Blessings on the Blessed ~reflex on Luke 1:57-66
Zechariah has been unable to speak for nine months, because he had doubted the angel who announced the upcoming birth of his son. Now, on the eighth day after his birth, Elizabeth and Zechariah are called to obey the direction that came from Heaven by giving this son a name that will cause a stir. In order to be faithful to God’s will, they must go against the convention that first-born boys receive a name that links them to their fathers and their grandfathers.
People will talk. People DID talk. But Zechariah speaks in obedience to God’s will, and “immediately his mouth was opened” and he could speak. And the first words he speaks are a blessing, a canticle of praise to God that is prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours every single day.
Zechariah obeys, blesses the Lord, and he and his family are in turn blessed. His obedience blesses his family, his neighbors (who are awestruck and see that “the hand of the Lord” is with this child), and his only son, who will receive his mission of preaching and baptizing to prepare the way of the Messiah.
The Holy Family has likewise been blessed by a calling. In their humble obedience from within unique and sometimes difficult circumstances, they draw down God’s blessings of protection and providence. They bear the obedience to worldly authority regarding the census, the inability to find suitable lodging, and the discomfort of traveling during the final days of pregnancy with the spirit of trust in the Father’s Plan. He has given them everything, and He will take care of everything.
Like Zechariah and the Holy Family, we are first blessed by the Lord with a calling, and then our obedience to that call draws down His blessing on us! All that we have, we have received; all that we receive has been given. Even our ability to receive is a gift!
This Christmas, let us all offer the same spirit of humble obedience and loving trust, as we receive the Great Gift that is given to us: our King and Savior, lying in a manger, near his Mother.
