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Sunday Scripture Study

Nativity of John the Baptist - Cycles A, B & C

(Mass During the Day)

June 24, 2012

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Opening Prayer

First Reading: Isaiah 49:1-6

Psalm: 139:1b-3, 13-15

Second Reading: Acts 13:22-26

Gospel Reading: Luke 1:57-66, 80

The beginning of the story of John the Baptist (whose birth we celebrate today) goes back to the first verses of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:5-25). The angel Gabriel appears to the aged priest Zechariah and announces to him that his wife Elizabeth will have a son in their old age who will be the one to herald the coming of the long awaited Messiah.

That the Messiah would have a forerunner that would prepare God’s people to receive their Messiah was also prophesied in the Old Testament, most notably in Malachi 3, verses 1 and 23. (NAB).

The angel tells Zechariah that the child will “be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah and to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” (Luke 1:15-17). Because Zechariah greets this good news with doubt, he is stricken speechless until the time the promised son will be born.

This Sunday’s Gospel picks up the story (after the events of the Annunciation and Visitation, Luke 1:26-56) when the time for the birth of John had arrived.

QUESTIONS:

The 1^st Reading is most often applied to the Messiah; however, the Church applies it in today’s liturgy to John the Baptist. Considering the Gospel reading and what you know of John the Baptist, in what ways can you say it can also apply to the precursor of Jesus?

How did John’s birth fulfill the words of the angel in Luke 1:13-17?

How did the neighbors and relatives respond to these events? How does this all begin to promote the Gospel?

Toward the end of the Gospel reading, the people ask the question, “What, then, will this child be?” (verse 65). As Zechariah’s neighbor, what would you think about his son? What would be your answer to this question?

Time permitting, read Zechariah’s Canticle found in verses 67-79. What, according to this canticle, is the purpose of salvation? How does it show God’s unfolding plan from Old Testament days to the coming of the Messiah? Of the promises listed in this song, which one means the most to you? Why?

Catechism of the Catholic Church: §§ 523, 535, 717-720

Rightly also, from that moment was his [Zechariah’s] tongue loosed for that which unbelief had bound, faith set free. Let us then also believe, in order that our tongue, which has been bound by the chains of unbelief, may be loosed by the voice of reason. Let us write mysteries by the Spirit if we wish to speak. Let us write the forerunner of Christ, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart. For he who names John [the Baptist], prophesies Christ. --St. Ambrose

Zechariah Loses His Voice

Pastor’s Column

Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist

June 24, 2012

“Immediately his power of speech returned, and he spoke blessing God.”

Luke 1:64

Have you ever received a vision of an angel? When Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, saw the Archangel Gabriel, it literally left him speechless! It is interesting to note the differences between what happened when the Virgin Mary received this same angel, and when Zechariah did: Mary expressed faith and said “yes,” to God, while Zechariah expressed doubt that Elizabeth and he could still have a child as an elderly couple. He didn’t say, “No,” but expressed doubt, even when he saw.

Zechariah must have been having a good day up to that point. He was a priest, chosen by lot to be the one priest that day (out of thousands) to offer the incense in what was called the “Holy” of the Temple (the inside of the building). Outside, all the people waited and prayed. It was precisely at this moment Gabriel appeared to announce the “good news” of God’s will. John the Baptist was on his way, no matter how impossible it might seem.

It is interesting to note the reaction of Gabriel to Zechariah’s lack of faith, for the scriptures call him “a righteous man.” Yet God seems to have asked him to go beyond his comfort zone, beyond where his faith would permit. The archangel seems genuinely put off by Zechariah’s lack of faith! To paraphrase: “Do you realize what a grace you have received in hearing an angel who is in the presence of God? How can you have a reaction like this?” And Zechariah loses the power of speech until the child is born.

God has a mission for each of us in life. Most of us do not receive our instructions directly from the hands of an angel, but our role in the immediate world around us is no less important to God. Because we are not so privileged as to see and hear angels telling us God’s will, he expects us to obey the scriptures, the church, and our conscience. We are to discern the Will of God in the present moment as is dictated by the persons and circumstances we encounter on a daily basis. If God delivers his will in such a way that there is no room for doubt (like a visible angel), we are really on the hook. But because we normally must discern his will in faith, without seeing clearly all the implications of it, we are given a whole lifetime to make our choices in life – for or against God.

Zechariah used his time of silence well. He was speechless for nine months, but far from resenting it, he profited by reflecting on God’s will, especially after his wife conceived. We know this because the first words out of his mouth were to praise God and his will! When we break our silence to praise God, we are, like Zechariah, saying “yes’ to God, even though we may have had our doubts at the beginning.

Father Gary