Zechariah had everything he could ask for but for one thing: a son. He had a wife, a home, a position as a priest in the Temple of the Lord. He had many blessed years behind him — of peace, of health, of plenty, of honor. Still, he and Elizabeth prayed, even into the time of their lives when the blessing of a birth was no longer possible.
It was at the exact moment of impossibility, that the angel of the Lord appeared in the Sanctuary to remind him that, for God, all things are possible.
For God, all things are possible. (Mt. 19:26)
Zechariah, after the years had begun to create a shadow over the many gifts he had been given, heard the promise with old ears, and questioned it. Therefore, the angel added another: that as his hearing was dimmed, so would be his voice, until the day his child was born. Zechariah endured the most exciting months of his life in silence, wondering at God’s grace and his own doubt.
When the day came that his son appeared to the world, he had to correct those who wanted to name the child after him. In writing on a tablet, he set aside his pride, and named his son “Jehohanen,” “Jahweh has mercy.” We know the child as Saint John the Baptist, the Precursor and Prophet of the Savior of the World, Jesus, the Son of God.
At that moment, Zechariah’s tongue was freed:
Blessed be the Lord,
The God of Israel;
He has come to His people and set them free.
Acknowledging the child to be born to Mary, even before his own, he sang:
He has raised up for us a mighty Savior,
Born of the house of His servant David.
And he sang of the undoubtable promises of God:
Through His holy prophets He promised of old
That He would save us from our enemies,
From the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
And to remember His holy Covenant.
This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham:
To set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship Him without fear,
Holy and righteous in His sight
All the days of our life.
Now freed from doubt, he prophesied about his own child:
You, My child shall be called
The prophet of the Most High,
For you will go before the Lord to prepare His way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation
By the forgiveness of their sins.
And concluded with a refrain which cannot mask his tears of joy:
In the tender compassion of our Lord
The dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness
And the shadow of death,
And to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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Like Zechariah, we too have everything, everything except that child that goes before the Lord; that child whom we are in the fulness of our dignity. That child for whom we have stopped praying because we are too old, too worldly; because we know too much. We are stricken by our doubt; we are stricken dumb. The moments come for testimony and we are voiceless. Persecution begins its crescendo pianissimo. We hear it and cannot respond.
The dissonance of evil rises. The cacophony of the deluded chorus builds.
Yet no echo will come but for the whisper of Heaven reminding us:
You, My child shall be called The prophet of the Most High…
Promising us that He will:
…set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship Him without fear,
Holy and righteous in His sight
All the days of our life.
And freeing our voices to sing with the euphoric voices of God’s children the dawn from on high shall break upon us!
When Zechariah first sang that, witnesses turned to each other and asked, “What will this child be?“
May that child be you.
The Canticle of Zechariah / The Benedictus — A Prayer of Praise and Redemption
