One can never have too many pictures of The VISITATION - -
This one was suggested to me by the new FaceBook cover photo of my friend the Rev'd Fr. Anthony Voltatorrni.
So the Old and New Testaments, figuratively (and in picture, in icons), come to embrace; and surely, most surely "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps 85:10).
This must be so. The Logos is pretty emphatic, here: Zecharias and his wife were both righteous before God (Lk 1:6), a tremendous compliment that one, for all time.
And their rough and wooly son, the greatest of all prophets born of women (says the Logos; Lk 7:28), was certainly no less righteous. After all, John was to be filled with the Holy Spirit, an angel confidently declared to the old priest, "even from his mother's womb" (Lk 1:15). And how many among us mortals can lay claim to this ... prior, that is, to our introduction to our churchly Mother's life-supporting womb, the font?
John was no quivering reed in the wilderness; being righteous before God's eyes, and a man of action, he fearlessly stood up to Herod, for example ... as did another man deemed as being righteous, or just (Mt 1:19), standing up to another Herod, in another way (Mt 2:14).
They were both righteous trail-blazers, then, for the Lord Christ. The one, a fatherly protective trail-blazer of a lonely way to Egypt, quite out of the reach of a royal lunatic; the other, a prophetioc trail-blazer of the way of repentance, preparing our hearts for the promised healing Balm of Gilead.
For it is written "Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps."
St. John the Baptizer: a great man, a righteous man, a humble man in Dr. Luther's sense (see above) ... always and faithfully pointing to his God's unflinching steps towards a cross; those unflinching steps shod in sandals, the straps of which trail-blazer John said he was altogether unworthy to untie.
My good Doktor, I can't thank you enough for this wonderful and theologically eddifying comment; and, for "signing on" as a "follower" of this humble "blog-et" I wish I had posted an entry as Evangel-filled as your comment above. Your writing always inspires me. Thank you my friend, frJ
So the Old and New Testaments, figuratively (and in picture, in icons), come to embrace; and surely, most surely "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps 85:10).
ReplyDeleteThis must be so. The Logos is pretty emphatic, here: Zecharias and his wife were both righteous before God (Lk 1:6), a tremendous compliment that one, for all time.
And their rough and wooly son, the greatest of all prophets born of women (says the Logos; Lk 7:28), was certainly no less righteous. After all, John was to be filled with the Holy Spirit, an angel confidently declared to the old priest, "even from his mother's womb" (Lk 1:15). And how many among us mortals can lay claim to this ... prior, that is, to our introduction to our churchly Mother's life-supporting womb, the font?
John was no quivering reed in the wilderness; being righteous before God's eyes, and a man of action, he fearlessly stood up to Herod, for example ... as did another man deemed as being righteous, or just (Mt 1:19), standing up to another Herod, in another way (Mt 2:14).
They were both righteous trail-blazers, then, for the Lord Christ. The one, a fatherly protective trail-blazer of a lonely way to Egypt, quite out of the reach of a royal lunatic; the other, a prophetioc trail-blazer of the way of repentance, preparing our hearts for the promised healing Balm of Gilead.
For it is written "Righteousness shall go before Him,
and shall set us in the way of His steps."
St. John the Baptizer: a great man, a righteous man, a humble man in Dr. Luther's sense (see above) ... always and faithfully pointing to his God's unflinching steps towards a cross; those unflinching steps shod in sandals, the straps of which trail-blazer John said he was altogether unworthy to untie.
My good Doktor,
ReplyDeleteI can't thank you enough for this wonderful and theologically eddifying comment; and, for "signing on" as a "follower" of this humble "blog-et" I wish I had posted an entry as Evangel-filled as your comment above. Your writing always inspires me. Thank you my friend,
frJ