Word to the Wise
Thursday, December 23, 2021 - December 23
[Mal 3:1-4, 23-24 and Luke 1:57-66]Thus says the Lord God: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. [Malachi] "What, then, will this child be?" For surely the hand of the Lord was with him." [Luke]
The child in question is not Jesus but John the Baptist! And we celebrate his nativity liturgically exactly six months before Jesus' nativity (June 24) in keeping with Gabriel's calculation! However, John has been a big theme in Advent as the herald of the coming of Christ, so he gets a couple of last appearances on the Advent stage. (The second is in the Canticle of Zechariah tomorrow, Dec. 24!) The prophecy of Malachi was easily seen by the early Christian community as foretelling John's ministry. (I was sorely tempted to get Handel's MESSIAH playing with the magnificent basso aria, "But who may abide..." followed by the choral aria, "And he shall purify.....") Indeed, in some nativity scenes, John the Baptist is one of the figurines, all dressed in animal skins (camel?).
All of this serves as a reminder that like most births, including Jesus' and John's, the matter is a group event. One simply cannot be born alone! The choir of angels, the shepherds, the Magi and, yes, even the animals in the stable are all called to witness God's intervention in history. And when we look upon the nativity scene, we are also called to bear witness to the Good News that John the Baptist was sent to herald! AMEN