Hi everyone. Welcome back to daily gospel.
Alexa juices. As always, our goal is to help
you understand the text from a Catholic academic rigorous
perspective. And we do a verse by verse
exegesis of the Gospel. Text from today's mass, we have
a longer text today. So let's get straight into it
Luke. Luke chapter 1 verses 5 to 25.
In the days of King Herod of Judea, there lived a priest
called Zechariah, who belonged to the abijah section of the
priesthood. And he had a wife Elizabeth by
name who was a descendant of Aaron.
Both were worthy in the sight of God and scrupulously observed,
all the Commandments and observances of the Lord.
But they were childless, Elizabeth was Barren, and they
were both getting on in years. Now it was the turn of
zechariah's section to serve and he was exercising, his Priestly
office before. God, when it fell to him by lat,
as the ritual custom was to enter the Lord's sanctuary and
burn incense there. And at the hour of incense, the
whole congregation was outside praying.
Then there appeared to him, the angel of the Lord standing on
the right of the altar of incense the site Disturbed
Zakaria and he was overcome with fear.
But the angel said to him Zechariah do not be afraid.
Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth is to Bear
you a son and you must name him John.
He will be your joy and delight and many Will Rejoice at his
birth for. He will be great in the sight of
the Lord. He must drink, no wine, no
strong drink. Even from his mother's womb, he
will be filled with the Holy Spirit and he will bring back
many of the sons of Israel to the Lord.
Their god with the spirit and power of Elijah.
He will go before him to turn the hearts of fathers towards
their children and the disobedient back to the wisdom
that The Virtuous have preparing for the Lord, a people fit for
him. Zechariah said to the angel, how
can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is
getting on in years. The angel replied, I am Gabriel
who stands in God's presence and I have been sent to speak to you
and bring you this. Good news.
Listen, since you have not believe my words, which will
come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced and
have no power of speech until this has happened.
Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and were
surprised that he stayed in the sanctuary for so long when he
came out, he could not speak to them and they realized that he
had received a vision in the sanctuary.
But he could only make signs to them and remained dumb.
When his time of service came to an end, he returned home,
sometime later, his wife, Elizabeth conceived, and for
five months, she kept to herself.
The Lord has done this for me. She said, now that it has
pleased him to take away the humiliation.
I suffered among men So that's how long text today.
Let's jump straight into it. What's the context?
Well, we're right at the start of Luke's gospel ring, Luke
chapter 1, verse 5. So just prior to this in verses
1 to 4, Luke has explained to his audience.
Why he's writing. Now, he begins his infancy
narrative, which stretches across chapters 1 and 2,
basically, and these chapters Scholars, have pointed out a
written in quite a different way, compared to the rest of his
gospel. Chapters 1 and 2 of Luke, use a
different stylistic way of writing.
It seems that Luke has deliberately sat down and
written chapter 1 and 2. In a different kind of style
than the rest of his gospel. Why is he done that?
While it appears that the style he chooses here, when writing
chapter 1 and 2 is, he's deliberately setting it up.
So it's a similar to the style of the Greek Old Testament, the
Septuagint, and this, the explanation that most Scholars
give us to why he does that go something like this for The Old
Testament is an unfinished book which has not yet been fulfilled
but the concluding notes of the Old Testament resonate with some
expectation for the people. But with unfulfilled promises so
Luke when he's writing chapter 1 and 2 here deliberately weaves
in numerous allusions to the Old Testament and he's implying as
he tells chapters one and two his suggesting to his readers.
That the story he's telling is a continuation of the Old
Testament. In fact, it's the Fulfillment,
the climax of everything, the Jews have been waiting for in
their unfulfilled Old Testament. So he's really writing this in a
way that's going to make his readers, think about the Old
Testament, and to clearly point out the way it's being
fulfilled. He does this differently from
Matthew though, where is Matthew is much more overt?
Matthew says, as he's going, Matthew says, he's the Old
Testament prophecy and he quotes it and then he clearly tells his
readers. This is being fulfilled, Luke
doesn't do that. He doesn't He quite a whole lot
from the Old Testament. He more just waves in themes and
waves in allusions to the Old Testament and hopes.
It is audience will pick up on the Fulfillment.
So let's start at verse 5, it says in the days of King Herod
of Judea. So who's Herod?
This would be Herod the Great. He was the king over Israel in
the time period. When Jesus was born, he reigned
approximately 37 BC up till about to BC and he's kind of
like a vessel King. The Romans are really the ones
in power but they allowed King Herod to rule over this part of
Israel. Luke has lots of dates in this
early part of his gospel. Luke is deliberately trying to
be a good historian here. In fact, some people who've
looked at the Gospel of Luke have concluded that he's one of
the best historians ever in history.
He is very accurate and he's very clear in terms of the way
he references dates. And people Luke is writing to
Gentiles mostly so his probably deliberately situating his
narrative in the Of world history of events that people
all over the known world would understand.
So Luke is very clear in these first couple of chapters of when
each event happens, who's in power, where it happens, and
those sorts of things, and he says, in the days of King Herod
of Judea, there lived a priest. Now, in the days of Jesus, there
were many priests not priests in the Christian, or the Catholic
context, priests in the Jewish context, these are ironic
priests and their job. It was to work in the temple and
to offer sacrifices and there's a priest here that we introduced
through called Zechariah or that can be translated.
Zacharias and that name, basically means Yahweh has
remembered. So Zechariah means Yahweh has
remembered. So there's a priest in this
time. Period called Zechariah and he
belongs to the abijah section of the priesthood.
What does this mean to say that he's from the abijah section of
the priesthood? The levitical priesthood.
So that would include all men who are descended from Aaron, it
was divided up into 20 four divisions of priests.
So from the total pool of priests that exists.
At this time, the divided into 24 groups or divisions and we
can see this clearly in 1 Chronicles chapter 24.
If you look at that, it actually tells you the twenty four
divisions. Each of the twenty four
divisions, At the temple two different weeks each year.
So if you were in Division Seven For example you would serve in
one week early in the year and then in another week later in
the year. So they served twice a year.
This practice was continuing in Jesus time for any man who is
descended from Erin. They were part of the priesthood
and they will be roasted on depending on what division there
in. And it says, here, that the
Sakura is part of the abijah section, which was the eighth
group, Now from this is some people have tried to determine
the date that all this happened and particularly they want to
work out. What's the date of Jesus?
Birth day. They figure something like this.
They figure that if we know that Zechariah service, he's in the
abijah section, we know the approximate dates that the
obligor section would have been serving in the in the temple in
this particular year and given that while he's a priest there
he he learns that his wife is going to be pregnant and this is
how some people reason they say. Based on that we can work out
the date. That Elizabeth conceived from
that we can work out the date that John, the Baptist was born
and then we factor in some other dates and we can work out
exactly when Jesus himself was born.
Some people have tried to do that based purely on the fact
that we know that Zachariah is part of the abide, you section
of the priesthood. And it's true that this is an
actual date. The Luke is trying to give a
States here. The problem is though we can't
from this, we still can't work out exactly when Elizabeth
conceived because Cuz as you'll see later in the text, it says
that some time passed between the Annunciation by the angel to
Zechariah and the conception of John, the Baptist we don't know
how much time passed. So it's not the best way of
working out, the birth date of Jesus.
So look here says, the Zechariah had a wife Elizabeth by name who
was a descendant of Aaron. So the word Elizabeth means my
God's oath. Luke goes out of his way here to
point out. That Elizabeth is a descendant
of And so both is Zechariah and Elizabeth are descendants of
Aaron there from the levitical. Priests Lee tribe, think about
it. If both of them are from the
levitical priests Lee tribe will then their son.
John, the Baptist is truly a priest in the truest sense.
So Luke is wanting his readers to notice that.
John, the Baptist is a priest in a very, real sense.
Now we later, learn that Zechariah and Elizabeth, they
live in a part of the world called the Hill Country of
Judea. It doesn't give us a toy.
On name. But most scholars believe that
they're leaving the village of Ein Karem which is now been
discovered, and it's about five miles from Jerusalem.
So that would certainly be an appropriate spot for them to
live. Given that Zechariah Works in
Jerusalem so he could just walk to Jerusalem on the days that
he's working. And you can actually go to this
Village today of Ein, Karem, and go to the house that apparently
they lived in and there's some quite beautiful churches there
in that part of Israel even today, which is well worth
visiting verse six. Both were worthy in the sight of
God. A better translation.
They would be both were righteous before God.
This is quite profound. Luke tells us that Elizabeth and
Zachariah are righteous before God much.
Like many of the Old Testament figures and he goes even
further, he says that they scrupulously observed, all the
Commandments and observances of the Lord are more literal
translation here is, they walked in all the Commandments and
ordinances of the Lord, blamelessly, that's quite
remarkable. These two people are blameless
before. God, these are two very Very
holy individuals who took God and his promises.
Seriously, they were very faithful Jews, verse 7, but they
were childless. Elizabeth was Barren.
And of course, in that culture was quite shameful for a woman
to be Barren. Many women in the Old Testament,
suffered similar in a similar position, if you look
particularly in the early chapters of Genesis, but all
through the Old Testament, there's women who are Barren and
God gives them children miraculously and Luke.
Here says, they were both getting on.
He is now we don't know exactly how old they are but they're
getting on in years. So it seems likely that their
past childbearing age. Perhaps, they're both past the
age of 50 for this reason. Then if you think about it, if
they're both kind of older people and they have they give
birth to John the Baptist probably.
By the time, John the Baptist is an adult and perhaps, even by
the time he's a teenager, both of his parents would have died.
And that would that makes sense. If we factor in that it appears
John, the Baptist spent a lot of his life.
Life out in the wilderness, even from a young age.
So it's possible that Zechariah and Elizabeth died fairly early
on and when they did die maybe that's when John the Baptist
went out into the Wilderness perhaps he even went to qumran
and lived with the essence. That's just a theory but we need
to keep in mind that these are quite elderly people Zechariah
and Elizabeth verse 8. Now it was the turn of Zechariah
section to serve and he was exercising, his Priestly office
before God. So Zechariah is on.
He's doing his biannual Duty in the temple, he's serving as a
priest, it fell to him by lat. As the ritual custom was to
enter the Lord's sanctuary and burn incense there.
So what's going on here? Well, I'm, um, all the priests
that were serving in that week, they were all assigned different
tasks that were determined by casting.
Lots Zechariah, is allocated tasks on this occasion is to
enter the Lord's sanctuary and burn incense there.
That particular task could only be done once in a priest's life.
It was probably one of the top jobs.
You could get. So through Providence, perhaps
Zechariah ends up with the job of burning incense, and this
will be the crowning moment of Zacharias Ministry.
He gets to burn the incense in the Lord's, the sanctuary.
So he's going into the holy place where there's an altar to
burn incense has, and to do sacrifices verse 10 at the hour
of incense, the whole congregation was outside,
praying, So Zechariah is doing his job, he's in the Holy place
at the our, it says the hour of incense here.
This is also known as The Hour of Prayer.
This was done twice daily, The Hour of Prayer, and there was
one in the morning, one in the evening and it was typically
done at the same time as the morning and evening offerings in
the temple. If you want details of how this
ritual looked, you can look at Exodus chapter 29 and 30.
This particular one that we're looking at here, this is
probably the later one in the day so we're probably Talking
about 3 p.m. here, Zacharias in the Holy place, he's making a
sacrifice and doing the incense. There's people outside the holy
place, waiting for him, so here's how it works.
The priest would go into the holy place where the altar was
and he'd offer prayer and incense, while the priest did
that the people, the faithful Jews would pray outside the room
and they would wait for the priest to return and then give
them a blessing. So, they're praying and waiting
for Zechariah to come back out verse 11, there.
Appeared to him, the angel of the Lord standing on the right
of the altar of incense. Now, the fact that it mentions
here, the right of the altar of incense.
This really does suggest that Luke got this information from
an eyewitness. Someone has told him someone who
was there at probably Zechariah has told him that the angel was
on the right side of the altar or perhaps.
Luke got this information from Mary.
Many scholars believe that Luke conducted extensive interviews
with Mary to get his information about those early, chapters
verse 12, the site, Disturbed Zechariah and he was overcome
with fear, which makes sense because he's just His duty in
the Holy place and all of a sudden and Angel appears and
he's overcome with fear or more, literally fear fell upon him.
This is actually a common response to the appearance of
angels all throughout the Bible whenever an angel shows up,
people are afraid and that shows that there's probably something
quite Fierce about angels. There's something about their
appearance that really scares people.
They're not these nice fat babies floating around with
wings. They're quite scary.
Big Fierce creatures. It would seem the only person
who doesn't show it a media shocked.
When an angel appears is Mary. Mary is disturbed about what the
angel says to her, but she doesn't show shocked when the
angel First shows up and we'll see that later in the chapter.
This is what the angel says to him Zechariah do not be afraid.
Your prayer has been heard so apparently Zechariah has been
praying for some time that his wife would conceive.
This is nothing. He desperately wants the angel
here confirms that God has heard his prayer.
And perhaps the reason his prayer is heard is because
Zechariah is a righteous man. God has heard his prayer because
he is righteous and he wants to Grant it.
Your wife Elizabeth is to Bear you a son and you must name him.
John now notice this is a command.
You must name him. John, the word.
John means the Lord is merciful or you can translate that Yahweh
has shown Ava, both of those are good translations of the name.
John this phrase here your wife, Elizabeth is to be your son and
you must name him John. This is very similar to Genesis
17 19 where God says to Abraham, your wife Sarah shall bear a son
and you shall name him Isaac. So again you hear these Old
Testament Echoes. God works in patterns.
Verse 14, he will be your joy and delight and many Will
Rejoice at his birth. So the angel says that not only
will you rejoice Zechariah, but many people will rejoice when
he's born. While the angel is going to
explain for, he will be great in the sight of the Lord.
So what does this mean to say that John will be great in the
sight of the lord? Well, it could mean, lots of
different things. But perhaps, the best
understanding of this is that God will approve of John.
The Baptist's. Actions, he will be a great
servant of the Lord who will bring many people to God for
that reason. Many people will rejoice when
he's born, he's going to be a very holy man, that will lead
people to God. Then the angel ads in this
interesting command to Zechariah, he must drink.
No wine, no strong drink. Why does the angel say this?
Well it appears to be because he expects John the Baptist when
he's born to take a Nazarite vow and Nazarite vow.
What is That well in the Old Testament there's various
figures which take this Nazarite vow.
The Vow itself is described in Numbers, chapter 6, verse three,
people like Samson, and Samuel in the Old Testament who are
both leaders of God's people. They take the Nazarite vow and
the vowel included drinking. No alcohol.
You weren't allowed to cut your hair and also they weren't
allowed to have contact with the dead.
So to take a Nazarite vow basically, means you were
consecrating yourself to God. In a specific way, it was an act
of sacrifice. Vice and Devotion to God, it was
entirely optional. So priests could do this if they
wanted to. But they didn't have to and
also, some lay people could take a Nazarite vow.
So, in this sense, people who chose to take the Nazarite vow,
a kind of forerunners of monks and nuns in the New Covenant and
the very similar to The Essence. If you know about the SAS, who
lived out at the Dead Sea and they wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls.
They seem to live a very similar life to those that took the
Nazarite vow But it was entirely voluntary except for John the
Baptist. It's not Zechariah are, the
angel says the Zechariah. He must not drink alcohol.
And the implication is that John?
The Baptist needs to take a Nazarite vow.
He's going to be specifically dedicated to God in a very
Priestly way. John's whole life and his whole
Ministry would be a minimalist one, which includes not drinking
alcohol. And the point of it in this case
is to point people towards God, people should look at John the
Baptist see the way he lives his life differently.
Lately. And that should Point people
towards God, the angel continues, even from his
mother's womb, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit that's
quite a statement. Even from his mother's womb
here, we filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit was
mentioned, briefly in the Old Testament.
It is a concept that's found in the Old Testament and
occasionally it rests on people, but it very rarely rests on
individuals permanently or from or from the womb a couple.
Exceptions would be Isaiah and Jeremiah both of those profits
are said to have the Holy Spirit in a permanent way.
In fact, if you look at Jeremiah 1:5 it says that Jeremiah is
said to be consecrated by the holy spirit in his mother's
womb. So John the Baptist is sort of
following in Isaiah and Jeremiah is footsteps.
He is consecrated from his mother's womb.
So this is highlighting the John.
The Baptist is the latest and greatest Prophet.
Here's the last in the long line of prophets getting people ready
for the Messiah. Shh and this has brought out
later. Jesus himself will describe John
the Baptist as the greatest Prophet.
If you think about it, John, Jesus.
And Mary. All three of those people are
Sanctified by by the holy spirit before they're born.
John is Sanctified as soon as he's in the womb.
Apparently Jesus is Sanctified even before he exists, he could
say. And Mary is Sanctified at the
moment of her conception. The holy spirit is involved in
the conception of all three. Of these people verse 16, he
will bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord, their
God. Now we know from later that
John's Ministry does produce a lot of good fruit and it causes
many people to repent. In fact, that's the whole point
of John's Ministry, he's getting people ready for the Messiah, he
wants them to repent, to make sure they're ready for when the
Messiah arrives. And then the angel says this, he
will come in the spirit and power of Elijah.
So John the Baptist takes up the mantle and the ministry of
Elijah and he's there's a lot of similarities between the two
John. The Baptist wears the same
clothes as Elijah he ministers in the same area, he has the
same basic message as Elijah. In fact, based on the catechism
and we'll see this when we look at the catechism passage it
looks like Elijah's actual Spiritual Authority was
literally passed on. To John, we know that when
Elijah finished his ministry his authority past to Alicia
apparently that same Authority is in the hour passed on to
John, John is literally comes in the authority of Elijah, he's
got Elijah's Spiritual Authority.
And then the angel says this, he will go before him now who's the
him here. Well, Jesus hasn't been
mentioned when we think of John the Baptist, we often think of
he's going to prepare the way for Jesus.
He's going before Jesus and that's true.
But Is not mentioned here by the angel at all.
So, when that, when the angel here says he will go before him
given that, he's just been talking about the Lord, their
god. What the angel is saying, here
is that John will go before God? So here we have a subtle hint
that Jesus himself is gone. That's an interesting
connection, isn't it? He will go before God, meaning,
Jesus, he will turn the hearts of fathers towards their
children. This is an interesting phrase.
So if you look at Malachi chapter 3 and chapter 4, or
there's some interesting prophecies in the Old Testament
Book of Malachi, which predicts that one day Elijah will return
before the coming of the kingdom and particularly Malachi chapter
3 verse 23 says this, I am sending you Elijah to turn the
hearts of fathers to their sons. And so in that context, there,
Malachi predicts, the before the day of the Lord, and messenger,
like Elijah would appear and he's going to preach repentance.
He's going to restore the tribes of And he's going to heal broken
families. So Malachi inspired by the holy
spirit foresees. That one day.
This elijah-like figure will do all these things, and that's
brought out more in sirach. Chapter 48 as well here.
What is the Angel say about John?
The angel says he will turn the hearts of fathers towards their
children. So Gabriel Here confirms that
John is the Fulfillment of these prophecies in Malachi about
Elijah's return. This is the Fulfillment of of
the predicted return of Elijah. To this day, the Jews are still
expecting Elijah to return as Christians.
We believe that he literally did return in the person of John the
Baptist. And in fact Jesus specifically
says that later, that John, the Baptist is the Elijah that was
predicted to return as a result of John's Ministry Menace.
Many sinful men would repent. Now, that's literally what the
word turn means sinful men would repent and they would begin to
follow the teachings of God in their lives.
And their families. So John, the Baptist's Ministry
did bring about much repentance and many people turning to God,
Jesus later. Discusses the importance of
John, the Baptist and he specifically focuses on how John
the Baptist was successful in. Bringing people to repentance
the angel continues. He says he will turn the
disobedient to back to the wisdom that The Virtuous have.
It's not a very good translation there.
What it actually says is who will turn the disobedient back
to the wisdom of the just Just what's the wisdom of the?
Just, it basically means a bang the law and wisdom of God.
And thus, o hear the angel predicts that many people who
were disobeying, God would return to obeying God and the
law. As a result of hearing John
preaching, it's quite a remarkable power that John, the
Baptist has The angel says, he will prepare the Lord a people
fit for him, or you can translate that he will make
ready for the Lord a people prepared.
That's the whole point of John's Ministry.
John's Ministry is not to promote himself, John's
Ministry. It's a, it's a necessary
preparation for the next stage of Salvation history, which is
the coming of the Lord himself in the person of Jesus.
So even here, we see that God's plan, even before Jesus is born
God, Plan is for John, the Baptist to play the role of
Preparing People for the Messiah.
John, the Baptist is actually an incredibly important person in
Salvation history and in the gospels, if John the Baptist
didn't do his ministry, probably Jesus ministry, would have never
gotten off the ground. And so, we should spend more
time thinking about and reflecting on the work of John,
the Baptist. Verse 18 Zechariah said to the
angel, how can I be sure of this?
I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years.
So here although Zechariah is a holy man, he doubts whether it's
true, he dealt whether it is true that his wife can be
pregnant. Now, he doesn't seem to think
it's impossible. He just isn't convinced that
it's going to happen. He's doubting this is similar to
Abraham's doubt. In Genesis 17, when he's told
the same thing about his wife conceiving, Abraham basically
says, it's she's too old, it can't happen.
So Zechariah, probably should have known that.
It's possible because if he knows his old testament, which
he does He should have remembered that God did exactly
this favor ham and his wife and for many others in the Old
Testament. But here, for whatever reason,
he doubts, he doubts, whether really can happen to him.
So, the angel replies, I am Gabriel who stands in God's
presence. So, up to an hour, we didn't
know the identity of this, Angel of the Lord.
In fact, the texture says, the angel of the Lord and hear.
The angel says, I am Gabriel who stands in God's presence.
Here we have a very interesting insight about how Angels work or
at least this Angel Gabriel stands in God.
God's presence. This language of standing In
God's Presence, you could be a reference to tobert 12:15 where
it says that seven angels minister in the presence of God.
Now they could be symbolic, but some Scholars have taken it to
mean that there really is 7 and only seven angels who minister
in the presence of God and they're called archangels.
And this Lighter highlighted in Revelation chapter 8 verse 2.
So in any case, we have here Gabriel, who is one of the
Angels who stands in God's presence and the word Gabriel
means, God is mighty. Gabriel has actually appeared
before in the Bible. He's appeared in the Book of
Daniel and there he appeared to Daniel in chapter 8 and 9 of the
Book of Daniel with a message about the coming Messiah.
So way back in about 600 BC, Gabriel appears to Daniel and he
Dick's the exact timing of when the Messiah is going to arrive.
It's quite a fascinating text. If you look at Daniel chapter 9,
the angel, lays out, basically a specific date or specific period
of when the Messiah is going to arrive in relation to the rest
of Israel's history between Daniel and the gospels, so
Gabriel does not show up for the first time here in Luke.
He is already showed up in the Book of Daniel and there he was
delivering a message about them. Hi.
I'm, what's he doing here? He's basically delivering a
similar message. He's telling Zechariah that his
son is going to prepare the way for the Lord prepare the way for
the Messiah. So some Scholars would say that
angels have specific missions and if you think about it, the
Archangel Michael, his specific mission is to defend Israel.
He's like the guardian angel of Israel Gabriel's Mission
whenever he appears, he always seems to be doing something in
relation to giving people information about the They are,
so that's interesting. And of course, Gabriel is going
to show up again. Later.
In Luke, chapter 12 appear to marry.
And what does he do there? He announces the arrival of the
Messiah. And here's what he says.
He says, I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this
good news. This seems to be the answer to
Zacharias question. Remember Zechariah said to him,
how can I be sure of this? Well, here's the Angels answer.
I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news.
So the answer the angel gives is basically I'm Gabriel the fact
that I'm here with this message. Should have been enough for you
and notice the Gabriel specifically uses the word, good
news, I have come to bring you this.
Good news. The word there is a van July, so
in Greek, throughout the gospels, whenever the good news
is preached, whenever the gospel is preached, the appropriate
response is to believe it, but Zechariah does not believe the
good news here. Verse 20 Gabriel says, listen
since you have not believe my words which will come true at
their appointed time. So here we learn the John, the
Baptist is going to be born and it's going to be at a
predetermined time you'll be silenced and Have no power of
speech until this has happened. So here, God, deals out, a
temporary punishment on Zechariah for his unbelief.
You'll be silenced and have no power of speech until this has
happened. So until John, the Baptist is
born, Zechariah will not be able to speak.
This appears to be kind of a remedial punishment.
It's supposed to bring Zechariah to a greater understanding of
what's going on. God imposes.
Silence on him, to reflect on all the events as they take
place. Verse 21.
Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and were
surprised that he stayed in the sanctuary for so long.
So, the people are still waiting outside the holy place, and
they're wondering why he hasn't come out yet.
When he came out, he could not speak to them and they perceived
that he had seen a vision in the temple.
So, since Zechariah is now dumb, he can't speak.
Well then, he can't Bless the people either.
So here we have a group of faithful Jews who were outside
the holy place. And they see that Zechariah
can't speak to them, so they perceive that he's seen a vision
in the temple. So these are faithful Jews who
believe the miraculous things like Visions can actually occur
in the temple. In fact, the temple itself was
carved with angels, they believed it was sort of a place
where Heaven and Earth met. In fact, priests themselves were
seen as messengers of God on Earth much like how angels are
the messengers of God in heaven. So this is a group of people who
believe the Zechariah has seen. Thing in the Holy place but he
could only make signs in them and he remained dumb.
So Zechariah, can't speak to the crowd, he has to use sign
language of some sort to communicate to them verse 23.
When his time of service came to an end, he returned home.
Notice that Zechariah didn't stop.
He service early. Even though he was struck dumb.
He continued with his service until it came to an end.
That reveals that Zechariah does have a deep true Faith.
Even though he faltered here, When he doubted the Angels news,
he still continues his service, he's a faithful Jew.
Verse 24 sometime later. That's what our lectionary.
Translation says other translations have this.
As after these days we don't know how many days so this could
have been quite a long time. It says his wife, Elizabeth
conceived. So at some point after Zechariah
receives the news, Elizabeth conceives but we don't know
exactly when And then it says, for five months, she kept
herself or more? Literally she hit herself
Scholars. Are not sure what this means
exactly. Why is she hiding herself?
Maybe she wants to be sure that she's pregnant.
Maybe. She's afraid of losing the baby
in the first five months. And she doesn't want to tell
people unless she gets to the five month Mark there's all
sorts of different theories here but apparently she doesn't have
a whole lot of visitors in these first five months until Mary
comes in the sixth month. But this is what Elizabeth says,
when she finds out she's that she's pregnant.
The Lord has done this for me. She said, so Elizabeth
interprets. Her pregnancy as an act of God's
goodness to her much, like many women in the Old Testament, and
he or she says, now that it has pleased him to take away the
humiliation. I suffered among men, so
Elizabeth, glorifies God. She knows if she's no longer
Barren and she knows that she's no longer going to be looked
down upon Society. The Lord has done this for me.
Me, he will take away the humiliation.
I have suffered among men. This is the same as what Rachel
says, in Genesis 30 verse 23, When Rachel conceives after
being Barren for many years. So Elizabeth here is kind of
presented as this new Rachel or the Fulfillment of many women in
the Old Testament, who were barren.
So that's the end of todays. Long text.
I hope you learned something new.
Now, the Zacharias and Elizabeth.
They both reappear later in the chapter and we'll look at their
stories in the coming days as we go on the next section.
Verses 26 to 38 is the Annunciation.
That's when the angel Gabriel appears to marry.
That's read, all sorts of times in the liturgical year.
So it's probably one of the most well-known readings, and we'll
look at that in tomorrow's episode.
Let's now turn to the catechism to see what we can learn from
from the story of the Angel appearing to Zechariah.
There's all sorts of really interesting places in the
catechism where it gets discussed will just talk about a
couple of them. So paragraph 33 to talks about
Christ's role with the angels and also paragraph seven one,
seven and seven one eight. They talk about John's role as
the final fulfillment of Elijah and will include these in the
show notes as well. So, whatever platform you're
listening on, you should just be Able to click on the episode
that's currently playing and it should bring up the entire
episode description and in that description is all these
catechism references that were talking about.
There's also some interesting references about symbols of the
Holy Spirit and it talks about how Elijah himself was empowered
by the Holy Spirit. Let's look at paragraph 2684.
This is about the cloud of witnesses.
In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualities have
been developed throughout the history of the church, has the
personal kharazim of some witnesses to God's love, for
men, that has been handed on, like the spirit of Elijah to
Alicia and John the Baptist so that their followers may have a
share in this spirit. This is a really interesting
Catholic teaching that not many people know.
It's one of the most interesting paragraphs in the catechism.
It says the person or carries them of some witnesses that
God's love for men has been Don't like the spirit of elite
of Elijah to Alicia and John the Baptist.
So, the teaching here is that just as Elijah Spirit past
eventually to John the Baptist. There have been other times in
church history, When people's personal kharazim, their
personal spiritual power has been passed on to other people,
so that their followers may have a share in this spirit.
It's a really interesting aspect of Catholic theology that
particularly holy men and holy women, their individual carries
them in their spirit. Can be passed on to their
followers paragraph. 1070, this is in the section about what
does the word liturgy mean? It says in the New Testament,
the word liturgy refers, not only to the celebration of
divine worship but also to the proclamation of the gospel and
to active charity. So that's interesting.
The word liturgy has multiple uses in Theology.
And one of those uses is the proclamation of the Gospel,
which is what we see the angel doing to Zechariah today.
Thanks for listening to today's longer episode.
Please share this around with other people and will continue
to look at Luke chapter 1 in the coming days.