4th Tuesday in Advent

In my homily last week, I mentioned how Zechariah let his fear take the place his faith should have in his heart. He doubted the words of the angel and after that, he became dumb and he entered a long and dark period in his interior life. While John the Baptist grew in Elisabeth’s womb, Christ was silent growing in Zechariah’s heart as well. That is to say, his former fear became a seed; behind the doubt there was a bigger truth lying, ripening in the silence and solitude of Elisabeth’s pregnancy. And when John was born, Zechariah was reborn. He could see what his heart would not have believed before and he could now reinterpret all his past, and even the history of his people by the light of this powerful experience he had. And Zechariah’s conversion from fear to faith was considered so meaningful by the Church that up to now we sing Zechariah’s canticle every single day during Lauds, right before the Mass. His experience is worth being re-lived, re-enacted by each one of us. Christ wants to be born in our hearts. Our fears cannot impede that. We are instruments in the lives of our brothers, preparing the way for the Lord’s manifestation in their lives. May we welcome, full of joy, the new life that is coming in our midst today.