Monday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 23, 2024

Luke 1, 57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary stayed with Elizabeth as long as she could, assisting her in the way that a handmaid could, and then returned to Nazareth for her wedding feast with her husband Joseph.  It must have cost her to not stay to help with the birth, but God willed for her to live with her husband and to prepare for the Birth of her own Son.  

And so Elizabeth gave birth.  The midwife was sent for when the labor pains began.  Certainly the midwife expressed her incredulity when told that the older woman was about to deliver.  Elizabeth, as the wife of a priest, would have had some prominence in the town and her nine months of not appearing in public had caused people to wonder, but no one suspected this.  So she hastened to the house to perform her duty and found it as had been reported to her.  She immediately set aside her thoughts and proceeded to assist the older woman in her labor.  And just as the Angel had declared to her husband, who could now only communicate by writing notes, she gave birth to a boy.  

Many in the town got to know what was happening when some women in the marketplace saw the midwife hurrying into the house of the priest and a small crowd formed outside.  The townspeople must have heard Elizabeth’s cries and a low buzz of excited inquiry and guesses filled the street. It was a time of heated anticipation and people talked about other older and barren women who had given birth: Sarah; Rebecca; Rachel; the mother of Samson; Hannah, the mother of Samuel.  

Eight days afterward, Elizabeth revealed her child to the world.  His circumcision would mark him as a son of Israel, separated from all the other peoples of the world belonging to the Chosen People.  The child was to be named at this event.  Great significance was attached to this naming, for by it the father acknowledged the child as his own, and thereby as a member of the tribe of Levi who would later serve in the Temple.  But since Zechariah could not speak, members of his extended family stepped in.  The choice of naming the child after the father seemed obvious, but Elizabeth, strangely to their eyes, objected and declared that his name was to be John.  This seemed ridiculous to the family and they tried to overrule her.  She persisted and so recourse was had to the father.  After some minutes of trying to show him with signs what they wanted, the father made signs to be given something to write with.  This may have been pieces of papyrus or even a clay tablet.  Zechariah scratched into it with a quill and ink or a stick, a process which have taken some time even for the short message he had for them.  His declaration that the child’s name was John caused an uproar, for he could not have communicated with his wife as he could not speak and she could not read.  The people saw the hand of God in this and they marveled: “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”  But the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah, not of Levi, so he could not be the Messiah.  The people could only watch him through the years and wonder.