As a husband of 34-plus years, I know what it’s like to come home after the end of a workday or picking up the kids from school and having news to share with my wife. Sometimes it’s good news, sometimes not so much…
I mention this because the last words spoken by Elizabeth to Mary in today’s Gospel — Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled! — are the flip side of the last words spoken by the Angel Gabriel to her husband Zechariah six months prior.
Zechariah was a priest who was ministering in the temple when the Angel appeared to him with the amazing news that he and his wife would have a son who be great before the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, a son who shall be named John and who will serve as the forerunner who prepares the way for the coming Messiah.
But Zechariah seems to have long ago given up the idea that he and Elizabeth would have a child, and that habit of hopelessness and resignation caused him to doubt the message and the messenger, and that doubt led to the rebuke:
“I am Gabriel, who stand before God. 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 will be fulfilled at their proper time.”
That’s what got me thinking of what it must’ve been like when Zechariah returned home to Elizabeth after that meeting. He couldn’t even offer a “Hi, honey, I’m home!” when he came through the door. I can imagine Elizabeth wondering what on earth had happened and peppering him with questions and Zechariah looking around for a pencil and paper and starting with “So, I was in the sanctuary to burn incense…”
Clearly, this husband shared everything with his wife, even the not-so-great part about him not believing the angel’s words which, despite his unbelief, would still be fulfilled. With her knowledge of all that had been foretold by Gabriel, everything clicked and was made clear when Mary walked through her door. In that moment, Elizabeth understood everything and with great joy praised Mary for believing that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. It’s hard not to imagine her following that with a sidelong glance at Zechariah and thinking “Unlike some people…”
The unbelief of Zechariah and the belief of Mary stands in all the more vivid contrast when you consider they were both visited by the Angel Gabriel, that they were both given astonishing, almost unbelievable news, and that the response that each offered to God’s messenger were so similar but had such different outcomes.
Zechariah’s “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” does not sound all that different than Mary’s “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?,” but Zechariah must embark upon nine months of silence, while Mary joyfully embarks upon a journey of communion and joy to help her kinswoman and, more importantly, bring the long-awaited Messiah to Elizabeth and her family and, ultimately, to the world.
I think it comes down to the nature of their hearts. Put simplistically, Zechariah had an old heart and Mary had a young heart. My theory here has nothing to do with age, but everything to do with outlook.
Zechariah had spent years in a state of resigned disappointment, convinced he and his beloved wife would never have a child, so his heart had aged in a way that had him thinking that he’s seen it all, that nothing has changed, and nothing is going to change. It was a heart that let the burdens it had borne foreclose the possibility of something new, something wonderful, something life changing.
For Zechariah, it took losing his ability to speak for nine months for him to come around. In his place of silence, he was humbled and he became someone who listened, and that changed him. When he could finally speak again, he had moved from “that’s impossible” to “all things are possible.”
Mary, on the other hand, had supple heart, a heart that was open to possibilities, even to seeming impossibilities. That kind of heart allowed the angel’s message that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” to immediately dispel any doubt or confusion she may have had. She was all in from the start, and the first thing she did as the New Ark of the New Covenant was to bring the Good News of the Messiah to others in her family and the world.
As this Advent season winds down and we prepare to greet the newborn Savior in a few days, we still have the opportunity to take stock of the state of our own hearts and, even better, to change what may be in need of changing. To move from a heart burdened by this world and its cares to a heart that is open, like Mary’s, to receiving the seemingly impossible graces God offers to us.
At each Mass, the Holy Spirit comes upon and overshadows our simple gifts of bread and wine, and having received the Eucharist, we have new opportunities to bring the Savior to others as Mary did.
To borrow one more line from the first chapter of Luke, from the words of Mary’s Magnificat that follows today’s Gospel reading, let our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior!
Image: Visitation by Domenico Ghirlandaio – photo Shonagon 2024-02-22, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145823995
Deacon Steve O’Neill was ordained for service to the Archdiocese of Washington in June 2013 and serves at St. Andrew Apostle in suburban Maryland. After four years in the Marine Corps and three years at the University of Maryland (where met Traci, now his wife of 30+ years, and earned a degree in English), he has worked as an analyst with the Federal government. Deacon Steve and Traci have two sons and two daughters and three grandchildren.
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