1. The visitation.
The visitation is when the Blessed Virgin Mary with Christ in her womb, visited her cousin Elizabeth. And during the visit, John who was in Elizabeth’s womb was filled by the Holy Spirit and shared that Spirit with Elizabeth, her mother. So both Elizabeth and John were filled with the Holy Spirit.
This is a figure of ‘evangelisation.’ In evangelising, the Church (prefigured by Mary) with Christ (as the Church’s created soul) visits to evangelise a nation (Elizabeth and John). Notice that the Church (Mary) does not preach. Her mere presence with Christ within her was enough to evangelise and sanctify Elizabeth and John. This is the proper way of evangelisation that was most effectively used by the first monks in England, Germany, the Slaves and the Scandinavians.
The modern evangelisation of the missionaries of mercy are unlike Mary. They do not have Christ within them in that they do not have the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity OR they do not have the four visible marks as mentioned in the Nicene Creed nor the 15 Marks of the Church according to St. Robert Bellarmine.
So any one they approach are not filled with the Spirit as John and Elizabeth. Instead, they are filled will adulterous and aberosexual desires, aside from becoming complacent in their atheism, Protestantism, paganism, animism; and their desire to travel to Europe without visa.
So much for evangelisation which everybody is calling ‘new evangelisation’ but is neither new nor old. It is weird.
2. The birthday of John the Baptist.
The visitation showed how John entered the Catholic Church; by the mere presence of Mary and Jesus. His birth showed in more concrete form how he entered.
The feast contains two steps; first, the circumcision. And secondly, the giving of a new name.
The circumcision is a ritual wherein the foreskin is cut. Like all religious ritual this has a deep significance. It means the cutting off from one’s life all corporal or physical source of pleasures, commonly referred to as ‘the pleasures of the flesh.’ After this ritual, John left home and dwelled in the desert; the ‘desert’ being the symbol of a way of life deprived of all pleasures of the flesh. This is the best place to develop the spiritual life.
The monastery was supposed to be a ‘mystical desert.’ And St. John Chrysostom wrote that any home or room can be transformed into a ‘mystical desert.’ Thus St. Catherine of Sienna wrote that she always carried her own desert with her every where she went, not to be out of it at any time.
For St. John the circumcision was the grace; and his going to the desert to stay there until the public life of Jesus was his way of conquering all the desires of the flesh. It took him about 30 years, too, the same time Christ lived His hidden life. Christ, in His hidden life was, also, showing the necessity of disciplining the desires of the flesh. And it takes about that long to do so.
It is the world’s inability to do this ascetical practice, St. Paul calls spiritual circiumcision, that makes of them adulterers, killers of babies, killers of strangers, perverts, bad bishops and bad popes.
Ask any one of the above; who among them spent 30 years in the desert disciplining their passions and concupiscence? Absolutely NO ONE!!! So what do we expect? The Church that we have today…..’spiritually uncircumcised.’
3. The giving of a new name.
After the circumcision of St. John he was supposed to be given a name. Usually the name of a relative. But when they asked Elizabeth d was to be given to the child, she gave an entirely new name given to her by the Spirit. And upon double checking it with the Father, who by now was still dumb because he doubted the angel, he asked for a tablet and wrote; ‘his name is john.’ Everybody was surprised because there was no relative with that name. It was an entirely new name.
The concept of a ‘new name’ is only found in the Apocalypse. It is a new name that God, Himself, gives to one who has reached perfection. It is a new name written in a marble which only the person named can read. Nobody else. The ‘new name’ was a sign of predestination.
The importance of this ritual was carried over in religious life in that the religious, upon profession, is given a ‘new name.’ to symbolise that by his profession he has become predestined to go to heaven. But the whole ritual has lost its deeper meaning and the entire liturgical practice is no longer observed. Might as well, Anyway, nobody is being predestined to heaven.
4. The message of the feast is clear.
The message of the feast is that unless we completely discipline our concupiscence and passions to be able to grow in Faith, Hope and Charity OR to enter the Catholic Church, we shall never receive our ‘new name’ from God.
The god of the world is the ‘pleasure of the flesh.’ Do what your concupiscence want, do what your passions want, do what your body and senses want, do what your neighbour want, do what the devil want…….do everything except what God wants.
That ‘new name’ is a fact and a theological truth. We have to get it before we die and face the judgment seat of God. What is found in Scriptures. We won’t get it unless we undergo our ‘spiritual circumcision.’ His name will be John. But none of your human relatives have that name. It is a completely new name. Yes, a ‘new name’ from God and from the angel.
The Official Website of the Caryana Community