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THE “INVISIBLE” WORLD IN OUR LIVES
Conception of St. John the Baptist
“…And Zechariah (the father of John the Baptist) said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.’ And the angel answered him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.’ And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they wondered at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he made signs to them and remained dumb. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived…” (Lk 1: 18-24)
Many things need to be said about the events surrounding the Conception of John the Baptist, celebrated today (NC). But I will focus on just one moment in this rather-long narrative, handed down to us as the very first story in the Gospel according to Luke. And that is, the reaction of the people, who had waited for Zechariah outside “the temple of the Lord” when he was inside to burn incense, to his inability to speak, when he came out. They immediately “perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple.” They immediately presumed a transcendental encounter, a vision, because the transcendental and invisible was very much part of their world. For them, the “invisible” world accounted for a behavior that had no “visible” explanation, not in words anyway, but just in “signs” that Zachariah made to them.
All this reminds me of the simple fact that we inhabit a world of One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible “and invisible.” Occasionally the invisible become visible, most remarkably when the previously-invisible Son of God visibly entered our world and “became flesh.” Today let my heart be open to the countless, invisible good guys in our midst, bearing the good news of His presence in our lives, and occasionally silencing our “How can this be?” when we need just to wait and see.
