The Gospel For Tuesday, the third week of Advent is taken from Luke, first chapter fifth to the 25th verse. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priest division of Abihah. His wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of Lord blamelessly. And they had no child because Elizabeth was barren. And both were advanced in years.
Once where he was serving as priest in his divisions turned before God according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by Lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son and and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness.
And many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. You will go before him in the spirit of power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient, to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord. Then Zechariah said to the angel, how shall I know this?
For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. And the angel said to him in reply, I am Gabriel, who stand before God, and I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which be fulfilled at their proper time. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and were amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. But when he came out, he wasn’t able to speak to them. And they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary.
He was gesturing to them, but remained mute. Then when the days of ministry were completed, he went home. After this time Elizabeth conceived and she went into seclusion for five months, saying, so has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others. In reading just the surface of this story, it seems that when Zechariah was told that this miracle would take place, he rejected it. And all that we’re told is that when he saw this angel, he was filled with fear. And over and over again I keep seeing in the Scriptures that this thing called fear is our greatest obstacle to surrendering to the ways in which God is entering into our life and trying to be the one who guides us and show us the way.
And it always involves things that do not make sense or that we don’t understand how we can do them. So be careful of fear when your life takes a change that’s radical and different and you know that the ways things have been in the past will no longer be that way. Instead of welcoming this change, we are often filled with fear. Fear is the obstacle to the receptivity we need to have when it comes to God guiding our life. Closing Prayer Father, Scripture teaches us over and over, do not be afraid. So take from us this normal human reaction to things we cannot fully understand, things that are not familiar to us.
Give us a heart that is open, trusting, curious, adventuresome, and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
