{"id":5048,"date":"2018-06-22T21:59:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T20:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/?p=5048"},"modified":"2018-06-22T22:03:44","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T21:03:44","slug":"commentary-on-the-nativity-of-john-the-baptist-24-06-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/commentary-on-the-nativity-of-john-the-baptist-24-06-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary on the Nativity of John the Baptist, 24.06.2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Fr Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie <\/a><\/h3>\n

Lk 1:57-66, 80
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

The time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, \u2018No; he is to be called John.\u2019 They said to her, \u2018None of your relatives has this name.\u2019 Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, \u2018His name is John.\u2019 And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, \u2018What then will this child become?\u2019 For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n

John the Baptist is like a first draft for Jesus.\u00a0 They were alike in some ways: they were cousins, almost the same age; both emerged from the desert, urging people to a different way of life; both announced that events were coming to a head.\u00a0 Jesus had called John the greatest man that ever lived (Lk 7:28), and he queued up with the crowds to be baptised by him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet they were different.\u00a0 Despite all his fire, John\u2019s message in the end was rather conventional.\u00a0 \u201cTax collectors came to be baptised, and they asked him, \u2018Teacher, what should we do?\u2019\u00a0 He said to them, \u2018Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 Soldiers also asked him, \u2018And we, what should we do?\u2019 He said to them, \u2018Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.\u2019\u201d (Lk 3:12-14).\u00a0 He was, you might say, a moralist.\u00a0 Though there are still disciples of John the Baptist, the impact of Jesus on history has been infinitely greater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesus is more than a moralist.\u00a0 If he were only a moralist, he would be a very poor one, for his claims exceeded those of any moralist.\u00a0 He claimed that he and the Father were one.\u00a0 Any mere moralist making such a claim would not be credible for a moment.\u00a0 We sometimes reduce him to a moralist.\u00a0 But he alone was able to say, \u201cThe Kingdom (the Presence) of God is among you.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 This is much more powerful than all the moralism in the world.\u00a0 An ounce of \u2018is\u2019 is better than a ton of \u2018ought\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Fr Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie Lk 1:57-66, 80 The time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5055,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions\/5055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}