Let us look for signs of what the Lord accomplished in our life
The events of our lives are signs of Divine Providence. The philosopher Simone Weil believed that God uses a certain conventional language towards his friends: "Every event of life is the word of this language. The common meaning of all these words is: 'I love you.'"
Listening to today's passage from the Gospel according to Luke, we can be surprised by the multitude of details quoted by the author, who did not write this account until 80 years later. He himself was not converted until 50 C.E., and probably never met Jesus personally, and certainly never met Zacharias or Elizabeth or John the Baptist. It can be assumed that the information about this event was given to him by the Blessed Mother or other elderly witnesses who were still alive. Certainly, it was such an important event for the first Christian community that they cherished the memory of it, with a large number of details
Zechariah and Elizabeth are not among the main characters in the Gospel, but their history reminded Christians of another Old Testament elderly couple – Manoah and his wife - the parents of the famous judge Samson, about whom we heard in the first reading. In both cases, it was about infertility and a long-awaited child who humanly had no right to beconceived anymore. But what is impossible for men is possible for God. The Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation will comment on this, saying: For nothing will be impossible for God (Lk 1:37)
As we learn from the Gospels, Zechariah was a priest of the temple in Jerusalem. He belonged to the eighth division of Abijah. The priests were divided into 24 division, each of which served in the temple for a week. At that time there were about 18,000 priests, so the real lucky one was the one who had the privilege of the incense sacrifice. Such a chance happened only once in a lifetime. The very fact of drawing Zacharias tells us a lot. It is not blind fate that rules the world, but God, who is the Lord of fate.
The encounter with the archangel Gabriel arouses fear in Zechariah. The angel, however, invites him to rejoice and to abandon fear, because his request has been answered. Perhaps Zacharias and Elizabeth long time ago stopped asking for a child without seeing the results of their prayer. Meanwhile, with God, petitions are not forgotten. He responds to them in His own time and in His own way. All we have to do is ask with faith and trust
Zechariah falls silent and remains mute until the birth of John, the Lord's predecessor, and only then regains his speech. Zechariah's silence is not so much a punishment but a prophetic sign. St. Augustine, explaining this passage, wrote: "The recovery of speech by Zacharias at the time of John's birth corresponds to the tearing of the veil in the temple at the time of Jesus' death. If John had announced himself, Zacharias would not have regained his speech. Speech returns, because a voice is born. When John was asked, whenhe was already announcing Christ: 'Who are you?', he replied, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness'" (cf. Jn 1:22-23).
Pope Francis, during his meditation at the Angelus on January 16 this year, said:"I suggest an exercise that can be very good for us. Today, let us try to rummage through our memories, looking for signs that the Lord accomplished in my life. Let each of us say: what are the signs the Lord accomplished in my life? What are the hints of his presence, the signs that he did to show us that he loves us? Let us think about that difficult moment in which God let me experience his love… And let us ask ourselves: with which discrete and loving signs did he let me feel his tenderness? When did I feel the Lord nearer? When did I feel his tenderness and his compassion? Every one of us has these moments in our personal history. Let us go in search of these signs, let us remember them.”
Until Tomorrow
fr. george