Drawn from an Ambrosian codex, and published by Muratori, volume IV of the Anecdota. By many and great signs, most dear brethren, God our Lord confirms the minds and the faith of the peoples that flock to him, he who made not only the praiseworthy life of his elect, but also their nativity, to be marvellous; as we have learned concerning blessed John the Baptist from the Gospel reading that has been recited, to whom so great a prerogative of being born was granted that he was foretold, before his birth, by prophetic and evangelical voices. Or how should he not have been consecrated by every mystery, who came to reveal to a failing world the Lord of the sacraments unto its redemption?
So, as you have heard, a most aged and barren woman conceived him of a most righteous man, that from manifold despair both the glory of the child being born and the more magnificent power of God at work might appear. This is he of whom we read it foretold through the Prophet: The voice of one crying in the wilderness (Isaiah 40; Luke 3). And therefore Zacharias the priest was struck dumb under the sentence of the rebuking angel; because, confounded by the greatness of the promise, he did not believe that he would be the father of the announced voice. And this we perceive to have been done by a great dispensation of God, that the whole people of the Jews, while they inquired into the cause of so great a silence, might learn the truth of the boy about to be begotten, and that the silence of the great high priest might make public the secret of the holy conception.
Silence, then, is imposed upon the father, lest the herald of the heavenly Word be born amid silence, although in this the secrets of a deeper mystery are laid open. For in that silence of the priest, with the grace of Christ now drawing near, both the severity of the ancient law fell dumb, and every rite of fleshly victims grew still. Yet, that nothing in blessed John might be without marvel, the tongue of the father, which the child while yet to be conceived had bound, the same child when born set loose, so that the most blessed old man, who amid the offices of the ancient traditions had lost the use of speech, with his voice renewed through his son, might proclaim new mysteries.
Nor is it any wonder if such stupendous miracles came about through the merits of him whom so great a grace of God accompanied, that, though he had not yet passed the measure of human conception, he rejoiced within his mother's very bowels at the coming of Christ. For Elizabeth said to Mary, as we have heard: Behold, as soon as the voice of your salutation reached my ears, the infant leaped for joy in my womb (Luke 1). For so great a power was already at work in him, even while he was being formed, that, as a proof of the heavenly mystery which he perceived he was to proclaim to the human race, he anticipated his own birth with prophetic signs.
Why then do we marvel if John recognized Christ coming to his baptism without any hesitation, when, before he himself had come forth into the light, he perceived him to be present in the virginal womb? Indeed, what exultation moved him within his mother's belly he afterward attested with a most clear voice, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1). On account of this voice, most dear ones, all those things which you have heard concerning John were sent before as sacraments; for this reason his glorious conception and praiseworthy life were prepared, that from a mouth so holy the world might hear the voice of its absolution.
How beautifully, moreover, did he name Christ our Lord by the title of the Lamb, by whose blood alone God was to be appeased and all mortality redeemed! It is fitting therefore, brethren, that for the honour of so great a man we should ever exult in most devout festivities, who by one and the same testimony both disclosed the presence of the Lord and prophesied the remedies of his impending advent.