Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 24th June
Message from Fr Paul for Thursday, 24th June 2021
Our Chapter meeting is going well and we seem to be on target to finish by lunchtime today, all things being equal. On behalf of the Community, I would like to thank you all for your prayers. I’m sure they have made a great difference. There is no force more powerful than prayer, especially when, as a Church, we pray together. This is why Jesus taught his disciples to say “Our Father” and not “My Father.” Please pray for us again today as we conclude our deliberations and make our final decisions.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of St John the Baptist. Apart from Jesus himself, the only other saint whose birthday we celebrate is Our Lady. Reading the first chapter of Luke we see that the Infancy Narratives of Jesus and John are linked together, not simply because they were probably related, but because their lives and ministries are intimately intertwined, John being the Forerunner, Baptist and personal Prophet of Jesus, the one called by God to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah. Elizabeth, his mother, had remained childless into her old age, but God looked with mercy upon her and granted her the gift of a child. Luke takes up the story, (Lk 1: 57-66, 80). “The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.” Joy is one of the characteristics of Luke’s Gospel. The annunciation of John’s conception has been made by the angel of the Lord to Zechariah, his father, and it is the angel who tells him that he must name the boy John, a name that means ‘the Lord has been gracious.” In addition, Zechariah has been struck dumb. But let’s read on.
“Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. ‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘But no one in your family has that name’, and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ they wondered. And indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.” It was the custom in Israel at the time of Jesus, as it is in many cultures and societies today, to name children after their parents and grandparents, so there is consternation when Elizabeth declares at his circumcision that the child is to be named John. Zechariah is consulted and writes the name given by the angel on a writing tablet. With that act of obedience, his speech returns. Their neighbours are filled with awe and the events surrounding John’s birth become the talk of folk in the hill country of Judaea. As Mary at the manger, watching the infant Jesus, treasures the events of his birth in her heart, so these good people treasure the birth of John the Baptist. Wonder and awe will surround John throughout his life, as he preaches a message of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. For now, “the hand of the Lord is with him.” Luke then declares, “Meanwhile the child grew up and his spirit matured. And he lived out in the wilderness until the day he appeared openly to Israel.” Enigmatic and eccentric as he might appear to be, John the Baptist is one of the key figures in the Gospel, throughout the New Testament, in the Bible as a whole and in the history of the Church.
A question worth asking ourselves today. What does the birth and life of John the Baptist have to say to me and am I prepared the listen?
