Staying on course, the path laid out by the Lord for His Will be done!
Wonder and awe of His goodness will follow all the days of our lives as we remain faithful in following His Will for us.
Is this path that we take for our Lord easy? Far from it!
For apart from facing external forces in the world, we have to face our own well intentioned family and friends who may try to convince us to take another path. An often tempting easier one, which leads us nowhere or to one that bears no fruit. In today’s Gospel we hear how family and friends were planning to name St John, ‘Zechariah’ after his father and even tried to convince John’s mother otherwise when she spoke up that he was to be named John.
“But no one in your family has that name” sounds subtle enough but is in actual fact a loud outcry! In this day and age the same voices and outcries are not so subtle but piercing and some even derogatory. Staying the course as we see in today’s Gospel, led everyone to astonishment and wonder of the Lord’s hand in the lives of His faithful.
St John the Baptist was chosen to prepare the way of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born! (Luke 1:15) He went on to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers. He led many to the water baptism of repentance thus leading on their way to reconciliation with God our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ His only begotten Son. Who will fully reconcile them through the forgiveness of their sins.
See how wonderful it is when we stay the course our Lord has set for us! We become powerful instruments of His grace for others. Amen
First reading
Malachi 3:1-4,23-24 ·
Before my day comes, I will send you Elijah my prophet
The Lord God says this: Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made. The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by the Lord as in former days, as in the years of old.
Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day. He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.
Gospel
Luke 1:57-66
‘His name is John’
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.
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.
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