St Zachary and the Nativity of St John the Baptist
The miraculous healing of St. Zachary confirms the divine origin of St. John’s mission and deepens the joy surrounding Christ’s hidden presence.
The miraculous healing of St. Zachary confirms the divine origin of St. John’s mission and deepens the joy surrounding Christ’s hidden presence.
Editor’s Notes
In this part, Fr. Coleridge tells us…
How the restoration of Zachary’s speech crowns the mystery of John’s birth with joy and significance.
That divine joy, freely given, prepares souls for grace and points to the hidden majesty of the Incarnate Christ.
Why the Visitation is unique among Gospel mysteries for its radiant gladness, unmarred by the shadow of the Cross.
He shows us that spiritual joy is no mere emotion, but a vital force in the formation of saints.
The Nativity of St John
The Nine Months
Chapter X
St. Luke i. 59-80.
Story of the Gospels, § 7
Burns and Oates, London, 1885
St Zachary recovers his speech
All were aware of the infirmity which afflicted the holy father of the child, and indeed, it had been brought prominently before the minds of all by the discussion about the name of the child.
They were therefore prepared to receive with great astonishment the sudden and complete restoration of the gift of speech to St. Zachary. This was what now took place.
"And immediately his mouth was opened, and his tongue was loosed, and he spoke, blessing God."
The crown was thus put to the joy of this holy pair, and at the same time a providential preparation was made for the discharge by St. John of his future office, for which it was requisite or convenient that those who knew him should look on him as one whose whole history had been marked by God in a way that promised great things concerning him.
From his very birth he was thus a remarkable child, even if the full use of his reason, and the other unusual gifts which had been bestowed upon him while yet in the womb, remained a secret from the generality of men. There was something prodigious about his conception, as was evident from the great age of his mother, there was something of a Divine purpose in his coming into the world, as was evident from the circumstances which had occurred about his name, and there was also the wonder of the sudden recovery of his father from the affliction which had been so many months upon him.
These things would be enough to attract attention, and to account for the general opinion formed of his lofty destiny.
Spread of the wonder
"And fear came upon all their neighbours, and all these words were divulged," that is, spread abroad, "over all the mountainous country of Judea."
The city in which St. Zachary dwelt was on the hills, which form a considerable part of the inheritance of the tribe of Juda, and give to its products a different type from that which prevails in Galilee. In such a country report would easily fly from town to town, and the general impression would remain in the common mind, ready to meet the Baptist when the time came for what St. Luke afterwards calls his manifestation to Israel.
"And all they who had heard them laid them up in their heart, saying, What an one think ye, shall this child be? For the hand of the Lord was upon him."
These last words seem to signify that there may have been other marvellous points about the childhood of St. John, of which we have no direct mention in the Gospel history.
The joyousness of these mysteries
The joy of the neighbours of St. Zachary and St. Elisabeth at the birth of their blessed son, and also at the marvellous recovery of the aged priest from the affliction which had been so long upon him, is a feature in the history which is entirely in keeping with the whole character of this part of the Gospel narrative.
The Annunciation and Visitation are, as far as possible, mysteries of pure joy. We apply the name "joyous" to other parts of the Holy Infancy, such as the Nativity itself, the Purification, and the Finding in the temple of the Holy Child. But in all these three mysteries there is something of the shadow, indeed, of more than the shadow, of the Cross, and other portions of the history are more distinctly marked with the brand of suffering.
There is suffering in the Nativity, suffering in the Circumcision. The Purification includes the first formal announcement of the future Cross made by St. Simeon to our Blessed Lady, as if it were a part of the Providence of God that this prediction should be made by one of His most authoritative ministers in the very temple itself.
It is needless to point out how the joy of the Epiphany is dashed with the first fulfilment of the prophecy of Simeon in the massacre of the Innocents and the flight into Egypt.
After the Purification, when the soul of our Blessed Lady was already pierced by the sword which was never thenceforth to be absent from her thoughts, there is no incident in the story which has not its share of this element of suffering. But it is not to be found in the Annunciation and in the Visitation.
It is as if the good Providence of God had chosen to give to our Blessed Lady at least these three months of unmixed joy, such, almost, as might have been her lot, if she had actually become the mother of the Incarnate God under a dispensation which did not require the Atonement for the sins of mankind.
Fulfilment of the words of St Gabriel – the crown to the mystery
Thus were fulfilled those words of St. Gabriel to St. Zachary, at the time of the vision in the temple of which we have already spoken, that at the birth of St. John many should rejoice.
Perhaps the words of the Evangelist are meant to point out this fulfilment. The whole life and career of St. John were, indeed, full of causes of joy to the whole world, but it seems as if St. Luke had meant us to understand that his birth was, in a special way, a most joyful mystery.
Such an occasion would be incomplete, it might be said, unless there had been the marvellous restoration of St. Zachary to the full use of his faculties at the moment of the naming of his holy child. This was a kind of crown to all the spiritual joys and blessings of the Visitation.
Our Lord often grants to His servants these temporal blessings as a kind of complement to more important gifts which affect the soul. As was said of Him on the occasion of one of His double miracles, "He doeth all things well." The principle of this tender method of Providence is expressed by Him when He says that the children of the Bridechamber must not mourn when the Bridegroom is with them.
The presence of our Lord in the womb of His Blessed Mother had wrought the most wonderful results in the souls of those aged saints and their still more blessed son. It was in a manner right that no element of sorrow should be left unremoved, and that the joyousness of so great a spiritual mystery should spread itself over the whole neighbourhood around the abode in which our Lord had shown, for the first time, His power of scattering blessings on every side.
Spiritual joy
We need not regard the joyfulness of these early mysteries of the Holy Infancy, simply as a gleam of sunshine, vouchsafed for the purpose of gladdening the hearts of our Lady and the saints with whom her time was spent.
For the effects of spiritual joy, especially on the most saintly souls, are very great indeed. Joy enlightens, and enlarges, and fortifies, and enriches, in a marvellous manner and degree.
Our Blessed Lady was already consummate in all perfection of virtue, and yet it may have been the Will of God that she should have this season of intense and unalloyed rejoicing immediately after the accomplishment of the Incarnation, in order that she might grow ever more mightily and swiftly in grace, and He may have had the same purpose with regard to the souls of St. John and of his parents.
The discipline of sorrow and suffering may be necessary or convenient for the purpose of bracing and strengthening the souls who are subjected thereto. But God ripens and matures and expands the spiritual energies by other influences as well as those of sorrow, and, indeed, His method of training them to their highest beauty and perfection is usually an alternation of pain and joy.
Few souls may be fit for the most intense and continual joy, which yet may be the most profitable of all the measures of grace to those who are already the furthest advanced in perfect union with Him Whose life is essentially joy, unceasing, unalloyed, unalterable, and ineffable in its brightness.
The Benedictus
It is only natural to find that this glorious and most happy mystery of the Visitation should have its canticle of joy and thanksgiving. It gave occasion, as we have seen, to the Canticle of our Blessed Lady herself, which is the foundation of all the New Testament songs of joy.
But that Canticle was uttered at the very beginning of the three months of our Lady's sojourn with her cousin, and expressed most directly the affections of her heart as to the great mystery itself of the Incarnation. It dwelt chiefly on what we may call the heavenly part of the mystery, the casting down of the proud rebels against God from their thrones and the elevation of man in their place by virtue of the humiliation of the Son of God.
The earthly issues of the Incarnation are summed up very shortly in the Magnificat, as if our Blessed Lady had been divinely guided simply to suggest them, and then leave them for future celebration by the blessed father of the Baptist. This is the chief distinction between these two great Canticles, as we shall presently see.
The Benedictus grows out of the Magnificat, singing the praises of God more especially for the fruits of the Incarnation as unfolded in this life, here and now, in this lower world, before those who reap its benefits pass to the vacant thrones in heaven. If our Blessed Lady gives thanks to God for His gifts through our Lord which are eternal, St. Zachary has the commission of thanking Him for those fruits of our Lord's condescension which accompany and encompass us in the pilgrimage on earth, from our cradle to our grave.
Thus the Church has chosen this as the last song of thanksgiving which she sings over the grave of her children, before it finally closes over them, both because no words can sum up more perfectly the gratitude which we owe to God for the earthly privileges of the Christian life, and because the thoughts which these words suggest are so full of the tenderest consolation to the mourners who have, then and there, to leave those whom they have loved until the day of that last meeting which is to know no separation.
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The Nativity of St John
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