{"id":2853,"date":"2009-06-24T11:59:28","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T11:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/the-birthday-of-the-bridegroom\/"},"modified":"2009-06-24T11:59:28","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T11:59:28","slug":"the-birthday-of-the-bridegroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/the-birthday-of-the-bridegroom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Birthday of the Bridegroom’s Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"agentileschi3.jpg\"<\/a>
\nToday is the birthday of the Bridegroom’s friend:
\nan inbreaking of joy,
\nwild joy, reckless joy, heaven-sent joy.
\nthe joy of a divine surprise.
\nA baby boy has come into the world.
\n“His name is John” (Lk 1:63).
\nNothing will ever again be the same.
\nElizabeth, having already faded into old age, flowers and bears fruit.
\nAll the neighbours talked.
\nOur God is the Lord of the impossible.
\nOur God is astonishing,
\namazing in all that he does.
\nHe gives hope to the hopeless,
\nsends his mercy like a river into every dry and barren wasteland,
\nand fills the womb of one long past childbearing
\nwith the energy of a infant kicking
\nand leaping for joy.
\nZechariah astonished, loses his speech,
\nand regains it in a flood of praise.
\nZechariah’s canticle: a priestly prayer of blessing
\nrising to meet the Dayspring that rises over the darkness.
\nDazzling Dayspring dealing death to death,
\ngiving light to those who sit in darkness!
\nRays of mercy kissing every uplifted face,
\nbeams of brightness for uncertain steps,
\nand in every heart long chilled by fear
\na strange and wondrous warming.
\nThe smell of incense hangs about Zechariah:
\nthe fragrance of the Temple.
\nIn his eyes one sees the glimmer of what he saw:
\nGabriel who stands in the presence of God.
\nThe vision of an angel is something not erased.
\nIt leaves one with a perpetual look of surprise.
\nIt causes one to utter blessings
\nand, at every moment, to break into bits of eucharistic song.
\n“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel!”
\nThe Church finds nothing better than to repeat
\nZechariah’s canticle
\nday after day, morning after morning,
\nmaking it her unchanging sunrise Gospel,
\nher preparation for the Great Thanksgiving:
\nthe tender mercy of God
\ngiven for our eating and drinking
\nin the Holy Bread and in the Precious Chalice.
\nThe brightness that rises like the dawn
\nover every altar.
\nJohn is here today.
\nHe is present at every advent of the Word.
\nHe was there when first the Word came.
\nHe is there when the Word comes
\nuttered in the syllables of poor human language
\nand veiled by bread and wine.
\nHe is there at every secret advent of the Word:
\nthe visitations of which we dare not speak,
\nlest in disclosing them
\nwe lose something of their healing virtue.
\nHe will be there when,
\nat the end of time the Word returns,
\nall-glorious,
\nto judge the living and the dead.
\nBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel
\nwho has made John indispensable
\nfor Israel,
\nfor us,
\nfor the Church.
\nTo each of you today,
\nMother Church wishes nothing less
\nthan the joy of John.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the birthday of the Bridegroom’s friend: an inbreaking of joy, wild joy, reckless joy, heaven-sent joy. the joy of a divine surprise. A baby boy has come into the world. “His name is John” (Lk 1:63). Nothing will ever again be the same. Elizabeth, having already faded into old age, flowers and bears <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-saints"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-K1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}