Jeremiah 1:4-10 1^st Peter 1:8-12 Luke 1:5-17

According to the Gospel of Luke 1:36, the angel, Gabriel, told Mary at her annunciation that her kinswoman, Elizabeth, although advanced in age, was in the sixth month of her pregnancy with a son who would come to be known as John the Baptizer or John the Baptist. This explains why the feast of John’s birth is June 25^th annually, six months before the Nativity of her son, Jesus, who would be called the Christ.

The scripture lessons for the Vigil liturgy of John’s birth allude to the roles of prophetic characters in salvation history. The first lesson is the call of Jeremiah. The task of Old Testament prophets was first and foremost to critique Jewish society, both individuals and community, both commoner and nobility, even kings and priests. As tonight’s text asserts, his task was “to root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.” These words were generally metaphorical since prophets seldom had the physical power or resources to lead revolutions, to engage in genuine military battles or to directly execute punishment (a notable, if extreme, exception is found in 1^st Kings 18). However, the prophetic task was to point out the successes and failures of how the ancient Jews lived the covenant engaged with God by Moses. It was a frightening role to accept. Even Jeremiah pointed out his youthful inabilities. But, God bestowed the Divine Word into the fearful candidate. Jeremiah ministered in the concluding years of the southern Kingdom of Judah. By being faithful to God’s call, he found numerous enemies among the princes and temple priests in Jerusalem. He weighed and found wanting the greedy, cowardly, unfaithful and conspiratorial leaders of Judah. They, in turn, were sufficiently afraid of the popular reputation enjoyed by Jeremiah, so they tried to kill him indirectly by throwing him into a deep and muddy cistern to die of starvation and neglect. But, as God promised at his call, God was with him to deliver him, and deliver him God did. In 598 BC, the kingdom fell to the Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Nearly a dozen years later, in 587/6 BC, the emperor razed Jerusalem and completed his deportation to Babylon of all the surviving Jews he could capture. Jeremiah retired to Egypt, according to tradition, where he composed the scroll which bears his name. His was a very difficult and dangerous vocation. He spoke the truth which was very harsh and unpleasant to hear in those circumstances. Those who considered themselves properly religious, i.e., true to the practice of Judaism of the moment, resented him and rejected his criticisms. Ultimately they proved him right; they lost; he won!

The Gospel narrative today describes the Baptist’s own calling, similar to, but in greater mythic detail than, Jeremiah’s. The story parallels that of the annunciation of Jesus’ birth (Luke 1). Luke describes “calls” for both John and Jesus like Jeremiah’s, “before I formed you in the womb ...” They parallel in this regard even the miraculous conception, birth and calling of the ancient prophet, Samuel, the one who would eventually anoint David to be King of Israel (see 1^st Samuel 1). Note, too, that Samuel’s mother, Hannah, composes a beautiful canticle (1^st Samuel 2) in thanksgiving to God, as Zechariah does upon John’s birth, and Mary likewise does on the occasion of her visitation to Elizabeth. Indeed, these are literary devices indicating joyful, obedient cooperation on the parts of those who’s important roles (Hannah, Zechariah, Mary) helped provide three of the most important miraculous births in sacred scripture (perhaps only the births of the Patriarchs Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and Moses the Law Giver, are as significant in the Old Testament narrative).

The text from 1^st Peter describes the role of prophets from the late 1^st Christian Century as that of handing on the insights of revelation to each succeeding generation of believers. Such “handing on” means to engage in and preserve the living “tradition” (from the Latin “trahere” for “to hand on”). But, we must take care not to oversimplify as some followers in organized religions have done. Unless one is actively and thoughtfully engaged in the faith which is handed on, unless the expressions of the faith itself are critiqued, unless that faith evolves, grows and develops appropriately for each age and place and culture – then that religious faith risks a practical reduction to an object, merely some “thing” to hand along. Such behavior risks cultivating shallow and superstitious religious practice rather than a living, dynamic and relevant faith in the God of Life! Parents “hand on” the faith to their children. Catechists “hand on” the faith to their catechumens and religious education students. The clergy, religious and other ministers “hand on” the faith as they minister in life. All these are ordinary and most noble. We, each of us, must become and remain ever conscientious that each of us is called by Baptism to be prophetic and thoughtful about both the faith and the consequences of living it in fully, consciously and actively.

Religious faith in every time and place requires prophetic characters to critique the practice of the faith from within the religious group. In the Catholic Tradition, the clergy are ordained with the express command to preach and teach what they have received. Some do so more effectively than others. Preachers and teachers who have nothing of substance to say are wasting the Church’s prayer time at liturgy. Any who merely preach or teach in “bumper sticker sayings” whether by means of devotional phrases, popular psychology or current ideology have abdicated from the prophetic task they accepted. Likewise, laity ought to embrace and engage the prophetic dimension of the Gospel. After all, every member of the Church was baptized into “a priestly, prophetic and kingly people.” No Christian is ever exempt from being thoughtful and actively engaged at living the Gospel message. To live the Gospel message with full, conscious and active participation is to be an appropriate prophet. Such prophets are convinced in both heart and mind that the God of Salvation is “with you to deliver you!”