59 On the eighth day, they came to do the child’s b’rit-milah. They were about to name him Z’kharyah, after his father, 60 when his mother spoke up and said, “No, he is to be called Yochanan.” 61 They said to her, “None of your relatives has that name,” 62 and they made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. 63 He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is Yochanan.” 64 At that moment, his power of speech returned, and his first words were a b’rakhah to God. 65 All their neighbors were awestruck; and throughout the hill country of Y’hudah, people talked about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard of them said to himself, “What is this child going to be?” For clearly the hand of Adonai was with him.
80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the wilderness until the time came for him to appear in public to Isra’el.
The Nativity of Saint John the BaptistImmediately his mouth was opened. (Luke 1:64)
Like most births, the birth of John the Baptist is more about the parents than the child. It’s a story about God’s grace and human faith overoming doubt. Zechariah and the Virgin Mary reacted similarly when the angel Gabriel announced what was going to happen. They both asked, “How can this be?” But they asked with different attitudes.
Mary’s was a sincere question. She wanted to understand the mind of God. Zechariah’s question was more of a challenge arising from doubt. It’s as if he told the angel, “It just isn’t going to happen; my wife is too old.”
But that’s not the end of the story. Zechariah’s doubts began to fade when Elizabeth became pregnant. They subsided even more when he heard that the baby leapt in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s greeting. Zechariah saw these things, and he was changed.
When the baby was born, Zechariah named him John, the name the angel gave him. Then, filled with the Holy Spirit, Zechariah broke out in song and blessed God. Then turning to his newborn son, he said, “You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge ofsalvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:76-77).
If that’s not a transformation from doubt to faith, then what is?
We are all like Zechariah. We all tend to favor limited human logic over trust in God’s promises and his power. Most of us do not expect to see miracles. Deep inside we say, “It just isn’t going to happen.” But Jesus wants us to believe in miracles and to be open to their possibilities. What Jesus told Thomas, he wants to tell all of us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29).
So expect miracles. Start small, and see how your faith grows. The next time you go to Mass, for instance, ask God to give you a deeper sense of peace and confidence in him. That’s a miracle, isn’t it? Slowly but surely, you’ll find miracles happening all around you!
“Jesus, I believe in miracles.” Amen!
Isaiah 49:1 Coastlands, listen to me;
listen, you peoples far away:
Adonai called me from the womb;
before I was born, he had spoken my name.
2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword
while hiding me in the shadow of his hand;
he has made me like a sharpened arrow
while concealing me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Isra’el, through whom I will show my glory.”
4 But I said, “I have toiled in vain,
spent my strength for nothing, futility.”
Yet my cause is with Adonai,
my reward is with my God.
5 So now Adonai says —
he formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Ya‘akov back to him,
to have Isra’el gathered to him,
so that I will be honored in the sight of Adonai,
my God having become my strength —
6 he has said, “It is not enough
that you are merely my servant
to raise up the tribes of Ya‘akov
and restore the offspring of Isra’el.
I will also make you a light to the nations,
so my salvation can spread to the ends of the earth.”
Psalm 139:(0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
3 you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
13 For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Acts 13:22 God removed him and raised up David as king for them, making his approval known with these words, ‘I found David Ben-Yishai to be a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want.’[Acts 13:22 Psalm 89:21(20); 1 Samuel 13:14]
23 “In keeping with his promise, God has brought to Isra’el from this man’s descendants a deliverer, Yeshua. 24 Now before the coming of Yeshua, Yochanan proclaimed to all the people of Isra’el an immersion in connection with turning to God from sin. 25 But as Yochanan was ending his work, he said, ‘Who do you suppose I am? Well — I’m not! But after me is coming someone, the sandals of whose feet I am unworthy to untie.’
26 “Brothers! — sons of Avraham and those among you who are ‘God-fearers’! It is to us that the message of this deliverance has been sent!
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment