After the advertisement of the birth of Jesus and the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, Luke introduces in his Gospel the account of the birth and circumcision and the name of John the Baptist. Just after these events, Zechariah, who had remained mute after the advertisement of the birth of his son, is released from language and, filled with the Holy Spirit, begins to praise God: it is the canticle known as Benedictus. Its composition is typical of a psalm of praise: a declaration (Lk 1:68a) and the reasons for praise (Lk 1:68b-79). In other words: Zechariah receives and welcomes salvation (visit and deliverance by the Messiah; forgiveness and mercy) as a reality announced throughout time by the prophets, to be joined by his son John (vv. 70-76), willed by God from the beginning and expressed in the form of an oath (vv. 72-73).

From the point of view of content, we can divide the canticle into two parts: the praise proper(eulogy) (vv. 68-75) and an oracle or prophecy (vv. 76-79), which also contains, albeit in a different genre, motifs of praise. Each of these parts, replete with echoes of the Old Testament, has a semantic center. In the first, God's original oath is emphasized (vv. 72b-73). In the second, forgiveness and mercy (vv. 77b-78), topic already addressed by the Magnificat and which runs throughout Luke's Gospel: the good news is that of divine mercy.

"Blessed be the Lord, the God of ^Israel1
for he has visited and redeemed his ^people,2
by raising up for us a saving power in the house of his ^servant David,3
as he had foretold of old by the mouth of his holy ^prophets4
It is the salvation that delivers us from our ^enemies5
and from the hand of all who hate us;
fulfilling the mercy which he showed to our ^fathers6
remembering his holy ^covenant7
and the oath he swore to our father ^Abraham8
to grant us that,
free from fear, wrested from the hand of our enemies,
toserve him in holiness and righteousness, in his presence, all our days".

As in the Magnificat, it is the experience of God's gift that is the first reason to give thanks. Zechariah blesses God because he has remembered his oath, has come near in a surprising way, and has saved the people to whom he belongs and who are in awe of what is happening (vv. 65-66). As in the Magnificat, this present salvation is connected with a divine word announced and promised. Salvation works the report of those whom it fills: the benefit allows us to go back to the benefactor, who is God, and to recognize that, if grace has burst into the today of the beneficiaries, nevertheless, it had been promised and announced multiple times (Lv 26:42; cf. Ex 2:24; Ps 104/105:8; 105/106:45).

"And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High ,
for you shall go before the Lord to prepare his ways9
announcing to his people salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
we shall be visited by the sun that rises from on high.¹⁰
to enlighten those who live in darkness and in the shadow of ^death11
to guide our steps in the way of^peace12".

Zechariah introduces his son in the series of prophets (v. 76a), but declaring him the precursor of the Messiah (v. 76b): "to prepare his ways", an expression that is taken up by Mal 3:1, where Christ is given the degree scroll of kyrios (Lord) using Is 45:23 (cf. Mk 1:2; Phil 2:10-11). This is one of the mentions of the Messiah in the canticle, together with those in verses 69 ("in the house of David his servant") and 78b ("the sun that rises from on high will visit us"). This last expression, in which the Greek term anatolé, "rising star" appears, makes reference letter to the appearance of the Messiah in biblical texts (Num 24:17; Jer 23:5) and intertestamental texts(Testament of Levi 18:3; Testament of Judah 24:1; Damascus Codex 7:19; 1QM 11:6).

Zechariah can thus take up what the angel had told him earlier: "He will turn many children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to prepare for the Lord a people well disposed" (Lk 1:16-17), and recognize that his son is a grace for all the people, not only a cause of joy for his parents.

The Magnificat has already pointed out that divine mercy has manifested itself in favor of those who fear him, in particular, in favor of Mary and her people (Lk 1:50, 54): salvation is the effect of mercy. The Benedictus takes up this motif and mentions it in each of its parts, to signify that mercy was not exercised only with the birth of John, but already with the fathers, that is, with all the ancestors of the Scriptures. These human voices, from the salvation experienced and recognized by what was worked in them and by them, can confess that God is merciful. This motif of mercy progresses throughout the Gospel and is emphasized from the beginning so that the reader can interpret, in what follows, the words and deeds of Jesus as an effect of divine mercy.

<sup>1. Ex 5:1; 32:27; 34:23; Nm 16:9; Dt 33:26.
Ruth 1:6.
3. 1 Sam 2:1; 2 Sam 22:3; Ps 17/18:3.
4. 1 Kgs 17:1; 22:22-23; Za 8:9.
5. Ps 105/106:10; Mic 4:10.
6. Dt 7:12; Mic 7:20.
7. Lev 26:42; Ps 104/105:8; 105/106:45; 110/111:5.
8. Gen 26:3; Ps 104/105:8-9; Mi 7:20; Dt 9:5; 29:12 and Num 32:11; Dt 1:8; 6:10; 30:20; 34:4; Ba 2:34.
9. Mal 3:1; Is 40:3.
10. Jer 23:5; Is 60:1-2; Za 3:8.
11. Ps 106/107:10.
12. Is 59:8; Is 9:5-6.</sup>