Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 6-24-02, Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist

Reading I
Is 49:1-6

Hear me, O coastlands
listen, O distant peoples.
The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother's womb he gave me my name.
He made of me a sharp-edged sword
and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.
He made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me.
You are my servant, he said to me,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.

Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 139:1-3, 13-14, 14-15

R. (14a) I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
O LORD you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother's womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.
R. I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
My soul also you knew full well;
nor was my frame unknown to you
when I was made in secret,
when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.
R. I praise you for I am wonderfully made.

Reading II
Acts 13:22-26

In those days, Paul said:
"God raised up David as their king;
of him he testified,
'I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;
he will carry out my every wish.'
From this man's descendants God, according to his promise,
has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.
John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel;
and as John was completing his course, he would say,
'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.'

"My brothers, children of the family of Abraham,
and those others among you who are God-fearing,
to us this word of salvation has been sent."

Gospel
Lk 1:57-66, 80

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
"No. He will be called John."
But they answered her,
"There is no one among your relatives who has this name."
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name,"
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
"What, then, will this child be?"
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

The child grew and became strong in spirit,
and he was in the desert until the day
of his manifestation to Israel.

Commentary:

59. Circumcision was a rite established by God under the Old Covenant
to mark out those who belonged to His chosen people: He commanded
Abraham to institute circumcision as a sign of the Covenant He had made
with him and all his descendants (cf. Genesis 17:10-14), prescribing
that it should be done on the eighth day after birth. The rite was
performed either at home or in the synagogue, and, in addition to the
actual circumcision, the ceremony included prayers and the naming of
the child.

With the institution of Christian Baptism the commandment to circumcise
ceased to apply. At the Council of Jerusalem (cf. Acts 15:1ff), the
Apostles definitely declared that those entering the Church had no need
to be circumcised.

St. Paul's explicit teaching on the irrelevance of circumcision in the
context of the New Alliance established by Christ is to be found in
Galatians 5:2ff; 6:12ff; and Colossians 2:11ff.

60-63. By naming the child John, Zechariah complies with the
instructions God sent him through the angel (Luke 1:13).

64. This miraculous event fulfills the prophecy the angel Gabriel made
to Zechariah when he announced the conception and birth of the Baptist
(Luke 1:19-20). St. Ambrose observes: `With good reason was his tongue
loosed, because faith untied what had been tied by disbelief"
("Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam. in loc.").

Zechariah's is a case similar to that of St. Thomas, who was reluctant
to believe in the resurrection of our Lord, and who believed only when
Jesus gave him clear proof (cf. John 20:24-29). For these two men God
worked a miracle and won their belief; but normally He requires us to
have faith and to obey Him without His working any new miracles. This
was why He upbraided Zechariah and punished him, and why He reproached
Thomas: "Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those
who have not seen and yet believe" (John 20:29).

80. "Wilderness": this must surely refer to the "Judean wilderness" which
stretches from the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea to the hill
country of Judea. It is not a sand desert but rather a barren steppe
with bushes and basic vegetation which suit bees and grasshoppers or wild
locusts. It contains many caves which can provide shelter.

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