Dec 23: Rely on the Strength that Comes from the Spirit

Domenico Ghirlandaio: Zechariah Writes Down the Name of John

Thursday of the Fourth Week in Advent

Gospel: Lk 1:57-66

He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God (NRSV, Lk1:63-64).

Lord, you speak one Word to us all in the depth of our being, the same Word in every time and place. There are instances, any given moment, that your Word, however, breaks through to our understanding in a way that seems to us particularly challenging. “Oh, no,” we say, “it cannot be.” “It doesn’t make sense considering what we have been and what we are now.” How little we realize that at every moment we are all called to let go of our past and present and to accept something radically new if only we would listen more carefully to the one Word that you, Lord, speak to us from eternity. And, thinking that we know better, we close our minds and our wills to your invitation into the future that is really growth in your divine life freely offered to us.

With that “no” that we utter, rejecting you, Lord, and your call forward, confusion at very least enters our life, and perhaps worse, the evil that can follow poor judgment. We are like Zechariah who doubted the Word spoken to him by the angel that Elizabeth was to bear a son, and we become, for all that truly matters, like Zechariah, struck dumb. We become helpless, relying on our own strength which is powerless.

How gratefully, we are, Lord, that no matter how stupid or even evil we may become, you never abandon us. Your Word is always there, pressing in upon us, to repent and turn back to you.

Help us, Father, with the strength that you gave Zechariah finally to accept the Word as he heard it in his situation. We truly believe that it is the strength you give always, to all of us. Help us to overcome our own stubbornness and resistance to your call, clinging to what we are now rather than letting go to become something truly new. May we join with Zechariah in this moment to say “yes” to you as we first did in our mother’s womb. May this “yes” also be a commitment never to rely on our own strength but always and solely on the strength that comes from your Holy Spirit.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.