The angel tells Zechariah that his prayer had been heard.
To this story leading up to this point, Luke hadn’t told us what Zechariah was praying for . Now we know. He had been praying for Israel, of course, as a Jewish priest would do. But he and Elizabeth, unrealistic though it may have seemed because of their advanced years, had also been praying for a child.
Three times in Luke we hear angels say, “Do not be afraid” – to Zechariah here, to Mary at the Annunciation and to the shepherds in the filed. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will also say those same words five times during his public life.
Anything in particular you’d really like to pray for?
Anything going on in your life that has you scared?
Listen.
God is saying to you: “Do not be afraid.”
Hanukkah
The eight-day Jewish feast of Hanukkah begins today. Each day one of the candles of the Menorah is lit.
Because Hanukkah falls in November-December, it is mistakenly associated with Christmas. Actually, it celebrated the cleansing of the Temple from pagan desecration in 164 B.C.
The five major feasts in the Jewish calendar are:
**Passover (March – April), which celebrated the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt.
**Pentecost (May-June) a harvest festival 50 days after Passover.
**Sukkot (September-October), which celebrates the New Year. The shofar (ram’s horn) is sounded, beginning 10 days of penitence.
**Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, is the last of the 10 days of Rosh Hashana. In earlier days, it was the only time when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to incense the Ark of the Covenant and sprinkle it with the blood of sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people. This is no longer possible because the Temple was destroyed in 70 A. D.