St. Benedict's Monastery, Arcadia
Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST - 24.6.07 Is 49,1-6; Acts 13,22-26; Lk 1,57-66.80 Know the
purpose of your life Jesus’
and John’s Naming Today,
we celebrate the birth and naming of John the Baptist:
we take the story from Luke who describes with solemnity the ‘Naming
Ceremony’ of both Jesus and John. The
very name they receive, spells out - as in a ‘Mission Statement’ - the
purpose for which they were born and lived.
Luke - with his typical ‘diagonally across insights’ confronts and
asks us: have you discovered the ‘Name’ which describes the task that God
has allocated for you personally in his scheme of salvation?
John in Hebrew is Yo-ha-nan:
it’s not simply a noun to identify a person with.
It spells out the job he was born for.
It means: ‘Yahweh (God) is gracious and merciful’.
The same is true also for the name of Jesus.
Ye-shu-a
in Hebrew means: Yahweh (God) saves = Saviour (and ‘yeshuah
means salvation). For John
and Jesus the ‘naming’ ritual (Hebrew is “b’rit-milah”) was a solemn
celebration of the ‘Covenant of Circumcision’.
Then, they both received the special name, which had been imposed by God
at their conception. Diagonally
across, Luke is saying to us: do not treat this as a random story.
On the contrary, recognise the cultural connections and acknowledge the
hidden truth for you and for all. For
Jesus and for John - and indeed for each of us -
the truth is that we are called to discover and live out the role that
God has given us. Jesus (Yeshua)
in word and in deed is: ‘our God who saves us’, and as our ‘Saviour God’
he continues to draw us into God’s saving plan.
John - ‘Yohanan’ - is our model: in word and deed is ‘God’s
gracious gift’. (Few Authors and
RSV have derived John
from
Jehohanan,
which means ‘God was
gracious’ - to old Zachariah and Elizabeth, giving them a child much loved and
long awaited, but this is wrong. Jehohanan
is some one else in the Bible: God is gracious to us and to all always:
see Anchor Bible Vol,3,881) Become
what you are called Today
we are asked to reflect on the name Christian that was chosen for us, to see in
it our mission statement and express its meaning by what we say, do and become.
Let others be proud of their ‘religion’, we must be grateful,
informed and proud of the name “Christian and Catholic” that we carry.
John is our model: in name and in deeds he was “God’s precious
gift” and so are we, as we call ourselves ‘Christian’.
Like him we too are called to run ahead of the Lord, prepare the way for
him and be prophets of the Most High. Like
him we must welcome the coming of Christ - rejoice in being ‘a friend of the
bridegroom’ and point Him out to other people as ‘the lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world’. Like
him, we must go before Jesus ‘in the spirit and power of Elijah’ and must
bear courageous witness to Christ in our life as Baptised people who are
committed to the name of ‘Christian’. John
the Baptist challenges us with this question: to what extent and in what way, we
as individuals and as community, offer a ‘prophetic voice’ to the
unbelieving society in which we live? Way
back in 441AD, Pope Leo the Great, gave a famous sermon, to his Roman audience
about being proud of the name: ‘Christian, Christ-like and Christ-bearer
(Christopher)’. He said:
‘Acknowledge O Christian your awesome dignity……. You have a share in
God’s life……- are a member of Christ’s body - and through Baptism, you
are a temple of the Holy Spirit; and at a great price you’ve been bought by
the blood of Christ who has redeemed you in mercy….’
Today, ask yourself: how true am I to the name I bear? why leave it to Muslim or Buddhists to be proud of who they are, when I have so much to offer from my faith, conviction and history? The Yahweh God who ‘showed much favour and mercy’ to John the Baptist, calls me now to be a Christian in name and deed - to live what I am: one who takes Christ to the world ______________________________________ |
