Where does God or your faith “amaze” you? The neighbors and relatives of Elizabeth were amazed not only at the fact that the new baby was going to have a name different from his ancestors but also that Zechariah confirmed it by being released from his muteness—and the first thing Zechariah did was to burst forth blessing God.

“John the Baptist inaugurates the good news of God’s kingdom like a champagne bottle shattered against the hull of a new ship.” Catherine Murphy’s description of John, in John the Baptist: Prophet of Purity for a New Age, is my favorite. She might have added: The bottle doesn’t survive the inaugural ceremony, and neither does John.

When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.

When our parish engaged couples come to meet with me to begin marriage preparation, I take the time to sit down and chat with them individually first before they talk about themselves as a couple. Once introductions are made, I often start by asking them how their parents chose their name.

John the Baptist said he was making way for someone greater, and over the centuries Christians have tended to take him at his word, maybe a little too much so, seeing him as a figure who played his part and exited stage left. To think of him this way, though, is to make him into exactly the opposite of what he stood for: a radically new way to relate to God.

In the spirit of repentance for sins Saint John the Baptist preached, we make known our failures to our merciful God.

Let your intentions be so pure that you reject from your actions any other motive than the glory of God and the salvation of souls.