The Nativity of John the Baptist, Saturday – 24th June 2023 — Gospel: Lk 1, 57-60.80
Experiences of the Fullness of Time
John’s birth marks the beginning of the great events of salvation. His birthday advanced Jesus birth by six months and heralded Jesus by proclaiming His coming. Luke, the evangelist, describes that “When the time for Elizabeth had become full she bore her son John” (Lk 1,57). Henri Nouwen in reference to this special time wrote, Patience dispels clock time and reveals a new time, the time of salvation. It is not the time measured by the abstract objects: units of the clock, the watch, or the calendar, but rather the time lived from within and experienced as full time… All the great events of the Gospel occurred in the fullness of time. John’s birth took place when Elizabeth’s time became full. It is this full time, pregnant with new life that can be found through the disciple of patience. As long as we are the slaves of the clock and the calendar, our time remains empty and nothing really happens. Thus, we miss the moment of grace and salvation. But when patience prevents us from running away from the painful moments and in the false hope of finding our treasure elsewhere, then we can slowly begin to see that fullness of time is already here and that salvation is already taking place. Like John the Baptist and Elizabeth, each Christian is called to proclaim Christ as present and working among us saying: “Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6,2).
