Daily Reflection Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” It is a fundamental tenet of Christian faith that the will of God will be accomplished. It is in our interest, then, to hear God’s will for us: to receive it wholeheartedly and to respond faithfully. Mary, the Mother of God, shows us a good example of this faith. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, struggled with this.



Unlike Mary, he could not accept Gabriel’s announcement in good faith. Instead, he asked for a sign. And for this he was rendered mute. He was given a temporary forced silence – a period of time to come to appreciate the Lord’s will for him. He had to learn, first, the meaning of Gabriel’s message that “Nothing will be impossible with God,” followed by Mary’s response, “Let it be done to me according to your will.”



Happily, Zechariah did learn the lesson. With the birth of his son, he wrote the name John on the tablet, following Gabriel’s instruction. And then he gave praise to God. Read on in the gospel (Luke 1:62-79) and hear the “Canticle of Zechariah.” It begins, “Blessed by the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free.” And so we pray, “Thy will be done.”