SUNDAY June 25- 2023- YEAR 2- Episode# 69 Good Sunday Morning with Fr Andre on KNUS 710 am 

Preaching the Truth- Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist.

 

RADIO SHOW Description 

 

Good Holy Sunday Morning my dear friends, listeners to the show, supporters of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, and people of good will. 

 

On today’s show we wish a Happy Saint John the Baptist Birthday for all those who seek the intercession of the last of the prophets. Saint John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord. 

 

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God. 

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her 

that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid, 

that she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins. 

 

A voice cries out:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

 

A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.

Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;

lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;

say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”

See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;

his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.

 

Psalm 85 or 85:7-13

Benedixisti, Domine

1 [You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, *
you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.

2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *
and blotted out all their sins.

3 You have withdrawn all your fury *
and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation.

4 Restore us then, O God our Savior; *
let your anger depart from us.

5 Will you be displeased with us for ever? *
will you prolong your anger from age to age?

6 Will you not give us life again, *
that your people may rejoice in you?]

7 Show us your mercy, O Lord, *
and grant us your salvation.

8 I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, *
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.

9 Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *
that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth have met together; *
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring up from the earth, *
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *
and our land will yield its increase.

13 Righteousness shall go before him, *
and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

 

John’s Biblical identity from genealogical perspective shows that he is related to Jesus, a cousin on Jesus’s mother’s side through Elisabeth. Let us look at the divine origin that through the Angel Gabriel gave the name to John while John was being conceived. The Angel announced to Zakaria in the temple the birth of a son he also said: " his name shall be John" even though no one in Zakaria’s family is called by that name. What is the meaning of John? It means God is gracious, tender, compassionate, has mercy and God is sending a gift to humanity with John’s birth: Yo-Ha-Non.  

In the Bible God calls adults by other names to give them a special mission. Like Abram and Sarai, became Abraham and Sarah: father of all roots, and the queen. Whereas John is not given a new mission as an adult, his mission was given to him at birth. So John is a vessel who carries the voice of God not only a man with a special vocation he is his vocation. So when Jesus says about John that he was the greater to be born amongst the children, Jesus meant that John is the prophet who prepares and makes straight the way of the Lord. 

The story of the name of John amassed the people of Judea as well. They made a  sign to zakaria, asking the father what the name of the new born child should be, zakaria responds: “John is his name” and they all wondered. Zakaria could have said “his name will be John” but instead he simply repeated what the angel in the temple had already declared because to him. It was the angel who named the child that that his name will be John.

 

Now let us move to the vocation of John the Baptist: “the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight—” (Mark 1:3)

 

3 events took place which shaped the vocation of John the Baptist:

 

1- The Announcement to Zakaria of the birth of John: 

In Luke chapter 1:15, the Angel says about John: 

“for he will be great before the Lord,
and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink,
and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit,
even from his mother’s womb.-“ It was the event of the Visitation of Mary, the Mother of Jesus our Lord, as the new Arc of the Covenant, where the filling of John the Baptist with the Holy Ghost took place. 

A deep theological consideration is worthy of our discernment and attention here: in the Event of the Visitation, Mary is seen by many fathers of the Church as the New Arc. Where in the Bible we could base our understanding of Mary as the New Arc? Well if we open the Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse chapters 11:19 to chapter 12:1-2 

Here is what is says: “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.12:1 “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;2 she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.”

 

These are the indications inside the Bible that show that God works His Plan of Salvation from the conception of human life in Paradise, into the conception of special babies (John the Baptist and Jesus Christ the Savior) who by their special vocation make all babies saved by God and so special, in order to bless and save the sanctity of life in the Truth of the Love of God. And where does God execute His plan of Salvation?  in the heart of the family. 

 

This is what is so important: God did not plan his salvation nor did He announce it in an abstract of philosophical way:  but instead God simply announced and executed His Plan of salvation to preach the Truth, to announce the birth of the Savior, the incarnate of His Only Begotten Son, to Send down His Holy Spirit, to forgive all sins, to bring all people back to Him, to destroy all evil, to kill death itself, to bless life, and to make people enter into eternal life with Him… God did all of this inside the family, a normal family. It was worked in a family made of a barren old woman married to an old priest, and young virgin who has been betrothed to a righteous “Zedik”, man called Joseph, son of David. What a fantastic story to be told to all our children on a day like today: Sunday, the Day of the Lord.      

 

Something else to consider which is very holy and sacred: where was Zakaria informed of the birth of a son and what will his name be? It was in the Temple of Jerusalem where the Angel Gabriel announced John’s birth and gave him his name. The time was sacred, because the offering of the incense took place during the 2 most holy hours of the day: the Evening Sacrifice and the Morning Sacrifice. What did the incense symbolize? The incense mixture which was offered had symbols for all the days corresponding to the days of the year. The components of the incense combination came from the book of Exodus chapter 30:34, “where Moses is tasked with making incense: Take fragrant spices – gum resin, onycha and galbanum – and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts.” 

 

At the time of Zakaria, there were around 18 thousand priests in Israel. On daily bases there were about 50 priests in the Temple for the day’s activities. In the tribe of Abia which the tribe of Zakaria there were at least 250 people in his division. And only that one priest, the old Zakaria was chosen by lot to enter into the Holy Place of the incense and to minister at that altar of the incense, which is situated as the closest to the Holy of holies. More so, Gabriel gave the name of John to Zakaria at that holy place which is near the Holy of the Holies where the Tabernacle of the Covenant is situated at Throne known as the Mercy Seat. This says a lot about the sanctification of John the Baptist right next to the Holy of Holies. The birth of John the Baptist to an old priest and a barren old woman, was more Thant a miracle. It was a Divine ACT. 

 

2- The second event is the leaping of the child John while in the womb. As Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ how is the holy of holies, who is the bread of life, visited the old Elizabeth, now mother of John the Prophet and at the hearing of the greeting of Mart, as Elizabeth exclaimed: the child leaped for joy in his mother’s womb. We see here the arc of the covenant when David the king dancing (leaping out of joy) in the 2 book of Samuel chapter 6 before the arc of the Lord as the people Israel and the priests were taking the Arc of the covenant from the house of Obed Edon to Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 6:16): “As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord;”

 

Now try to see this beautiful foreshadowing and typology between the event of Obed-Edon- The Arc of the Covenant- The Stay of three months- the leaping and dancing of David over night before the Arc and the event of the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth- the greeting of Mary-the leaping for joy of the baby John the Baptist in the Womb( is foreshadowed for David’s leaping)- and the stay of Mary and the baby Jesus in her womb for three months (is foreshadowed in the Arc staying at Obed-Edon for three months.

 

Let us read this story of the stay of the Arc at Obed-Edon in the 2nd Book of Samuel chapter 6: 10-15: “So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David; but David took it aside to the house of O′bed-e′dom the Gittite. 11 And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of O′bed-e′dom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed O′bed-e′dom and all his household.12 And it was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of O′bed-e′dom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of O′bed-e′dom to the city of David with rejoicing; 13 and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. 14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the horn.” 

God gives a new name in the womb vocation as a prophet is to make straight the way to the Lord.  

 

3- the vocation of John: John goes on to be a defender of the truth and he had the guts and the courage to defend the family when he stood in the face of Herod to tell him that he could not take his brother’s wife. John spoke well enough to the point that Herod wanted to listen to him. John also goes on was the baptizer to prepare the way of the Lord. In such a way he foreshadowed the baptism of the church, that truly forgives sins and fives the Holy Spirit.  

 

The challenge the world has today is that hardly anyone can speak the truth nonetheless to defend it. People who try to do good, seem to become pursued and silenced as John was. Nonetheless the Plan of God goes forward, and God arises for Him many knees who do not bow to the beast. How can help each other to fulfill the calling of John? Preach the truth, live the truth and guide people to the truth of love and mercy, justice and truth, peace and mercy, forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with one another and with God, love God and the neighbor, adore God in truth and in Spirit, reject all evil confusions and all evil ways, repent from sins, and do what is good and be participant in the Plan of God for the salvation of the world and therefore your life will be a sweet fragrant incense offered in unity with the sacrifice of Our Lord before the God of Heaven and Earth. 

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