December 19
The angels and the children
In the days of Herod …. there was a priest named Zechariah …. his wife was ….Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God ….But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. Once when he was serving as priest …. the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness ….at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of (the) Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb ….He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” Then Zechariah 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 said to him in reply, “I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news” ….After this time his wife Elizabeth conceived …. saying,”So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others.” Lk 1,5-25
Today we leave to the priests at the mass the exegesis of this passage from the gospel, we, in the home church of our family, we make one exegesis on our own. Since two years we live in a wonderful period of births. Claudia was born from Giannandrea and Francesca; Carlotta and Paolo have been born from Anna Rita and Eugenio; Luisa was born from Gianmario and Francesca; Chiara and Mattia have been born from Maria Letizia and Gianluca; Edoardo was born from Davide and Maria Francesca; Pierluigi was born from Marcos and Valentina, these children have been added to Elisabetta, Maria Serena, Gabriele, Sara, Paola, Alicia and Maria Letizia, born earlier, meanwhile Maria Letizia is expecting a third child. Every child who is born is a blessing from the Lord for the family, he is a sign that the Lord has confidence in us: it is the life which is renewed, whilst we as grandparents are peacefully getting older. There are no words to express these wonders of the life. In the history of the salvation, when God wants to give a new impetus to the progress of the humanity, he always sends angels as messengers and, after the angels, the children come. Sara was born from Abraham and Isaac, Samuel was born from Anna, John was born from Zechariah and Elizabeth, Jesus was born from Mary and Joseph. All of them have been conceived in an exceptional way, when their parents were already elderly or, in the case of Mary, even by the Holy Spirit, because it had to be clear that these births took place with the direct intervention of God. Every child who is born, however, is a sign of the God’s love for the men, wherever and no matter how he comes to the light; it is a sign that the Lord wants to renew the world, because together with a child who is born there is a new plan of God for the humanity. In front of the wonder of each birth, we feel only the desire to pray.