The Catholic Weekly 25 December 2020

From the Gospelswe thinkwe know the story of the entry into human life and human existence on the part of Jesus. But in this riveting account, a gifted historian delves deeper into the stupendous reality of the Godwho becomes one of us. Madonna with child (The Virgin of the Lillies) are depicted in this 1899 painting by French A detail of “The Annunciation” by Jan van Eyck, circa 1434. PHOTO: CNS,ANDREWW. MELLON COLLECTION VIA THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. T he year was 747 of the Roman era - ab urbe condita , reckoned from the legendary founding of the imperial city by Romulus and Remus the wolfchil- dren – according to our calendar (distorted at this point by a relative- ly minor historical error on the part of its original designer, the monk Dionysius the Little), 7 BC. Half-demented King Herod, grown monstrous with bitter age (67) and raging hate, had just exe- cuted his two sons by Mariamne, his one-time great love whom he had also murdered many years be- fore; Caesar Augustus commented that it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son. The boys had died by the strangler’s noose, along with 300 officials at Jericho suspected of collusion with them. The king had dyed his white hair black, the better to pretend that he was young again. The world and the Chosen People looked upon this spectacle of evil with the mixture of fear and un- healthy fascination such spectacles always evoke. Yet in the Promised Land, bless- ed long ago by God Himself when He led His Chosen People there and gave it to them, were two temples for Him: one the mighty structure of stone on the site where (except for the 50 years of the exile in Babylonia and the three years of Antiochus IV’s profanation at the time of the Maccabees) He had been honoured with sacrifice and incense and prayer and vows for just short of a thousand years; the other of flesh and blood, a girl about 14 years old, “a virgin be- trothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.” Mary and Joseph lived in Naza- reth, a little village tucked away in the Galilean hills in the northern part of Palestine. There is good reason to believe that before her betrothal Mary had pledged her virginity to God, so that her mar- riage to Joseph was only to give her a protector and legal status in a so- ciety which – except for the Essene communities at Qumran and else- where – had no place for the con- by Warren Carroll secrated celibate life. In the temple at Jerusalem the sacrifice of lambs and the burning of incense went on, morning and afternoon, every day of every year. Some 20,000 priests, descendants of Aaron and Levi, were eligible to offer the in- cense on the golden altar of the sanctuary, alone before the curtain which screened the Holy of Holies. Each one, chosen by lot, did so just once in all his life. It was probably in this year 747 [of the Roman era] 7 BC that the priest Zachary was chosen for this highest honour that life could bring to an ordinary Israelite of Zachary emerged from the sanctuary dumb; he told only hiswife, bywriting, about the revelation he had received, and theywent into seclusion for six the priestly tribe. Zachary and his wife Elizabeth had lived holy lives, striving always to please God and to keep His commandments; but they were old, and Elizabeth had borne no children. As Zachary offered the incense, wholly alone before God, he prayed probably then, as certainly earlier, for a son; and certainly, as pious Jewish men prayed regularly and especially on this most holy occasion of offering their once-in- a-lifetime priestly sacrifice to God, for the long-awaited coming of the Messiah. Amidst all the attention rightly given to the Annunciation to Mary and the birth of Christ in Bethle- hem, it has not often been remem- bered that the whole stupendous drama of the Incarnation, as it hap- pened to our human sight, began with this prayer of Zachary. Prayer has a power of which even two millennia of Christianity have not always made us sufficiently aware. The Angel Gabriel, “who stands in the presence of God,” came to Zachary in the sanctuary, to tell him first of all that he came in an- swer to his prayer. Zachary would have a son, who should be called John, whose mission would be “to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” John the Baptist was to be the last and the greatest of the prophets of the old covenant, and the herald and immediate precursor of the new. Zachary emerged from the sanctuary dumb; he told only his wife, by writing , about the revela- tion he had received, and they went into seclusion for six months. To us He comes unseen