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Vol I No. 10
Theology & Liturgy

The Benedictus or Song of Zacharias

by The Rev’d Gavin G. Dunbar

When Christ and his forerunner John the Baptist came into the world by wonderful conception and birth, the Spirit inspired chosen witnesses (Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon) to welcome their coming with praise of God.  From ancient times these three songs, or canticles, have featured in the church’s daily worship, and guided our own response to Christ, and to the reading of the Scriptures.  When Mary was carrying Jesus in her womb, and Elizabeth had just borne his cousin John the Baptist, the Spirit inspired his father Zacharias, to proclaim the meaning of these wonderful events, in the song or canticle we know as Benedictus (after the Latin version of the opening words).  It has been part of Christian morning prayer for many centuries, and in the Prayer Book (page 14) it gives us inspired words with which to respond to the reading of the New Testament at Morning Prayer. It teaches us to bless God for raising up “a mighty salvation for us in the house of his servant David” – a reference to Christ, the promised heir of David’s victorious kingdom.  It teaches us that we live in the time of fulfilment, for God has kept his promises to ‘deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life’.  Then when Zacharias turns to address his son John, we learn that the salvation to which John bears witness consists in ‘the remission of our sins’, not for our merits, but ‘through the tender mercy of our God’, who has sent the ‘dayspring from on high’ – the Light that is Christ – to ‘visit’ us.