Give thanks that you are wonderfully made

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Today in the Catholic Church we celebrate the solemnity of the birthday of St. John the Baptist. Along with Jesus (Dec. 25) and his Mother Mary (Sept 8) he is the only saint whose birth day is celebrated. This is the because he was filled with the Holy Spirit by Jesus while in the womb of his mother (Luke 1:41). Filled with the Spirit of God he was born without original sin.

John said of Jesus, ‘He must increase and I must decrease’. Now the summer solstice is over and days begin to get shorter, symbolically of his decrease we celebrate his feast today June 24^th. Jesus’ birth we celebrate after the winter solstice when the days begin to get longer (24 the Dec).

Wednesday 24 June 2020

Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist

Give thanks that you are wonderfully made

Jn 1, 6-7; Lk 1, 17

A man was sent from God, whose name was John.

He came to testify to the light,

to prepare a people fit for the Lord.

Prayer

Father in heaven, who raised up Saint John the Baptist

to make ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord,

give your people, we pray,

the grace of spiritual joys

and direct the hearts of all the faithful

into the way of salvation and peace.

We make our prayer through your Son,

Christ Jesus, our lord.

Isaiah 49:1-6 ·

I will make you a light to the nations.

Hear me, O coastlands,

listen, O distant peoples.

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.

You are my servant, he said to me,

Israel, through whom I show my glory.

Though I thought I had toiled in vain,

and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,

yet my reward is with the Lord,

my recompense is with my God.

For now the Lord has spoken

who formed me as his servant from the womb,

that Jacob may be brought back to him

and Israel gathered to him;

and I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord,

and my God is now my strength!

It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,

to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the survivors of Israel;

I will make you a light to the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Prayerful reflection

There are four songs of the Servant of God in the book of Isaiah. This is the second one. It applies firstly to Jesus, the Servant of God, secondly today to John the Baptist, the great servant of God, and thirdly to each baptised person now filled with the Spirit of God. It applies to everyone who hears and answers the call of God. Let it then apply to you.

We can be anyone. It doesn’t matter. For in the work of God in the world, it is not you or I who do anything. It is the Spirit of God in us. He is the one who does everything through you. (John 15:5. “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing”.) He looks for willing hands. He looks for those who will pray and work. Are you willing to step forward?

We shouldn’t look to do great things in the eyes of the world or of the Church. The phrase, ‘bloom where you are planted’ applies to us. We do the work of God, not our own. There many tasks in the vineyard of the Lord. The humblest is as important as the most famous. Washing dishes can be as important as being Pope (in the eyes of God). We do what he wants, with this strength.

“I thought I had toiled in vain,

and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength”.

Jesus on the Cross must have felt the same. Apart for his mother and one or two others, no one was there and he was dying as a public criminal. How many saints ‘have done nothing’. We may thing of St. Therese of Liseux, even Mary the Mother of Jesus. Yet Jesus is the Light of the world and all the saints reflect his light. So, can you, if you step forward. You will be a light wherever you live. Then without you, your place will be in darkness.

____________________

 Psalm

Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15

I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

O Lord, you have probed me, you know me:

you know when I sit and when I stand;

you understand my thoughts from afar.

My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,

with all my ways you are familiar.

I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

Truly you have formed my inmost being;

you knit me in my mother’s womb.

I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;

wonderful are your works.

I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

My soul also you knew full well;

nor was my frame unknown to you

When I was made in secret,

when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.

I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

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Second reading

Acts 13:22-26 ·

John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance.

In those days, Paul said: “God raised up David as king; of him God testified, I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish. From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a saviour, Jesus. John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel; and as John was completing his course, he would say, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’

“My brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent.”

Prayerful reflection

Do you want to follow Jesus? Then learn to love him. If you truly know him, you will certainly love him. You will love him more than anyone or anything in the world. You will then love everyone and the whole of creation in him. Don’t ask how. We must get to know the real Jesus.

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’. ‘My commandment is that you love one another’. According to how much we love, we are then the light. Love is the light of God. Hatred is the darkness of Satan. There is nothing in between. Are you in the light, the grey area, or the dark? Jesus can flood you with light. Light alone brings joy.

 Luke 1:76

Alleluia, alleluia.

You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High,

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Luke 1:57-66, 80

John is his name.

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. 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. Then fear came upon all their neighbours, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Prayerful reflection

Jesus said the John the Baptism was the greatest person ever born of a woman. Then he added, but the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.  The people were amazed at his birth, when Zachariah burst into a song of praise. So, when anyone is baptised and now filled with the Spirit of God, we, the Church, burst into songs of praise too.

May the hand of the Lord be with you too. For then you too will e a source of joy for everyone you meet. Will you let the hand of the loving Lord come upon you? We do it by prayerful surrender and striving to keep the commandment of the Lord.

Lk 1: 78

Through the tender mercy of our God,

the Dawn from on high will visit us.

Father in heaven, may we who feast on the banquet of your Word

and the banquet of the Eucharist,

find joy in the birth of John the Baptist and so

come to know Jesus whom he proclaimed

and thereby become the lights of our world.

We make our prayer through your Son,

Christ Jesus our Lord.