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 Today's Readings
How would you like to spend Christmas in a trench? Imagine yourself a soldier fighting a war on Christmas eve. It’s a bitter cold December night. You and your fellow soldiers are out there in the snow, in the front lines with your enemies just a few hundred feet away.
Not exactly the best way to spend Christmas!
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 Today's Readings
I’ve been trying to figure out this guy Zechariah. As you probably know, Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist, and the husband of Elizabeth, who happened to be Mary’s cousin. He’s the very first character we meet in the Gospel of St. Luke.
In that opening scene, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the temple, and Zechariah was told the surprising and wonderful news that his wife Elizabeth was finally pregnant, after enduring years of being called “barren” by their neighbors.
But then he asked: “How can I be sure of this?”
We’re often told that it was his lack of faith that led the angel to strike him mute so that Zechariah was unable to speak until his son was born. But I wonder if that was the only issue. After all, for a devoted Jew like Zechariah, becoming a parent at a late age wasn’t too far-fetched: think Abraham fathering Isaac.
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 Today's Readings
There’s something strange about our Gospel reading today. Did you notice what was wrong with the picture?
We’re supposed to be in the season of Advent, preparing for Christmas. And when we say Christmas, we think of such familiar characters like the angels proclaiming good news, shepherds leaving their flock to check out the baby Jesus, and wise men following stars and bearing gifts. These are feel-good characters and what is Christmas if not the season for feeling good?
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