The Nativity of John the Baptist by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B. In these few lines Isaias implicitly refers to the announcement of Christ’s coming: the application here made by the Church to St. John Baptist once more shows us how closely the Messias is united with his precursor in the work of the redemption. Rome, once capital of the Gentile world, now mother of Christendom, delights in proclaiming, on this day, to the sons whom the Spouse has given her, the consoling prophecy which was addressed to them before she herself was founded upon the seven hills, Eight hundred years before the birth of John and the Messias, a voice had been heard on Sion, and, reaching beyond the frontiers of Jacob, had re-echoed along those distant coasts where sin’s darkness held mankind in the thralldom of hell: “Give ear, ye islands; and hearken, ye people from afar!” It was the voice of him who was to come, and of the angel deputed to walk before him, the voice of John and of the Messias, proclaiming the one predestination common to them both, which, as servant and as Master, made them to be objects of the same eternal decree. And this voice, after having hailed the privilege which would designate them, though diversely, from the maternal womb, as objects of complacency to the Almighty, went on to utter the divine oracle which was to be promulgated, in other terms, over their cradles by the ministry of Zachary and of angels. “And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel,” who will not hearken to thee, and of whom thou shalt bring back but a small remnant. “Behold I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayest by my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth”; to make up for the scant welcome my people shall have given thee, “kings shall see, and princes shall rise up,” at thy word, “and adore for the Lord’s sake, because he is faithful, and for the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee” as the negotiator of his alliance. Children of the Bridegroom, let us enter into this thought; let us understand what ought to be the gratitude of us Gentiles to him to whom all flesh is indebted for its knowledge of the Redeemer. From the wilderness, where his voice stung the pride of the descendants of the patriarchs, he beheld us succeeding to the haughty Synagogue; without minimizing the divine exactions, his stern language, when addressed to the Bridegroom’s chosen ones, assumed a tone of consideration which it never had for the Jews. “Ye offspring of vipers,” said he to these latter, “who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of penance, and do not begin to say: We have Abraham for our father. For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For in your case, already is the axe laid to the root of the tree. Every tree, therefore, that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire.” But to the despised publican, to the hated soldier, to all those parched hearts of the Gentile world, hard and arid as the desert rock, John the Baptist announced a flow of grace that would refresh their dried-up souls making them fruitful in justice: Ye publicans, do nothing more than what is appointed you, by the exigencies of the tax-laws; ye soldiers, be content with your pay. The law was given by Moses; but better is grace; grace and truth come by Jesus Christ whom I declare unto you; he it is who taketh away the sins of the world, and of his fullness we have all received. What a new horizon was here opened out before these objects of reproach, held aloof so long by Israel’s scorn! But in the eyes of the Synagogue, such a blow aimed at Juda’s pretended privilege was a crime. She had borne the biting invectives of this son of Zachary; she had even, at one moment, shown herself ready to hail him as the Christ; but she who vaunted herself as pure, to be invited to go hand in hand with the unclean Gentile—she could never submit to that; from that moment John was judged by her as his Master would be afterwards. Later on, Jesus will insist upon the difference of welcome given to the Precursor by those who listened to him. He will even make it the basis of his sentence of reprobation pronounced against the Jews: “Amen I say to you, that the publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you; for John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and harlots believed him: but you seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.”
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 17:52:11 +0000
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