(IN TONE VII, PSALM 63:10, 1)
The righteous shall rejoice in the Lord: Hearken unto my voice, O God!
THE EPISTLE READING
(ROMANS 13:11b-14; 14:1-4)
BRETHREN, now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and licentiousness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.
But as for the one who is weak in faith, receive him, but not for disputes over opinions. For one believes he may eat anything; but the weak person eats herbs. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to be the judge over the servant of a stranger? To his own master he either stands or falls; but he will be made to stand; for God is able to make him stand.
THE ALLELUIA VERSES
(IN TONE I, ST. LUKE 1:68, 76)
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel: And thou, O little child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Most High!
The Prokeimenon of the Epistle sets the stage for our Saint John the Forerunner with two key words, namely, the title of righteous and the noun voice. Righteousness is the title which we, the Church, render for the Forerunner. The classic Troparion of our Saint begins with the words: "The memory of the righteous is celebrated with songs of praise, but as for thee, O Forerunner, the testimony of the Lord sufficeth..." Righteousness/δικαιοσύνη/البر would have been almost extinct in the Old Dispensation, had it not been for a select few, such as (and especially) Abraham, who "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Yet Abraham, as the Great Apostle remarks in his Galatian Epistle, was before the Law/Νόμος/الناموس was given through Moses. The Law, as the Great Apostle again states in his Roman correspondence, is "Good and perfect" therefore no mortal, no human being, could be deemed righteous concerning the Law (the Great Apostle considers himself, concerning the law, blameless, not righteous, as per his Philippian Epistle). Thus, for the first time since the giving of the Law, in the Sacred Scriptures, we encounter someone righteous in the person of the Forerunner. Keep in mind that the Forerunner is still considered as belonging to the Old Dispensation due to his martyrdom before the completion of the Work of Christ. Thus righteousness in the Old Dispensation, apart from the Law, is almost exclusively circumscribed at both chronological ends with Abraham, before the Law's giving, and the Forerunner, after its giving. Finally, the classic Alleluia Verse for the Epistle Readings for the Forerunner, from Psalms, reads: "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, and like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow." As for the word voice, this is the title which our Saint chose to call himeslf! When asked of his identity, he replied (John 1:23): "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord."
The Alleluia verse for this feast's epistle reading is from the Song of Zacharias the Priest, the father of the Forerunner, as recorded by the Holy Evangelist Luke. Why is the Lord, the God of Israel, blessed? Because "He has visited and redeemed his people" as the verse continues. Because He is the Redeemer known to the community of the Scripture, who did redeem and will redeem, thus His function. The role of Redeemer is the subject, and the people are (nothing but) the object. The action of visiting/פָּקַד/الإفتقاد is significant in many Old Dispensation accounts, especially with Sarah, the true wife of Abraham (again?): "Now the Lord visited Sarah as He said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken" (Genesis 21:1). The English language is lacking when compared to the Biblical Semitic and Greek; it cannot at times express and render the true meaning of the word. To visit in Semitic ( פָּקַד/الإفتقاد ) does not mean as it would in our modern cultural context, such as "visit for a cup of coffee" and so on. Two Actions must precede the resultant Third: First, there must be a yearning, then, there must be a seeking out, then, at last, there is the visitation. This, in essence, is what the Semitic term of visitation implies. Thus, a correct reading would be: "... For [the Lord] has yearned for, sought out, and (finally) visited, and redeemed His people." Only by reading it thusly we can understand the text, and thereby understand the function of the Visiting Redeemer.
In the second portion of the Alleluia verse, the Priest Zacharias calls his future son "the Prophet of the Most High." What kind of a Prophet would John be, or more correctly, what is the true function of a Prophet? The verse continues: "For [John] will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways." To go before/προ-πορευση literally means to fore-run, hence his function, Saint John the Forerunner. Every true Prophet is a forerunner of the One-to-Come, with Saint John being the foremost among the Prophets, having immediately preceded the Work of Christ, he thus becomes the Archetypal Forerunner.
The Epistle Reading for the Feast is none other than that which is set for Forgiveness Sunday (Cheese-fare Sunday, the Day before Great Lent begins). Within the context of the Feast of the Nativity of the Forerunner, and apart from the context of Great Lent, it speaks of the character and person of the Forerunner. Its speaks plainly of his function, mission, and person: He is clad with the armor of light; he is not a drunkard; he made no provisions for his flesh; he fasted from meats all his life; and so on.
As we examine the (whole) Epistle Reading of the Feast of the Nativity of the Forerunner, with its preceding and anteceding verses (i.e. the Prokeimenon & the Alleluia verses), we can learn much about the special position which Saint John the Forerunner holds. We can understand his importance to both, the faith and the liturgical life of the Church. Apart from the Lord Jesus and His Mother, the Theotokos, he is the only saint which is celebrated six times in the Orthodox Liturgical Calendar (in the Russian Orthodox Church, seven times).
Troparion of the Nativity of the Forerunner
Prophet and Forerunner of the coming of Christ, although we cannot praise thee worthily, we honor thee in love at thy nativity, for by it thou didst end thy father's silence and thy mother's barrenness, proclaiming to the world the incarnation of the Son of God.
Wherefore, O Saint John, the Righteous, the Voice, and the Forerunner of the Lord, intercede for us sinners. Amen.
Lectionary Reading courtesy of: The Book of the Epistles ©2010 Self-Ruled Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, Fr. Charles Baz, Ed.
