19^th December

Yesterday’s gospel reading from Matthew was the story of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Joseph. Today’s gospel reading from Luke is the story of the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah. Joseph was a carpenter in the small village of Nazareth in Galilee. Zechariah was a priest who was carrying out his duties in the Temple of Jerusalem. The Lord spoke to both of these men as they went about their very different tasks. The Lord always meets us where we are, wherever that is. Although a priest, familiar with the world of the sacred, Zechariah’s response to God’s messenger was one of disbelief. As the angel Gabriel declared to him, ‘you have not believed my words’. Zechariah was rendered dumb, as if to indicate that this experience left him speechless. It was such a mysterious experience that he could say nothing about it to anyone. Some months later when his child was born and he had started to come to terms with the mystery of it all, he would speak, and, how he would speak! He would burst forth in the praise of God, in the wonderful prayer that we have come to call the Benedictus and that has become part of the morning prayer of the church. Sometimes, the Lord can touch our lives in very mysterious ways, in ways that leave us speechless. We struggle to put words on the experience. Saint Paul once referred to some mystical experience in which ‘he heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat’. Silence is often the only response we can make to the Lord touching our lives in some mysterious way. Like Zechariah, it is only over time that we may find words to proclaim such experiences to God and to others.

Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland

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