Learn to shut up

Let us focus our reflection on the person of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. Zechariah was a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. We have hear in the Gospel 2 days ago that Zechariah was made mute or unable to speak inside the sanctuary of the temple where the Holy of Holies are. Zechariah was well inside the Holy of Holies when he received a beatific vision of the angel who conveyed to him the message that his wife Elizabeth, though barren and old to engender, will indeed conceive a child and will call the child “John.”

Like the rest of ordinary human mind, Zechariah doubted or must have had reservations and unbelief that such thing is possible.

All these took place inside the Sanctuary of the temple, behind the curtain which covers the Holy of holies from the eyes of human race. It was God who ordered “And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.” Exodus 26:33. The Israelites considered this place Holy, thus the name, and because God made it clear to them that: “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” Exodus 25:8.

It was on this very same temple, the very same sanctuary that Zechariah served, and received the message from God; inside the confines of the sanctuary, behind the curtain which hid God from the rest of humanity. God turned away his face from the human race when Adam and Eve sinned. He refused to let them see his face, yet this sanctuary is where he meets humanity and where humanity offers to Him incense and sin-offering.

This massive curtain mounted on the Sanctuary was torn into two upon the death of Jesus. “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” Matthew 27:50-51.

The split between God and humanity as manifested by the curtain has been destroyed forever. God is no longer hiding his face from us, he no longer dwells in the behind the curtain but he already lives in our hearts who believe in Christ. Through the tearing down of the curtain, God is now befriending humanity again.

It is so meaningful that the birth of Christ has been proclaimed initially behind this curtain, and is torn into two upon his death.

The curtain pretty much is symbolic of the life of Zechariah. Hid unbelief caused him his speech-faculty to be muted for 9 months. Upon the death of John, when he agreed that John be the name of his Child, his mouth was opened like the curtain of the temple. What God shuts down in sin and unbelief, he opened wide in grace and in faith.

The muting of Zechariah is an invitation for us to shut our mouth and be at peace with silence. In this Christmas season, there are already many noises in the world. We have to pause and reflect upon the first Christmas morn which was a silent night. We have to go back to that silent night of the first Christmas morn. We have to listen what God wants from us in silence. God speaks in our depths in silence.

Zechariah’s inability to speak for 9 months is not an empty event. He was mute for no reason. His mute-state was a preparation for him for faith, and for the coming of the Savior through John the Baptist. It is an invitation for us to value our speech while we still have it. While we can speak, we must speak good words or complements where they belong. Say good words to one another, and condemn the bad when necessary.

In our time, there are many people who are speaking the truth to power. Men and women in the media are being silenced for being the voice of the voiceless, the abused, and the fearful. Never let anyone take our speech from us because it is God’s gift to us for us to use it in the good and use it all the more in the bad.