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Sacred Scriptures/Liturgy- Commentary on Sunday's Readings |
He will be called John
Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, Pontifical Household Preacher
www.zenit.org
Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 13:22-26;
Luke 1:57-66,80
This year the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist is
celebrated in the place of the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This is
an ancient feast that goes back to the fourth Century.
Why June 24? In announcing the birth of Christ to Mary, the angel
tells her that her cousin Elizabeth is in her sixth month. So, John
the Baptist had to be born six months before Jesus and in this way
the chronology is respected.
The reason why it is June 24 instead of June 25 is because of the
ancient way of calculating, which was according to calends, ides and
nones. Naturally, these dates have a liturgical and symbolic value
rather than a historic one. We do not know the exact day and year of
Jesus' birth and so we do not know exactly when John was born
either.
The devotion to John the Baptist spread rapidly and many churches
throughout the world were dedicated to him. There have been 23 Popes
who have taken his name. To the last one, John XXIII, the phrase
from the fourth Gospel has been applied: "There came a man sent by
God and his name was John." Few know that the seven musical notes --
do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti -- have something to do with John the
Baptist. They are derived from the first seven syllables of the
first strophe of a liturgical hymn composed in his honor.
The passage from Sunday's Gospel reading talks about the choice of
the name John. But what we hear in the first reading and the psalm
is also important. The first reading, from Isaiah, says: "The Lord
called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name. He
made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his
arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me."
The psalm returns to this idea, namely, that God knows us from our
mother's womb: "Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me
in my mother's womb.... When I was being made in secret, fashioned
as in the depths of the earth. Your eyes foresaw my actions."
We have a very reductive and juridical idea of the person that
causes a lot of confusion in the debate over abortion. It seems that
a child acquires the dignity of a person only when this is
recognized by human authorities.
For the Bible the person is he who is known by God, he who God calls
by name; and God, we are assured, knows us from our mother's womb,
his eyes saw us when we were still being fashioned in the womb.
Science tells us that in the embryo the whole human being who will
be is becoming, projected in each tiny detail; to this our faith
adds that what we have is not some unknown project of nature but a
project of the creator's love. St. John the Baptist's mission is
entirely traced out before his birth: "And you, child, will be
called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to
prepare his ways."
The Church holds that John the Baptist was already sanctified in his
mother's womb by the presence of Christ. That is why she celebrates
the feast of his birth. This gives us an occasion to touch on a
delicate problem, which has become acute today because of the
millions of babies who, above all because of the frightening spread
of abortion, die without receiving baptism. What are we to say of
them? Are they also in some way sanctified in the womb of their
mother? Is there salvation for them?
My answer is without hesitation: Certainly there is salvation for
them. The risen Christ says of them too: "Let the children come to
me." According to an opinion that has become common since the Middle
Ages, unbaptized children go to limbo, an intermediate place in
which there is no suffering nor is there the enjoyment of the vision
of God.
But what we have here is an idea that has never been defined by the
Church as a truth of faith. It was a hypothesis of theologians that,
in light of the development of Christian conscience and the
understanding of Scripture, we can no longer maintain.
When I expressed this opinion of mine a while ago in one of these
commentaries, there were various reactions. Some expressed their
gratitude to me for taking this position which lifted a weight from
their heart; others reproved me for abandoning the traditional
doctrine and minimizing the importance of baptism. Now the
discussion is closed because the International Theological
Commission, which works for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, published a document in which they affirm the same thing.
I think it would be helpful to return to the question in light of
this important document so as to explain some of the reasons that
brought the Church to this conclusion.
Jesus instituted the sacraments as the ordinary means of salvation.
Therefore, they are necessary, and those who, though able to receive
them, refuse or neglect to receive them against their conscience,
put their eternal salvation in serious jeopardy. But God is not
bound by these means. He can also save by extraordinary means, when
the person, by no fault of his own, is deprived of baptism. He did
this, for example, with the Holy Innocents, who also died without
baptism.
The Church has always admitted the possibility of a baptism of
desire and a baptism of blood, and many of these babies have
certainly known a baptism of blood, even if of a different nature.
I do not think that the Church's clarification will encourage
abortion; if it did, it would be tragic and we would need to
seriously worry, not about the salvation of the unbaptized children,
but of the baptized parents. It would be making fun of God.
This clarification will give, on the contrary, some ease to the
believers who, like everyone, are dismayed in the face of the
terrible fate of so many children in today's world.
Let us return to John the Baptist and to Sunday's feast. In
announcing the birth of the child to Zechariah the angel says to
him: "Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son who you will call
John. You will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his
birth" (Luke 1:13-14). Many did indeed rejoice at his birth if, 20
centuries later, we are still here to speak of that child.
I would like also to convey those words to all the fathers and
mothers who, like Elizabeth and Zechariah, are expecting or
experiencing the birth of a child: You too can have the joy and
gladness in the child God has entrusted to you and rejoice in his
birth your whole life long and for eternity!
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