Posted by The WORD in other words (2006) by Fr Erascio Flores SVD – Catholic Trade Manila
December 23 – Advent
In our modern times, people don’t seem to give importance to giving names. To give a name to a new-born babe they would go over a list of famous actors and well-known personalities to select one. Or they try the ingenuous way, that of concocting a new one, combining names of parents and forming a nice-sounding original name. In any case, people play with names nowadays; they don’t take it seriously.
Actually name is important. That’s what a person carries all his life, it determines his identity. One realizes more its importance for official documents. Just a wrong spelling here or there in a passport may cost him a string of troubles.
It’s interesting what the Bible says, in Isaiah 49, 1: “Yahweh called me from my mother’s womb; he pronounced my name before I was born.”
That seems to be the case also in today’s Gospel. God himself determined the name “John” before this child was born; he was to prepare the way of the Messiah. When God plans something, his plan has to be followed up to the last detail. His word has to be believed. Zecchariah, John’s father, lost his speech because he doubted the words of the angel, assuring him that his wife would bear a son even in her old age.
Following God’s word, on the other hand, brings blessings, wonders and healing. When they were discussing what name they were to give, Zecchariah insisted, “John is his name.” And the Scripture says, “Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.
Speaking of conforming with God’s plan, God’s will, it is really not easy. This had been the cause of the downfall of the angels (Rev. 12,7), of the fall of our first parents in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3,1), of troubles and conflicts between husband and wife and within the family, and of wars between peoples and nations. To conform one’s will to that of another is most difficult.
But whenever there is conformity of wills, there is peace, there is harmony, there is sharing, there is love. When one entrusts himself totally into God’s hands, things can only go right. This is what St. Paul wanted to express in Romans 8,28: “We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him, whom he has called according to his plan.”
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