June 24, 2009 Gospel

DAILY GOSPEL
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68


Wednesday, 24 June 2009
The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist - Solemnity

Today the Church celebrates : The Nativity of St. John the Baptist - Solemnity


Book of Isaiah 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.

Psalms 139(138):1-3.13-14.15.

For the leader. A psalm of David. I LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.
My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar.
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb.
I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew;
my bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth.


Acts of the Apostles 13:22-26.

Then he removed him and 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.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 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 of the day :


"John was not the light but came to testify to the light" (Jn 1,8)


The fact that John's birth is commemorated when the days begin to shorten and the Savior's when they begin to lengthen indicates a symbolic meaning. And indeed, John himself disclosed the hidden significance of this difference between them. The crowds were taking him to be the Christ on account of his outstanding virtues, whereas some were thinking of the Lord, not as Christ, but as a prophet because of the weakness of his bodily state. So John said: «He must increase, I must decrease» (Jn 3,30). Our Lord certainly increased since, while they were looking on him as a prophet, he made known to all believers in the whole world that he was the Christ. John decreased and grew less in that he who was taken for the Christ came to be seen, not as the Christ, but as the one who proclaimed the Christ.

And so it is natural that daylight begins to decrease after John's birth because his reputation for divinity is going to vanish and his baptism will soon disappear. It is equally natural that the brightness of the shortest days begins to increase following our Lord's birth: for, in truth, he came to earth to reveal the light of his knowledge to all the pagans, of which formerly only the Jews had possessed a part, and to shed abroad the fire of his love through all the earth.