Vigils Reading

WHEN PRAYER IS SILENCED

From a commentary by Servant of God Dolindo Ruotolo

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Zechariah was Priest of the eighth class… Elizabeth, his wife was also of priestly

birth. They lived in a holy manner, and they did not have children, because Elizabeth was

sterile. In those times to be sterile was the greatest disgrace, because every woman hoped

to be the mother of the awaited Messiah. Being both old, notwithstanding all the prayers

to God to conceive a son, now they had lost all hope… But what prayer is useless before

God? Even when it seems not granted, even when it seems now absurd to even think that

it can be granted, is instead granted in a way far above any expectations, and blooms like

a blooming tree in spring…

It was the hour of the Vespers, and Zechariah entered the Sanctuary to offer

incense. The multitude of the people fervently prayed, asking to be freed, since they were

oppressed by foreign domination… Zechariah, on hearing the lamentations of his people,

lifted with more eagerness his heart to the Lord, and considering his own affliction, deeply

humiliated himself… He put the incense on the flame, and in the solemnity of the

moment… his prayer, like the spiral of the perfumed smoke of the incense, rose highly…

When all of a sudden… a mysterious fright took hold of him: on the right side of the

Altar…a human figure had appeared, most beautiful, majestic… The Angel spoke to him;

his words peaceful and penetrating… <Zechariah’s> prayer was granted and Elizabeth

would have a son…

Instead of exulting and thanking God, <Zechariah> said with great distrust and

unbelief: “How shall I know this?”

… It was the manifestation of the “I”, the “I” that

pretends to raise himself to be the judge in the plans of God; the “I” that chokes the most

delicate germs of grace, assuming to want to evaluate everything with his own idea; it was

the word of his own mind in opposition to the word of God; thus, and rightly so, Zechariah

was deprived of his word and became mute. The Angel became stern, his majesty flashed

like a thunderbolt. Zechariah had not considered in answering him that he was speaking

with a superior being… Now the Angel called him up to reality, telling him: “I am Gabriel

(which means the strong one of God), and I stand before God.”

In pronouncing those words… a ray of divine majesty enveloped him. He was the

strong one, the expression of the true strength, something immense, deep… towering… It

was a celestial word, that made its meaning known and by saying it, it made it alive. These

words hit Zechariah like a thunderbolt of extraordinary power; they…made him dumb…

and his dumbness became a sign of truth: he showed with a visible punishment that what

he heard, was not a deception.

What a lesson for us, who are used to oppose with great ease the plan of God with

our own plans… Here our program comes before the grace that can touch and transport

us… thus our spirit faints and our prayer remains mute… We believe that it is our

graciousness to comply… instead it is all a gift of God. When we are not worthy of the

Lord because of our pride, we cannot believe and speak to God… Our words of faith and

the voice of our prayers are the measure of our soul; as soon as our soul is misled, by the

proud misery of our “I” or by the degradation of our senses, we lose our word, the interior

word that makes us to say “I believe” and the exterior words that can speak to God… When

a faithful person does not know how to speak to God, he needs to purify or renew himself,

because his spiritual muteness is a sign of an interior paralysis… This should be the path

followed by a hardened soul: to pray, to attempt to do some work of sacred zeal…

Pessimism is always deadly for the life of the spirit. Yet, hope and abandonment to the

Divine Mercy is the secret of a great life.

Ruotolo, Dolindo. The Sacred Scripture – The Gospel According to Luke. Trans. Giovanna I. Ellis. Accessed online, 2014.7