_1st. Prelude._ Picture of the Naming Day of St. John the Baptist who is on Our Lady's knee, while Elizabeth and the kinsfolk are discussing the name and Zachary is writing on a tablet; St. Joseph is looking on.

_2nd. Prelude._ The spirit of penance.

Often during Advent the Church directs our thoughts to the great Precursor of JESUS Christ, to him who was sent to prepare His ways. On four occasions she chooses for the "Gospel" in the Ma.s.s, pa.s.sages which relate to St. John the Baptist and his work of preparation. If we would prepare well for the coming of our King, we cannot do better than meditate on St. John the Baptist and try in our small measure to prepare as he did.

POINT I. THE PREPARATION BEFORE HIS BIRTH.

(1) _A prophecy._ Four hundred years before the Precursor's birth, Malachias prophesied of him: "Behold I send My angel," that is My _messenger_; and Our Lord tells us expressly (His words are noted by three of the Evangelists, St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke) that this messenger was John the Baptist, who was sent by G.o.d to prepare the ways of the Messias.

(2) _His miraculous conception_--for his parents were both "well advanced in years." Both his father and mother were "just before G.o.d walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame;" and they had their cross to bear--the "reproach" of having no son and therefore no hope of the Messias being born to them; but this did not prevent them from praying, as all fervent Israelites prayed, for the coming of the Messias. The answer to their prayer was nearer than they thought. One day as Zachary was performing the most solemn part of his priestly office--offering incense on the golden altar that stood "over against the veil" which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies--he saw an angel standing on the right side of the altar, who, after he had calmed his fear, told him that his prayer was heard, that the Messias was coming, and that his wife Elizabeth was to bear him a son who was to be His Precursor, "he shall go before Him." The angel then prophesied many things about this child, which all show how careful was G.o.d's preparation of His Precursor:

"Thou shall call his name John" (the Grace of G.o.d). Only those who had an important future before them were named by G.o.d Himself before their birth.

"Many shall rejoice in his nativity." Many--both angels and men.

"He shall be great before the Lord." Great in sanct.i.ty and great in office.

He "shall drink no wine nor strong drink." He shall be a Nazarite, one separated and consecrated to G.o.d by a vow.

"He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb"--that is, he shall be cleansed from the stain of original sin and put into the state of grace before his birth as was Jeremias (Jer. I.

5).

"He shall convert many" by preaching penance and telling of Him who takes away sin.

"He shall go before Him ... to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people."

Zachary listened but he could not believe that what he heard was true, though Gabriel, who stands before G.o.d, had been sent expressly to him with the message of good tidings. He asked for a sign and He received one which not only proved to him that G.o.d can do what He wills as He wills, but also that He expects His children to trust Him.

When at length Zachary appeared from behind the curtain to the waiting and wondering people, instead of giving them the accustomed blessing (Num. VI. 24, 26), he made signs to them and remained dumb and they understood that he had seen a vision. G.o.d dealt severely with Zachary because he was so closely bound up with the Advent of the Messias. He had to be taught, and we through him, that the least venial sin may hinder G.o.d's work and designs, and that if we would be His instruments used by Him for the preparation of the Coming of His Son, we must be absolutely faithful about little things, full of confidence in G.o.d, setting no limit to His power and never doubting His dealings with us.

(3) _He was filled with the Holy Ghost._ Six months later, Elizabeth who had been waiting in solitude and silence for G.o.d to fulfil His designs, received a visit from the Mother of G.o.d, and the Precursor and the Messias Who was to come were brought into close contact. We cannot doubt that it was at that moment when, as Elizabeth said "the infant in my womb leaped for joy," that John was "filled with the Holy Ghost." Thus G.o.d cleansed His Precursor before his birth from the stain of original sin, again showing us that those who are to prepare for the Coming of His Son must be distinguished by their purity.

(4) _By the holiness of his mother and his home._ His mother taught by the Holy Spirit was the first to recognize Our Lady as the Mother of G.o.d; she was saluted by Our Lady and ministered to by her. She had the unspeakable privilege of having Our Lady with the blessed Fruit of her womb JESUS living under her roof for three months. A home where the Mother of G.o.d was welcomed and honoured--such was the home G.o.d chose for the Precursor of His Son.

POINT II. THE PREPARATION AFTER HIS BIRTH.

"There was a man sent from G.o.d, whose name was John. This man came to bear witness of the Light, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people."

(The "Gradual" for the Vigil of St. John the Baptist). The Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist is a Double of the First Cla.s.s with an Octave, for Mary and her Son were present at his birth and he was "great before the Lord."

The eighth day was the day of circ.u.mcision and the naming day. Everybody naturally was calling him Zachary, but his mother who knew from her husband that the name was fixed, said: "Not so, but he shall be called John." They would not have it and appealed by signs to the deaf and dumb father, who wrote: "John _is_ his name," for "he was so named of the angel before he was conceived." At that moment Zachary's penance came to an end and "he _spoke_ blessing G.o.d." This fresh miracle was soon "noised abroad" and the people asked in fear: "What an one, think ye, shall this child be?" Zachary, "filled with the Holy Ghost," used his loosed tongue to sing his beautiful hymn of praise to G.o.d who had remembered His holy testament, and had allowed "the _Orient_ from on high" to visit them. And then addressing his little son, he said: "And thou child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways."

He began to "prepare His ways" by a life of hardship, solitude and penance, having no fixed home, living on what he could find in the deserts--locusts and wild honey, and wearing as a garment camels' hair with a leathern girdle. Tradition tells us he began all this at a very early age and he continued it "until the day of his manifestation to Israel," that is, until the day he left his solitude and began to preach--nearly thirty years later. He had thirty years' preparation for his life's work, like Him whose way he was preparing, and he was preparing it no less as a solitary in the deserts than as the great preacher of penance by the Jordan.

What lessons can we learn for our own preparation for the Coming of Christ this Advent?

1. That because we are going to be amongst those who in some way or other "prepare His ways," G.o.d has occupied Himself with our preparation even before we were born. Either by surrounding us with good, or by bringing good out of evil or by some of His many ways which are not our ways, He has had a hand in all that concerns us. We have first firmly to believe this, and secondly to co-operate with all G.o.d's designs for us, as John did.

2. That if we would prepare the ways of Christ we must be familiar with His Mother, accustomed to receiving her salutations and to returning them. That we must have her to live with us and take an interest in all that concerns us. Who could better help us to prepare for the Coming of her Son than His own Mother?

3. That we must be filled with the Holy Spirit and never turn Him out of our hearts by sin. It would be useless to try to prepare the way for Christ if we had not the co-operation of the Holy Spirit.

4. That penance in one form or another must have a share in our preparation for the Coming of Christ. All we know of John from the time of his infancy till he began his mission is that "he was in the deserts." It was not that he preferred such a life, but he felt that it was the one most suited to his own preparation for the Messias, for during those long years in the deserts he was preparing the way of Christ in his own heart; during his mission he prepared it in the hearts of others. Solitude, fasting, lack of ease and comfort, coa.r.s.e clothing--these were the allies which John chose to aid him in his preparation for the Coming of the King, for His "Kingdom is not of this world" and "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal" (2 Cor. X. 4). He was consecrated to G.o.d, and he separated himself from everything that might interfere with his entire consecration.

_Colloquy._

(1) With G.o.d the Father Who has chosen me to prepare the ways of His Son.

(2) With Him Who is coming.

(3) With G.o.d the Holy Ghost Who is co-operating with me.

(4) With Our Lady who is ready to let me do all my work by her side. (Ecclus. XXIV. 30).

(5) With St. John the Baptist who will obtain for me, if I ask him, the spirit of penance.

_Resolution._ To examine myself to-day as to the place penance is having in my Advent, and if it has none, to fix at least _one_ daily penitential act.

_Spiritual Bouquet._ "He was in the deserts."

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (2)

HIS MISSION.

"In those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Judea.... preaching the baptism of penance unto remission of sins."

(St. Matt. III. 1. and St. Mark I. 4).

_1st. Prelude._ John preaching and baptizing by the Jordan.

_2nd. Prelude._ Grat.i.tude to the "Friend of the Bridegroom" for pointing Him out to the Bride.

POINT I. THE PROPHET.

When John was about thirty years of age the "word of the Lord" (St. Luke III. 2) reached him in his solitude, just as it had done all the prophets of old from Samuel down to Malachias, but since then, that is for a period of four hundred years, G.o.d had spoken through no prophet.

As a result of this "word" the "Prophet of the Highest" came into all the country about the Jordan--a large area--and began his mission. His arrival made a great stir and the people flocked to see and hear him.

There "went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the country about Jordan." All cla.s.ses went--publicans, soldiers, even the Pharisees and Sadducees, for if this man were really a prophet sent from G.o.d, it behoved _them_ to know all about him. What did the mult.i.tudes see? A man wearing a "garment of camels' hair and a leathern girdle about his loins," whose food consisted of locusts and wild honey--a man as the Angel Gabriel had prophesied "in the spirit and power of Elias" (see IV Kings I. 8). What did they hear? A voice of one crying in the desert: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths." (St. Matt.

III. 3). And what were their conclusions? That this was he who was spoken of by Isaias the prophet (verse 3), that he was "sent from G.o.d"

(St. John I. 6) and that he "came for a witness, to give testimony of the light" (St. John I. 7). What light? The "Light of the world." John came to proclaim that the dawn which the world had been so long watching was on the point of giving place to day, that the "Sun of justice" was even now rising with "health in His wings" for those that feared G.o.d's name, and that they must go forth to meet him (Mal. IV. 2).

I too must go forth. What am I going to do to-day which will prove to myself, to my Guardian Angel, to my Patron Saint, to Mary my Mother and to Him Who is coming that I am preparing the way of the Lord?