In both readings of today's liturgy, Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25a and Lk 1: 5-25, an angel appears to announce that two couple will bear a child: Manoah and his barren wife and Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth, also barren and way beyond child-bearing age. Both children, Samson and John, will be prepared to play a significant role in salvation history. Samson will deliver the Israelites from the military power of the Philistines. John the Baptist will prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord "stirred" Samson, who was consecrated in the womb. John was "filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother's womb".
Both the barrenness and the fruitfulness are gifts from the Lord and will reveal God's power at work in those who believe and in those who do not believe. The wife of Manoah and her husband and Elizabeth believe in the angel's announcement. Zachariah does not. "How am I to know what you are talking about when my wife is barren and unable, at this point in her life, to conceive a child?" Neither our barrenness nor our lack of faith stop God from accomplishing our salvation or the work He plans to accomplish through us. Without divine intervention, we remain barren. With divine intervention we bear fruit. All is through the Holy Spirit, either stirring us or filling us! Blessed be the name of our God!
What in me is barren and in need of being "stirred" up or "filled up"with God's Spirit? What in me, through the Spirit, is bearing fruit?
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