19 December – Gospel
5In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
8Once when he was serving as priest before God during his section’s turn of duty, 9he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to offer incense. 10Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified, and fear overwhelmed him. 13But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 18Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that this will happen? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” 19The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”
21Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering at his delay in the sanctuary. 22When he did come out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. 23When his time of service was ended, he returned to his home.
24After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, 25“This is what the Lord has done for me in this time, when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”
Commentary on Luke 1:5-25
There are close parallels in Luke’s Infancy Narrative between the birth of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. There are also significant differences. The First Reading, too, provides a prototype for today’s Gospel story as it describes the birth of Samson.
Today we read about the annunciation to Zechariah about the birth of a son to his elderly wife, who is already past child-bearing age. Clearly it was a birth which, in normal circumstances, should not have happened. In a society where having children, and especially boys, was a wife’s primary duty, to be unable to produce children was a terrible shame—the ultimate failure. One had been chosen as wife for this purpose and this purpose alone. Love and affection would have had very little to do with it. And of course, it would have been presumed that the wife and not the husband had failed. At that time, a woman who could not be a mother was considered less than a person.
That is why widows in the Scripture are listed as among the most pitiable of people. Such women might still be quite young when they lost their husbands to war, an accident or disease, but as widows, they were not eligible for remarriage and so would not become mothers.
Right through the Scriptures—in both the Old and New Testaments—the births of significant people happen in circumstances which point strongly to some divine intervention. So, there are in the Bible a number of incidences where elderly women who had never borne a child are, through the intervention of God, blessed with a child, usually a son. Here, too, Elizabeth’s barrenness is seen less as a curse than as a preparation for something special.
As we see, today’s First Reading recounts one of these incidents—the birth of Samson. What is peculiar to all these stories is that the child to be born has a very special role given to him by God. In today’s Gospel, too, there is a sign of God’s intervention in the birth of John the Baptist. He is no ordinary child. He has been chosen for a very special purpose, to be the forerunner of Jesus, the last of the great prophets of the Hebrew Covenant.
The opening of Luke’s Gospel is a kind of diptych, with parallel stories announcing the birth of John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus. We are not dealing here with literal history, although Luke posits the story in a genuinely historical context:
In the days of King Herod of Judea…
Luke writes in imitation of Old Testament birth accounts (like the one in the First Reading), mixing historical facts and legends. So we do not ask: Did all this happen exactly as described? Rather, we ask: What does it mean? And primarily it is part of the answer to another question: Who is Jesus Christ?
In today’s story we have the classical situation of the elderly wife who is childless. Then one day, the husband Zechariah, a member of the priestly caste, is spoken to by an angel while serving in the Temple. The birth of a son is announced, along with his destiny. He will not touch strong drink (like Samson before him) and he will be filled with the Spirit of God even before his birth. He will be the source for many to find their way back to God. Zechariah responds with some scepticism and is punished with loss of his ability to speak because of his unbelief. But following this experience, Elizabeth conceives a child. The stage is then set for the next, and more important, Annunciation.
Today, let us reflect seriously on our own calling by God. Like John, each of us has been called to be a forerunner of Jesus, to prepare the way for Jesus to come into other people’s lives, especially those who have not yet had the experience of knowing him.
