23 December 2024
Homily
In his Gospel, Saint Luke establishes a rigorous parallel between John the Baptist and Jesus. He says of both Elizabeth and Mary: "When the time came for her to give birth, she bore a son". In the case of John, it was the neighbors who came to rejoice with the mother and child; in the case of Jesus, it was first the shepherds and then the Magi. Zechariah, like Joseph, has a somewhat understated role. With John, as with Jesus, we wonder ‘ what this child will be like ’. Both had a long preparation - John in the desert, Jesus in Nazareth - before a fairly short public life.
The first reading of today's Mass draws a parallel with the birth of Samuel. The saints, whether from the Old Testament or the New, are not simply models to be admired from afar. Rather, they are people who reveal to us, each in his or her own way, what we are called to become.
Each of us can say, like the Servant in the Book of Isaiah: ‘ I was still in my mother's womb when the Lord called me ’. This is first and foremost the fundamental and universal call to be children of God, even before it is the call to be witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus, or to this or that form of life in the Church. Each of us can also say: ‘ I am precious in the eyes of the Lord ’. And we can add, without pride, that the Lord has also said to us: ‘ I will make you the light of the nations “, because it is to all of us that Jesus has given the mission of being ” the salt of the earth and the light of the world ’. How can we do this? -- By being, through our lives, a living manifestation of the merciful love of the Lord who loves us despite all our limitations and even despite our sins. David, as he is described to us in the Bible, was no ‘altar boy’; and yet Paul tells us that he was a man after God's own heart - a humble man, always ready to receive forgiveness.
Of each of us, as of John, we can say: ‘ God's hand is upon him ’. To put it another way, we are in God's hand; or, to use a completely anthropomorphic image, we can say that one of God's hands is supporting us and the other is on us, so that we are nestled between his two hands. These somewhat naïve images express a deeper conviction: that our security is total, because it rests on the Almighty. We have nothing to fear, whatever happens to us, so that we can, like John the Baptist, be free beings - totally free, who don't have to prove anything to themselves -- or to others -- and who can therefore remain silent, in the desert, for as long as possible, and speak without fear, even strongly and even to the great ones of this world, when the Truth demands it.
Let us ask God, for each one of us, for the humility and freedom that characterized John the Baptist.