RBWords

    Story-telling can require both the teller and the listener to engage in creative telling and listening!  The gospel scripture featured today is not about the birth of Jesus but about the birth of John the Baptist, which is celebrated, of course, on June 24 six months before the birth of Jesus.  cf Luke 1:36.  Yet, two days before the feast of the nativity of Jesus, here we are reflecting on the birth of John the Baptist!  The lives of Jesus and John are connected early in Luke's story and seem to stay connected till the strange death of John at the hands of Herod some thirty years or more later.  cf. Luke 4:23   Jesus explicitly identifies John the Baptist as the messenger mentioned in Malachi, quoted above.  cf. Luke 7:18-35.  So, even though his birthday was six months ago, we get a "reminder" in the liturgical story-telling that John the Baptist is not to be forgotten!  At the same time, we should notice that there's only ONE baby in the manger scene!

     As with all good story-telling there are multiple levels of meaning.  Keeping John the Baptist in the story at this early point is a way of reminding us that there is a bigger picture than the scene at Bethlehem.  If the "infancy narratives," as scripture scholars tell us, are really "mini-gospels," then even in birth John the Baptist is the herald of someone of greater importance.  All of this may require that we enter the story with the imagination of childhood and juggle the time sequences without worrying much about logical consistency.  We can celebrate John the Baptist today and be glad.  AMEN