside is as a barren women, passed over by others. Perhaps even been considered cursed. Now God has shown his face and she has given birth to a son.
God’s mercy comes at a time and a situation when we least expect it. We must give credit to these supporting actors. They hear and confirm that God’s mercy is visible and they give us the model of response to this mercy: rejoicing. They set the tone for the event. This is a day of joy. It may look simple and even backwater..an old woman in the hill country gives birth to a son when nature and humans have said impossible. They are happy for her. Being happy for someone else’s blessing, how wonderfule.
For you and I this birth is part of the great story of God being faithful to his covenant. God’s fidelity looks like love shown in dire straits. And we, we rejoice at this visibility of God’s love. This child means that God can transform a dying age and bring new life out of it. Our God’s mercy is precisely at work when things look the worse and even when we neighbors and relatives have written people and situations off, as dead ends. But John comes as a sign that says, yes, I am the last of the prophets because a new age has come, a new prophet is coming. I may be the last but the last will usher in the first, the new. The last is not without fidelity, patience and hope. It is out of the last, the end of the line that a new beginning is created.
But the neighbors and relatives also don’t quite get the whole picture. Yet, their role is to provoke the main characters of Elizabeth and Zachariah to open their mouths and speak. They push them to identify what is really happening here. When all is said and done, it is their child at the center of the stage. And these old people, they know who this child is. Neighbors and friends what to give a name to the child that corresponds to tradition. They want the child to be the next of kin; they want to make sure that the child is part of a human family no matter how miraculous his birth. But the quiet and reticent old man breaks his silence. He speaks what he knows. So he and Elizabeth complete what the neighbors intuit. They speak the name; they give identity to this child: John is his name.
In the name of the child is the name of God and who God is and what God does. John means “God is gracious”. The child’s identity is given by God, it is a revelation of who God is and what God does. God’s graciousness, God’s love and kindness has begun to enter into the world. John the Baptist is the precursor of God’s final act of love to come in his Son. But today God lets us know that light is shining in the darkness of the world; it comes like first rays.
When Zechariah does break his silence, he tells us very poetically what is happening in this apparently insignificant birth in the hill country. We know his words so well because we sing them every morning: The tender compassion of our God is dawning, breaking upon us. It will shine where there is darkness and death. God’s compassion is dawning so that you and I can rise and walk. The light is coming so that the way of forgiveness and peace open up for us. Our fears are laid aside to hear and find the graciousness that is being born each day. The name of the child heralds a new view of the world and of our God in that world. No wonder Zechariah says, “Blessed be God.”
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB