Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
(Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 13:22-26; Luke 1:57-66.80)
A man in his second career was having a “mountaintop
experience.” His wife had just given birth
to their first child. He looked at the
baby and recognized his replacement. Or so
it seemed at the moment. God-loving people
will allow the possibility of the Lord’s shaping the destiny of their progeny
in ways unthought of.
Elizabeth and Zachariah prove themselves such people in
today’s gospel. For years they have
waited for their newborn. Like the
people surrounding them, they had probably presumed that he would be called “Zachariah”
and follow in his father’s career path.
But when it all happened, they were aware enough of God’s hand in their
son’s becoming to name their son “John” as the Lord indicated to them.
John did not follow his father as a priest, but he did manifest
his father’s submission to God’s authority.
He had thought that the Messiah would purify the people with fire so to
speak. Then he met Jesus and recognized in
him another kind of saving power. John gave
up his pretension of how the Messiah would fulfill his promise. In John’s eyes Jesus was the lamb and not the
lion of God.
We too should align our hopes and expectations with the Lord’s. Our lives, after all, are not about ourselves
but about Him. This may mean a career
change when we enjoy what we are doing.
It certainly necessitates our following His commands and not our own
instincts and feelings. We do it for Him who will compensate us more
than we imagine.
