“What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”
Today the Gospel celebrates the birth of John the Baptist. The birth of a child is an occasion for great joy. Being the 2nd oldest of 10 children I was able to celebrate the birth of many of my sisters and brother and even accompanied my father to the hospital for the birth of the last four. I knew and could feel it was a special time in my parents’ life.
At birth a child’s whole future lies before them and so what was asked about John the Baptist can also be asked about each child at birth: “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” Indeed, the Lord is with each child at birth since they are created in God’s image and likeness. Nothing can separate them from the love of God, not even original sin. That is why the church, doing away with theory of limbo, “teaches that infants who die without baptism are entrusted by the Church to the mercy of God.” The souls of these just and innocent children remain in the hands of the loving God.
We celebrate today not only the birth of John the Baptist but the birth of all the new lives in our parish. We pray for their parents as they give thanks to God for the blessing of their child and as they look to the future and ask themselves: “What, then, will this child be?”