💖 HOMILY - DECEMBER 23 💖

First Reading - Malachi 3:1-4,23-24

Gospel - Luke 1:57-66

A star is a beautiful symbol used during Christmas. The star posted on the rooftop of the house signals that so and so family is a Christian family. The star becomes a sign of our identity. The readings of today present John, the Baptist as the sign to recognize the Messiah. They also invite us to become heralds like John, the Baptist.

The first reading speaks about the prophecy of the coming of Elijah as the precursor. The prophet clearly paints the role of the precursor before the appearance of the Messiah. The role of the precursor finely coincides with John the Baptist who prepares people for the coming of the Messiah. He, through the preaching of repentance, invites people to a life of reconciliation with God, as according to the prophesy of the prophet about the precursor in the passage of the day. The prophet Malachi sees the precursor as the herald of the Messiah.

Today’s Gospel describes the birth and naming of St. John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet. He was given the mission of heralding the promised Messiah and of preparing the Chosen People to welcome that Messiah by preaching to them repentance and the renewal of life. John was born to the priest, Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth in their old age. Today’s Gospel passage describes John’s birth, Circumcision and Naming ceremony.

A miraculous birth and an event of double joy: His elderly parents rejoiced in John’s birth, as he was a gift from God in their old age. Since the child was a boy, all their neighbors rejoiced with them, and the village musicians celebrated the birth by playing their joyful music. The Naming followed the baby’s Circumcision, and Elizabeth insisted that the child should be named John (which means “the Lord is gracious”), the name given him by the Archangel Gabriel when he spoke to Zechariah. The mute Zechariah approved that name by writing, “His name is John.” At that action of obedient surrender to the Lord God, his speech was restored, and he loudly proclaimed the praises of God for blessing him with a son and Israel with her Deliverer, whose herald his son would be.

Dear friends, we need to pray for our parents and be thankful to them for the gift of life, the training and discipline they have given us, and the love and affection they have lavished on us. Let us ask God’s pardon if we are, or were, ungrateful to them, do/did not take proper care of them in their illness or old age or ever inflicted pain on them.

We need to remember and pray for our godparents who sponsored us in Baptism, which made us children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, heirs of Heaven and members of the Church.

We should have the courage of our Christian convictions as John the Baptist did, and we should become heralds of Christ as John was, by our transparent Christian lives.