Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
because your prayer has been heard.
Sometimes we're just fulfilling what we perceive to be our duties to God and yet suddenly things get real. Zechariah burned incense according to the schedule. The incense was an offering to God. Yet he did not expect an angel to stand before him. This is similar to how we go to mass without expecting to be changed. His mind was still weighed down by earthly things. Because of this, even seeing Gabriel wasn't quite enough to shake him from his typical way of thinking.
"How shall I know this?
For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years."
When an angel appears or we receive a message from God we should be able to take him at his word. We may ask for details of the how of the plan but we ought not require evidence of the possibility thereof. Yet we do. Our words bring with them all of the presuppositions of this world and the habits and priorities of our daily lives. We often speak, in fact, as if angels do not have power to bring about miracles in our lives. If this describes us than we need to silence that sort of speaking until words of faith become primary and definitive.
But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them,
and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary.
This silence is not primarily punishment. It is designed to give space for the seed of God to grow and to take root without being choked out. It is ordered to ensuring the the word of God is what defines what we say, think, and do. If other thoughts try to enter we don't give them room to do so. We take them captive to Christ (see Second Corinthians 10:5). One of the first doubts we may have to destroy is that this is in fact possible. Yet, Scripture tells us it is.
But he said to me,
'You will be with child and will bear a son.
So take neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean.
For the boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb,
until the day of his death.'"
Let us learn to trust God's message to us, just as does the mother of Samson. If we don't see an angel today, we nevertheless have an even more direct account of the promises of God to us (to us specifically) in his word. We ourselves are meant to be consecrated to God just like Samson, not receiving what is unclean, and separated from sin. This begins with our thoughts and speech agreeing with God's word about what is in fact sin and from there that overcoming it is possible. Instead of asking, 'How can this be?' from a place of doubt we can ask 'How will this be?' from a place of excitement and hope. This is the difference between the response of the Virgin and the response of Zechariah.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother's womb you are my strength.
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