When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
Elizabeth's neighbors and relatives had a plan for the child, a role planned out for him to play, in order to participate in the normal life of their community. But God had another plan, that he had communicated to Zechariah by the angel. This child was not a cog to be fit into whatever role seemed convenient to those around him. He was called from birth and named from his mother's womb. Rather than a cog or a mere component he was to be "a sharp-edged sword" concealed in the shadow of the arm of the Lord and a polished arrow hidden in his quiver. Fortunate, then, that although the relatives and neighbors of Elizabeth were all a little too eager for business as usual Elizabeth herself gave priority to what the Lord had asked.
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
Sometimes the Lord does call us to act in ways that seem to be without precedent, that are just a little too different from the status quo for comfort. The question for us is: which name we will prefer? If we insist on the familiar we will ultimately only reap familiar results. But if we allow the Lord to do the naming, and to establish a new identity rooted and grounded in him, there is no telling what the results might be.
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.
We don't share exactly in the punishment of silence that Zechariah endured. But we too find ourselves unable to truly say something new, to communicate something that matters, or seemingly anything besides our same old tired scripted routines. Our Church needs to be able to speak to the world in order to be the light of the nations it is meant to be so that salvation may reach the ends of the earth. Yet in recent years she seems to be all but silent, to have forgotten how to speak to the weary a word that will rose them. She is meant to have a voice that is prophetic but seems to only converse in the common language of this world. This is not an issue to be blamed primarily on members of the hierarchy, on the Pope or those bishops of whom we disapprove. It is because we ourselves have become as complacent as the relatives and neighbors of Elizabeth that we face this challenge. And the way forward is clear, just as it was then. We must allow the Lord to speak something new in us. We must be willing to set aside old identities for the new name he has for each of us.
To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it (see Revelation 2:17).
How much does the Church in our own day need prophetic men and women who can address the world in the spirit of John the Baptist, who are bold enough to proclaim the Lord Jesus, but humble enough to insist: "I am not he"! Yet though this call is exciting it is not without challenges. Like John, we may reach a point about which we say, "I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength" but here too we know the solution. Even the greatest of prophetic gifts tends to falter when connection with Jesus is not maintained. When the challenges we face feel like a prison we can send the messengers of our prayers to reestablish in us the conviction about who Jesus is that, the same conviction that motivated John himself.
And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me (se Luke 7:21-23).
John was the greatest of those prior to the Kingdom. But if the least of those within it are in any sense greater than he (see Matthew 11:11), imagine what could possible! A veritable army of children preparing the way for the Lord could arise and create a stir just as John did in that desert long ago. Surely then the Church would regain her voice and the world would attend eagerly to her words.
No comments:
Post a Comment