＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Isaiah 49:1-6*

Listen to me, O islands, pay attention,

peoples from distant lands. Yahweh called me from my mother’s womb; he pronounced my name before I was born.(….)

He said to me, “You are Israel, my servant, Through you I will be known.”  “I have labored in vain,” I thought and spent my strength for nothing.” Yet what is due me was in the hand of Yahweh, and my reward was with my God. I am important in the sight of Yahweh, and my God is my strength.  And now Yahweh has spoken,(…..)

He said: “It is not enough that you be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the remnant of Israel. I will make you the light of the nations, that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”

 

Ps 139 1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15

I praise you for I am wonderfully made.

 

＊＊＊ 2nd Reading ＊＊＊
Acts 13:22-26

 After that time, God removed him and raised up David as king, to whom he bore witness saying: I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all I want him to do.

 It is from the descendants of David that God has now raised up the promised savior of Israel, Jesus. Be­fore he appeared, John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel. As John was ending his life’s work, he said: ‘I am not what you think I am, for after me another one is coming whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’

 Brothers, children and descendants of Abraham, and you also who fear God, it is to you that this message of salvation has been sent.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 1:57-66, 80

When the time came for Elizabeth, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the merciful Lord had done a wonderful thing for her and they rejoiced with her.

 When on the eighth day they came to attend the circumcision of the child, they wanted to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” They said to her, “No one in your family has that name”; and they asked the father by means of signs for the name he wanted to give.

 Zecha­riah asked for a writing tablet and wrote on it, “His name is John,” and they were very surprised. Immediately Zecha­riah could speak again and his first words were in praise of God.

 A holy fear came on all in the neighborhood, and throughout the Hills of Judea the people talked about these events. All who heard of it pondered in their minds and wondered, “What will this child be?” For they understood that the hand of the Lord was with him.

 As the child grew up, he was seen to be strong in the Spirit; he lived in the desert till the day when he appeared openly in Israel.

 

Gospel Reflection：

It was John who came first. He was born first. The angel came to his father first. And yet when Jesus was born, John took second place. he was eclipsed by his younger cousin. He even wondered whether it was he who should be baptized by Jesus at the Jordan.

This was a man who came first and yet knew his place in the unfolding plan of God. And he was happy and content with that – with taking second place, with being eclipsed, with being simply the one who “prepared the way”.

That was what was truly noble about John, in it lay his greatness among all men, for he knew his place in the history of salvation, and it was a great place, greater than many. How difficult it is, at times to be like John, to efface ourselves so that Jesus and him alone can be known?

How difficult it is, not to promote ourselves, not to have ourselves in the limelight, not to have the attention on us rather than on another? And yet that is what John did; he did his work as best he could, and then handed it over to the one that really mattered, the one for whom he spent his life preparing the way: Jesus Christ.