Is 49:1-6; Ps 138 (139); Acts 13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66.80

The prophet, of whom Isaiah speaks, this mysterious person noted as “sufering servant of the LORD”, affirms that the Lord has pronounced his name from his mother’s womb. God not only calls us, but even before that, he begets us, giving us a name, moulding our identity, to make into a sign, to make us sharers in his plan of salvation. The theme of the name returns in the account of the birth of John the Baptist. Elizabeth affirms, by her decision, that the will be called John, according to the name revealed to Zechariah by the angel Gabriel, and will not be called Zachariah, the name of his father, as the bystanders wanted. Even in this case it is God, through the messenger of his word, who pronounces the name of this newborn child, calling him right from his mother’s womb. In the begetting of human beings, according to flesh and blood, the mysterious begetting of God is at work, according to his Spirit. There is a significance in the movement between the two names: Zechariah means “God remembers”; John means “God gives grace”. God now not only remembers his promises but begins to put them into effect. And we also can confess what Paul says in Acts: to us has been sent this word of salvation.

Commentary by the Comunità di Dumenza
Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey