And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High

24 DICEMBRE (Lk 1,67-79)

In Holy Scripture, before the great events of salvation, man raises his voice to sing the work of God, exalting and blessing him. The first great song that tells the salvation of God is the one sung by Moses and the Israelites in front of the Red Sea: first split in two and now returned in its natural state; after having destroyed wagons, horses, riders and the Pharaoh himself, a victim of his pride and arrogance.

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: I will sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously triumphant; horse and chariot he has cast into the sea. My strength and my courage is the Lord, and he has been my savior. He is my God, I praise him; the God of my father, I extol him. The Lord is a warrior, Lord is his name! Pharaoh’s chariots and army he hurled into the sea; the elite of his officers were submerged in the Red Sea. The flood waters covered them, they sank into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, magnificent in power, your right hand, O Lord, has shattered the enemy. In your great majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you loosed your wrath to consume them like stubble. At a breath of your anger the waters piled up, the flowing waters stood like a mound, the flood waters congealed in the midst of the sea. The enemy boasted, “I will pursue and overtake them; I will divide the spoils and have my fill of them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall despoil them!” When your wind blew, the sea covered them; like lead they sank in the mighty waters. Who is like to you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like to you, magnificent in holiness? O terrible in renown, worker of wonders, when you stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them! In your mercy you led the people you redeemed; in your strength you guided them to your holy dwelling. The nations heard and quaked; anguish gripped the dwellers in Philistia. Then were the princes of Edom dismayed; trembling seized the chieftains of Moab; All the dwellers in Canaan melted away; terror and dread fell upon them. By the might of your arm they were frozen like stone, while your people, O Lord, passed over, while the people you had made your own passed over. And you brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance – the place where you made your seat, O Lord, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever”. (Ex 15,1-18).

Zechariah is still a man of the Old Testament. He sees the work of God on the model of the other works already carried out by the Lord. His song praises the Lord. His heart knows that God is about to work even more portentous things. He already glimpses the true great liberation which is the source, the mother of all other liberations. The work of God has only one name: the forgiveness of sins, deliverance from them, the creation of the new man through the action of his Messiah, Redeemer and Saviour.

Then Zechariah his father, filled with the holy Spirit, prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people. He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant, even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old: salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, and to grant us that, rescued from the hand of enemies, without fear we might worship him in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

There is a constant in the work of God: man, chosen and called as his real instrument. Today this chosen and called instrument is the one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church, and every Christian in it. Until the Church does not think herself as the chosen and called instrument by God, as to put herself entirely in the hands of God, in the manner of John the Baptist and Jesus; the Lord cannot perform his great works and the hymn of blessing and praise no longer rises to him. Today, the Church and the Christian are in need of strong, serious and true beliefs. Either we all believe in what the Lord made us and that is instruments of his salvation and glory, or we will be condemned to an eternal silence, while God will have to go and choose other people to realize the mystery of his salvation in the world. Jesus Christ is born as a true son of man so that we are born as true children of God, in Him, with Him, for Him.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true Sons of God in Christ.