My Dear Friends,

Let us consider the birth of John the Baptist. "Now the time came for Elizabeth to delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her” (Luke 1:57-58). The time came to give him a name. They wanted to call him Zechariah according to his father's name. His mother intervened and said, “Not so; he shall be called John” (Luke 1:60). People were surprised at this, because none of his kindred were named John.

Since Luke writes that they used signs, we know that Zechariah was not able to speak, but it seems clear that he was not able to hear, that he was deaf and dumb. So they used signs and asked him what he wanted the child to be called. "And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote the words, 'His name is John.’ And they marveled, And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God” (Luke 1:63-64). And people wondered, "What will this child be?" (Of course, they did not know that he was to be the messenger of the Lord).

Zechariah burst out into song in praise of God. We see this beautiful song of Zechariah in Luke 1:67-79. Zechariah is just “bubbling” inside, pondering all that the angel Gabriel had told him. Elizabeth, his wife, advanced in years has given birth to a son who will prepare the way of the Lord. This is why he really has so much to say. He exclaims, “Blessed be the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68). 

We see the depth of Zechariah’s thoughts. Zechariah knows what is coming. He knows that the Lord is going to move in a very different way. The Lord is really coming to bless Israel in a way that Zechariah as a priest has never seen in his lifetime. The Lord “has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (Luke 1:69) as he promised through the mouth of his holy one. So here again Zechariah is telling us that his son, John is very special. Zechariah knows the relationship between his son and the Messiah, and he knows that the promise made to David, the promise made to Abraham is going to be fulfilled in a special way, the promises that were made through the mouth of his holy one the prophets of ancient times. We can really conclude that since the time of the visit of the angel Gabriel, that Zechariah spent a lot of time praying, thinking, and just simply looking at scripture to see what was the plan of God. 

So this special blessing then is going to be a “salvation” from our enemies, from the hands of all our foes. We can imagine that Zechariah was not aware of how this would be, but he knew that it was “salvation” that was being brought. He knew that the people had been expecting the Messiah for a long time, and of course, Zechariah like others probably thought that the key was to free Israel from the Roman invaders, but he knew this was different. The Lord would fulfill His promises in a very unique way. 

In the canticle of Zechariah, he speaks of the "mercy of God". He dealt mercifully with our fathers. So many times in history the Hebrews turned away from God, and broke His covenant and laws. The Lord kept loving them, helping them, and blessing them. Zechariah remembers the holy covenant that He made. God is faithful to His promises, even if time and time again we're not faithful. God is faithful. He remembers the oath that God swore to Abraham, “ to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74-75). So we see Zechariah is proclaiming all these wonderful things that he is expecting from the Lord. 

When Zechariah was visited by the angel Gabriel, he was told of some very special things about John the Baptist. The angel said that this son would be very different, "he will be great before the Lord and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:15-17). It is apparent that since the time of the visit of the angel, Zechariah had been in prayer and meditation and definitely as a priest studying scriptures trying to understand what it is that the Lord was about to do. He concludes in the canticle “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;” (Luke 1:76). That is what John the Baptist is going to be, "the Prophet of the Most High". 

How is he going to act? What kind of a prophet will he be? He shall go before the Lord to prepare straight paths for Him. This is really the message of John the Baptist, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straighten the road, straighten the path. Zechariah knew what John the Baptist was about to do, to give his people a knowledge of salvation. John the Baptist is a prophet who constantly pointed the way toward Jesus. "There is the Lamb of God" he would say. John the Baptist was advising people to break away from their sins, and do penance because the kingdom of God is at hand. 

So we see clearly that Zechariah was proclaiming what the mission of his son would be. He had picked that up both from the angel and from his study of scripture, and definitely because he was also filled with the Holy Spirit, (Luke 1:67) that he was again prophesying what his son was going to be, the role he was going to play in ushering in the coming of the Messiah. “The day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace;” (Luke 1:79) The last word is such a beautiful prayer and leads us to joyful news, to entrust ourselves to the Lord. Zechariah knows that people will be pulled out of the darkness and brought into the light. 

The canticle of Zechariah is one of the very beautiful songs of the church. Note that the church in the Divine office "Prayer of the Christians," recites this prayer of Zechariah every morning, followed by the Magnificat, the song of Mary every night and at evening the prayer of Simeon. These are three key songs of the church, said everyday for centuries. 

After Zechariah names John, he was able to speak and proclaim the greatness and the goodness of the Lord for the rest of his life. The bible concluded the story by saying very simply, “And the child grew and became strong in spirit and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel” (Luke 1:80). 

Here again we see the parallel between John the Baptist and Jesus. After Jesus' birth and his appearance at the temple at the age of twelve, he was in near seclusion; he remained hidden until his public life. The birth of John the Baptist stirred great curiosity, and then he lived in the desert between Jerusalem and his town of Ain Karem, somewhat concealed until his public life began. We see that parallel between John and Jesus Christ in that both were working together in bringing salvation into the world, but John’s mission was a time of preparation. 

Heavenly Father we thank you for the wonderful way Jesus Christ came into the world. And we thank you for Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John the Baptist.