In oraculum Zacharia

Homily on the Oracle of Zacharias, and on the Conception of Elizabeth. Nothing is insubordinate to the Lord’s decrees; for all things yield and serve the divine command. For He established a decree, it is said, and it shall not pass away; for He who constituted the whole by a word in the beginning can again transform His creations by a word. He once commanded the waterless rock to become a flowing stream; and it immediately gushed forth rivers of water. For He struck a rock, and waters flowed, and rivers were flooded; and the dry rock, previously untouched by water, became a source of rivers and a mother of waters; for nothing is barren to which God commands fertility. He who then transformed the barren rock into a lake now commanded the sterile Elizabeth to be revealed as a childbearing mother, and showed the unfruitful to be fruitful, and the woman weighed down by age as a newlywed maiden. When she hastened toward the tomb, then she was prepared for childbirth; when old age withered her body, then God renewed her womb; and what she lost through time, she regained through the Creator; and what youth destroyed, old age demanded; when she became a neighbor of death, then she was called the mother of a child; and surpassing the years of a grandmother, she fell into maternal care, and carried an infant in her arms, she who needed a staff for support due to old age; and the old woman handled a firstborn child, and the barren woman gave birth unexpectedly, so that a virgin giving birth contrary to nature might be believed. Both are new and paradoxical; for a barren woman and a virgin are unexpected mothers.

The herald of this extraordinary birth, the archangel Gabriel, was sent to the elder Zacharias; and standing at the right of the altar, he appeared to him. And Zacharias, it says, was troubled when he saw, and fear fell upon him. For he saw what he had never seen before: a fire that spoke, a bodiless man, an intangible form, an incomparable sight, a peerless vision, an aerial runner, a winged human-shaped being. And seeing, he was troubled. But the angel, seeing him troubled, drives away the fear with favorable promises: “Do not fear, Zacharias, for your prayer has been heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John; and he will be joy and rejoicing for you; and many will rejoice at his birth. Do not fear, Zacharias; I have not come brandishing fear, but I have arrived as a herald of joy for you. What joy? Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. He, like the morning star, will shine upon the world, and will drive away the darkness of ignorance, invoking the sun of righteousness. For the one who comes after me has become before me; I am not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal. And he himself will go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah. The spirit of Elijah dwelt also in John; for the spirits of prophets are subordinate to prophets; and in almost everything we find John similar to Elijah.

That one dwelt in the mountains, and this one spent his time in the desert; that one was fed by ravens, and this one ate locusts of the fields; that one wore a sheepskin, and this one camel hair; that one was severe and reproachful, and this one likewise; that one reproached Ahab the king of the Jews, and Jezebel his wife: "You," he says, "are the one who perverts Israel, and the house of your father"; and John reproached Herod and Herodias: "It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother." And he himself will go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers toward their children. What is "to turn the hearts of fathers toward their children"? The fathers of the Jews—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, and all the righteous—seeing the people as lovers of sin and readily prostituting themselves to foreign gods, turned away from them as such. But after John proclaimed the baptism of repentance, many turned toward God. Therefore, their fathers, seeing them turning toward God, also turned their hearts toward them; and this is the meaning of "to turn the hearts of fathers toward their children": to prepare for the Lord a prepared people, a chosen people, concerning whom the prophet David proclaimed beforehand, saying: "This is the generation of those who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

The old man Zacharias is still astonished by the strange conception of the child; he still takes offense at the untimely birth, not reasoning wisely that the potter of the womb is able to renew the aged matrix. Therefore he also rolled down the precipice of disbelief. For when the angel said, "Behold, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will call his name John," Zacharias fights against the word and says: "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days. Whence, he says, will the certainty exist for me? What sort of proof of the promise can you present to me? Show me now also a rod, as in the case of Aaron the high priest, that has blossomed, and then I will believe you that old age can also bear fruit with a child. For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days. Your words are kind, but the promise is hard to believe. You procure a child for me, hope upon hope; the time of my prime has passed; I have consumed the life of my youth fruitlessly. When I have become like dry wood, then you compel me to bear fruit; I go about the marketplace bent over, I am no longer able to look up to the sky; old age drags me down to the kindred earth; for I am earth, and to earth I will go; I barely move the step of my feet; my two feet are not sufficient for stepping; I carry a staff as a third foot; for I have not until now been provided with a child as a guide; I am a moving tomb, and a dead traveler. How then from now on will a child call me father?

I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days. When old age brings me to the tomb, shall I then enter a marriage bed and beget a child, when the sun of my youth has set? I am worn out by time, and Elizabeth’s womb is dead. By what then shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days. And the angel answered him: I am Gabriel, who stands before God, and I was sent to speak to you and to announce these good tidings to you. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak. Do I wish to do something, and how do you ask? I have resolved to work a miracle, and you seek the manner? You are altogether meddling with the beginning of my works. Is not every word possible for God? Tell me, from where was Isaac born? Did not Abraham, the old man, beget him, and did he not call Sarah, the barren, mother? Having fallen into the same expectation, why did you not accept my words as he did? Therefore you will be silent and unable to speak, because you did not believe my words. I will bind your tongue, which was moved to a disorderly response, in which you gave birth to the sin.

is an instrument; in it be instructed. For by the very means by which one sins, by those same means one is punished. Therefore you shall be silent, and unable to speak, in return for your not having believed my words. You did not believe my words when I spoke; now that you are silent, await the words, which will be fulfilled in their own time. For what is impossible among men is possible with God. Glory to Him for ever. Amen.