The Gospel of this day announces the coming of John the Baptist who will ‘make ready a people prepared for the Lord’ ( Luke 1:17).  This is what we have been called to do in this Advent Season, to prepare for the Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:10) and to commemorate Emmanuel, Christ’s coming to be with us in the Nativity of the Lord (Matthew 1:23).  

In our Advent retreat series, we prayed over both the Angel Gabriel’s Annunciation of John the Baptist to Zechariah and Elizabeth in their old age (Luke 1:5-25), and the Angel Gabriel’s Annunciation of Jesus, Son of God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Luke 1:26-38).

Our Advent retreats considered the similarities and differences between these two Annunciations:

• the same Messenger appears,
• the priest Zechariah and the Virgin Mary are both troubled, and
• both are told ‘be not afraid’ (Luke 1:13; Luke 1:30).

Both Zechariah and Mary question the angel Gabriel, but with different outcomes:

• Mary, full of Grace, trusts, and sets out with haste to visit Elizabeth (Luke 1:38-40).  
• Zechariah ‘did not believe’ the Angel Gabriel. He is struck dumb for the duration of Elizabeth’s pregnancy  (Luke 1:20).  

In our Advent retreat, Zechariah was said to have been given the grace of time to fully consider God’s gift and plan in contemplative silence.

These are the only two Annunciations in the New Testament, announcing Christ our Saviour and His messenger, John the Baptist.  

There are more annunciations in the Old Testament (see Robert Alter, the Case of the Annunciation Type-Scene). 
We can start in the beginning (Matthew 1:1) with our Father in Faith, Abraham, with the annunciation of Isaac to Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15); Jacob and Esau to Isaac (Gen 25:19–26); and children for Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 30).  Hannah prayed to the Lord for the gift of Samuel, born to her and her husband Elkanah (1 Samuel 1).

The annunciation of Samson to Manoah and his wife (Judges 13:2-25) is a different case in the Old Testament.
There are similarities to Zechariah’s experience.  
The Angel Gabriel says that John the Baptist is never to drink wine or strong spirits (Luke 1:15).  
The Angel of the Lord says that Samson is to be a nazirite (Numbers 6:5), set apart for the Lord, from birth (Judges 13:4-5).  
Samson is to have no wine or strong drink, nothing unclean, and no razor is to touch his head.

Zechariah questioned the angel and was struck dumb.
Samson’s father Manoah was dumbstruck.

He prayed to the angel to clarify the already very precise instructions.
He didn’t even quite believe in the angel. He offered to host a meal to test the angel.
The angel advised offering a sacrifice to the Lord, before spectacularly ascending to heaven along with the flame of that sacrifice.
Then Manoah worried over being struck down for having seen something of God.

We can be thankful Jesus had his trusting mother and a better example of a human father in Saint Joseph.
Zechariah questioned and was given time to think.
Manoah’s example was a questionable start for Samson’s life.
In the annunciation of Samson, Samson shall only _begin_ to save Israel (Judges 13:5).
Samson violates his vows, fails as a Judge, and only prefigures Christ in his end, arms outstretched in a cross, in a violent death (Judges 16:31).

John the Baptist proclaims Christ (Matthew 3:1-11).  
Christ saves people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

John the Baptist saves us from our old ways, offering a baptism of repentance.
This is a new year, let us begin anew in Christ.
Let us not fall into the trap of our old ways, breaking our promises as Samson did.
Let us renew our Baptismal promises, and keep them.

O Root of Jesse’s stem,
sign of God’s love for all his people:
come to save us without delay!


Image: Domenico Ghirlandaio, Annuncio dell'angelo a San Zaccaria.