And
suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, And the
messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of
hosts. But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he
appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. Malachi 3:1B-2
All
who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child
be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. Luke 1:66
Piety
Father, help us to live in the spirit of Zechariah and the Catholic Workers to create a new society
within the shell of the old with the philosophy of the new, which is not a new
philosophy but a very old philosophy, a philosophy so old that it looks
like new. (See more at: http://cjd.org/2006/06/01/easy-essays-the-easy-essays-of-peter-maurin-define-the-catholic-worker-movement/#sthash.voPJke4k.dpuf)
Study
One of my all-time favorite movies is
“Fiddler on the Roof.” Those who have
seen it know that the story is set in a Jewish settlement in Imperial Russia of
1905. The story is set forth with an
early quote in the Prologue from the leading man, Tevye:
A fiddler on the
roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might
say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant,
simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we
stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our
home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word:“Tradition.”
How can Tevye maintain his
Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach
upon the family's lives? Tevye must cope
with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters. Each daughter wishes to marry for love – each
one's choice of a husband moves her further away from the customs of his faith. At the same time as this upheaval, the people
also must deal with the edict of the Tsar to evict the Jews from
their village. One the one hand people
are trying to honor and continue their traditions and keep their society
running. On the other hand, the world
around them is changing rapidly.
As John the Baptist goes from leaping in his
mother’s womb to bouncing in his father’s hands, the traditions of the Hebrew
Bible are about to be challenged in ways big and small, too. The naming of the baby (John, not Zechariah
after his father) is just one small sign to us but a major sign to the villagers
that the ways of the past are changing.
Everyone in the village knows who he or she is and what God expects him
or her to do. They know that Zechariah
and Elizabeth should name their son Zechariah.
But those sands are now shifting.
But Zechariah was cut off in silence from his
community while John grew in the womb.
With his son’s birth, Zechariah finds his voice and the first words of
this doubting old man are: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has
visited and brought redemption to his people.”
John, too, will find his voice.
Yet before he does so, he will cut himself off from the community by living
in the wilderness, physically cut off from the people but crying out for
change.
The naming of John symbolizes that the ways
of the past are past. Personal change
(repentance) will be at the heart of the message that John the Baptist preaches
when he gets his voice crying in the wilderness and he and his misfit cousin
start overthrowing traditions and refining (redefining) our piety, study and
action in ways no one could have guessed if they only relied upon human
traditions.
What then will become of all these
traditions? They will be updated with
new ones that are based on the Good News as proclaimed by Jesus – a message to
serve and worship the Lord without fear, because of the tender mercy of our God.
Action
Holy Days are a time for family
traditions. What are some of yours and
why do you do what you do? Have those
traditions changed as children have come into your life or as they have grown
and moved away? What other ways are your
traditions changing?
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