The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Ver. 65. — And fear came on all that dwelt, &c. That is, a religious fear and reverence towards God Who had done so many wonderful works concerning John both as to his father and mother. For where God displays his power there arises on the part of men towards Him and His majesty a sacred feeling of fear and reverence.
Ver. 66. — What manner of child shall this be, &c. God did this in order that by means of these signs He might stir up the minds of all men to the veneration of John as the future forerunner and discloser of Christ, and in order that He might procure authority for him ; and that so his testimony concerning Christ might outweigh every objection. Christ revealed to S. Bridget (Lib. Revel, cap. 108) that there were three saints who had pleased Him above all others, viz., the Blessed Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and John the Baptist, and that the demons, being struck with terror at his birth, bewailed and lamented when the angels and pious Israelites rejoiced.
And the hand of the Lord was with him. The hand, that is the wonderful power, providence, care, grace, and favour of God (for of all these the hand is the symbol) displayed themselves in this boy, so that it might be seen that he was singularly formed, chosen, and destined for great things. And God showed this — 1. by announcing his nativity by an angel to his father Zacharias ; 2. by unloosing the tongue and the ears of Zacharias at his birth, so that he might speak the praises of God; 3. by illuminating and impelling him to prophesy concerning the boy ; 4. by giving to Elizabeth when old and barren this offspring by a miracle ; 5. by giving to the boy a new and unusual name. All which things, being for the most part miracles, portended that John would be a great man and a prophet, and that God would accomplish great things by him ; and all who saw or heard these things were filled with great fear, joy, and hope.
S. Ambrose, Origen, and Euthymius add that John himself felt that the hand of God was upon him ; since he felt every day that by the operation of God he grew and advanced in the use of reason, in holy inspirations and desires, in the love and worship of Christ, in grace and in merits beyond what was natural to his years.
Ver. 67. — And his father Zacharias was filled , &c. Zacharias already had the Holy Spirit, for he was a just man (as we read in verse 6) ; yet he by the birth of John received so great a fulness of the grace of the Holy Spirit, both sanctifying and rendering him acceptable, and also gratuitously given, i.e. of the spirit of prophecy, and he was filled with so great a love for Christ, already incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, that he broke forth into this prophetic song which the Church sings daily in the Divine Office at Lauds.
Ver. 68. — Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Zacharias in this song does two things, 1. He praises God for the Messiah incarnate in the Virgin, 2. From verse 76 to the end he praises God by addressing his son John, and celebrates his office as the forerunner of Christ.
The God of Israel. For although He is the God of all men, yet He is especially the God of Israel, i.e. of His faithful people, whether they were Jews and Israelites as formerly, or Christians as in these days.
Hath redeemed , &c. God by means of Christ already incarnate had begun the work of the redemption and deliverance of the whole world from the yoke of slavery to the devil, sin, death, and hell, under which it had been held for four thousand years, but especially the redemption of Israel, i.e. of the Jewish people, to whom especially the Messiah had been promised. Zacharias by the spirit of prophecy knew of the incarnation of the Messiah in the womb of the Virgin, and therefore that the redemption of the world was already begun, inasmuch as the Redeemer was conceived Who after a few years was about to complete the redemption of the world by His death on the Cross.
And hath raised up an horn of salvation. In Scripture horn signifies strength, power, victory, glory, and consequently a kingdom ; for all the glory and strength of horned animals consists in their horns, as S. Chrysostom says. Hence S. Cornelius, pontiff and martyr, is represented in painting with a horn, and received his name from it because with the strength of an horn he resisted the Emperor Decius, and triumphed gloriously over him by martyrdom . See what I have said on Hab. iii. 4, Dan. viii. 4, and Deut. xxxiii. 17.
The meaning, therefore, is that God has again raised up the horn, i.e. the excellent power and glory of the kingdom of Israel by Christ the Son of David, which horn had flourished in the times of Joshua, and David, and Solomon, but had now fallen ; and this horn was not temporal but spiritual, as I have said on verse 32. There is an allusion to Ezek. xxix. 21, In that day the horn of the house of Israel shall bud forth. It is clear, therefore, that the horn of salvation is Jesus Christ Himself the Saviour, and his power, victory, and kingdom ; according to that saying of Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 10, The Lord shall give strength unto His king and exalt the horn of His anointed. Tropologically, Bede says, “The horn stretches beyond the flesh, and so the kingdom of Christ reaches beyond the world and the joys of the flesh; according to which figure David and Solomon were consecrated kings by the horn of oil.” And Origen explains Isa. v. 1, a vineyard hath been planted in a horn (Vulgate, vinea facta est in cornu), as meaning the Church has been planted in Christ.
Ver. 70. — By the mouth of His holy prophets. All the prophets prophesied of Christ, e.g. Isa. xix. 20 ; Jerem. xxx. 10 ; Ezek. xiii. 21.
Ver. 71. — That we should he saved from our enemies. As God spake by the prophets, and promised salvation, i.e. the deliverance and salvation of Israel and the whole world from captivity to the devil, sin, death, and hell, so now hath He accomplished the same, a horn of salvation, i.e. a strong Saviour, Jesus Christ. Observe that Zacharias here interprets the ancient prophecies of the kingdom and salvation of Christ, not in a temporal but in a spiritual sense, as is clear from verse 73 and the following.
Ver. 72. — To perform the mercy . As God promised Christ to our fathers, so now has He fulfilled His promises, and has shown Christ to their posterity, by Whom He will deliver also the fathers from limbus, and bless them, and bring them into heaven with Himself. Whence Theophylact says, “The grace of Christ reaches even to those who were dead ; for through him all will rise again : He also fulfilled the hope of the fathers;” for as Theophylact says again, “ When the fathers see their sons enjoying such blessings, they rejoice and are partakers of their joy, in the same way as if the blessings had been bestowed upon themselves.”
His Holy Covenant — This covenant was made by God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Gen. xii. 3, and xxvi. 4, and xxviii. 14 ; and it is this, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed . Jeremiah explains this blessing, ch. xxxi. 31.
Ver. 73. — The oath. This may be referred — 1. To the word remember. So Euthymius takes it. 2. It may be referred to the word mercy. 3. It may, more properly, be referred to the word covenant ; so that the meaning is, God hath sent Christ, that He might show Himself mindful of the covenant, by which He promised Him to the fathers ; which covenant is that great oath which He sware to Abraham.
Or 4, you may refer the word oath more plainly and easily to the word perform in the preceding verse; so that three reasons may be signified here on account of which God has raised up this horn of salvation — 1. that He might perform His mercy; 2. that He might remember his covenant; 3. that He might fulfil His own oath. He swore to Abraham that He would multiply his spiritual seed, rather than his seed according to the flesh, as the stars of heaven, and that in his seed He would bless all nations. Gen. xxii. 16, and Heb. vi. 13, 14. The Hebrews often leave words to be understood from those which precede or follow : so here the word oath is used for the performance and fulfilment of the oath ; for these words were spoken by Zacharias when he was exulting, and, as it were, absorbed in joy; so that he has regard to and pours forth not so much words as things ; whence in his words he often falls into solecisms and other defects.
Ver. 74. — That we being delivered, &c. He explains the oath of God, i.e. the blessing which He promised to Abraham, and confirmed with an oath, and shows that it consists in the salvation which Christ brought, that being set free by His grace from our enemies, viz., from sin, the devil, and hell, to which we had been as it were enslaved, we may now serve God in holiness. This service is latria which is the worship due to God alone ; for in the Greek it is λατρεύειν.