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| Manoah and his wife sacrifice a ram to the angel |
19th Dec
While listening to the Gospel (Lk 1:5-25) and also
the first reading at Mass today (Judges 13:2-7,24-25), I do not think it hard to be moved by the plight of both women, whom people had called “barren”.
It was a terrible label for any woman. Fertility, the ability to bring forth
life, has been the essence of marriage in almost every society (excepting our
own in the modern west) and the inability to have children is a terrible burden
for any married couple. And this burden perhaps falls most heavily upon women
who are constantly reminded through their menstrual cycle of their capacity to
nurture life within their bodies. Women are created with the gift of being
tabernacles of new human life. (Incidentally this is why in Catholic churches
women traditionally wear veils. All holy tabernacles are veiled in a Catholic
Church: the tabernacle behind the altar, the chalice, statues of Our Lady and
thus also all God’s daughters.)
Infertility was seen in their time as a sign of
God’s disfavour, but Elizabeth and Monoah’s wife, we hear about in Mass today,
are not the only childless women in salvation history who are made fertile by
God’s intervention. There was Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Hannah. Thus John’s
birth falls in line with that of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, and Samuel, all
of whom were representatives of the Covenant between God and Israel.
And John was to be a Nazarite from birth. The practical
consequences of this were that being consecrated he could not drink alcohol nor
have his hair cut. In many ways Nazarites were like Old Testament monks and
nuns. Nazarites could take lifelong or temporary consecration. John was to be a
Nazarite from birth and for his whole life. Nazarites could also be priests or
members of the laity.
The conception of John in a womb called “barren”
also symbolised his vocation as a desert prophet. For from the barren
wilderness would come forth a prophet proclaiming a message to prepare for the
coming of Him whom is Life. Indeed the desert would blossom and bring forth
truth, beauty and goodness.
There is barrenness in all our lives. There are
aspects of all our lives I expect that are not bearing fruit. What should we do about them? Like those courageous women of faith in
salvation history we need to bring our barrenness to God with all the faith we
can muster and ask the Lord to make our lives fruitful according to His Will.
Perhaps we do not see how they can be made fertile but God does not see things
as we do!
