At one time or another all of us have had the problem of speaking too quickly. We're too prepared to dispute what someone else is saying, and almost before the other person is finished, we've got our response in mind, taking issue with what they have said. We don't let their words sink in-- we're so sure we are right that there is no need for that. Talking too quickly can be a real problem, as Zechariah finds out in today's Gospel reading from Luke's Gospel (Lk 1: 5-25). The angel Gabriel visits Zechariah as he is serving as priest in the sanctuary of the Temple, and tells Zechariah that he and his wife, Elizabeth, will become parents of a son, who is to be called John. It seems like at that point Zechariah zones out, and doesn't hear Gabriel tell him about the great things John will do. Zechariah simply can't believe what Gabriel has said at the outset-- he knows that he and his wife have had no children and figures they're much too old to have one now. Case closed. It is interesting to compare Zechariah's response to the response of Sarah, Abraham's wife, when she overhears the angel of God tell Abraham a similar prophesy. Sarah laughs. Maybe it is from joy, or maybe it is because she has trouble believing what the angel is saying. But what she doesn't do is say that she needs proof before she can believe, which is in essence what Zechariah says. Mary does much the same when Gabriel visits her and says she will become pregnant and give birth to the Son of the Most High, Jesus. She asks how this can be possible, since she hasn't had sex, and maybe she is more-than-a-little skeptical, but she doesn't say she won't believe without proof. If he had waited a bit before he spoke to let Gabriel's words about the great person Zechariah's son would be sink in, Zechariah might have given a more measured response. One can imagine he would have welcomed a son like the one Gabriel decribes. But Zechariah spoke without letting giving Gabriel's words-- and the Holy Spirit-- a chance to work, and it cost him the ability to speak for more than nine months. We do that too, don't we? We have our opinions, our preconceptions, our points-of-view, and when something is said that flies in the face of them, we simply stop listening and start figuring out our response. That can be true when it comes to conversations about all sorts of things-- politics, for example-- and it is also an issue in the Church. Someone says something that seems to express a point of view with which we disagree, and we stop listening and start formulating our opposing response. There's no room for the Holy Spirit to work when we do that. There's no opportunity to find common ground. That attitude precludes finding a way to build community. Maybe that is why the punishment Gabriel gave Zechariah was that he couldn't talk (as opposed to lots of other things Gabriel could have done). Shut up and listen for a change seems to be the real message. Zechariah gets it, of course, and we see that when Zechariah insists that the baby be named John, the name Gabriel has specified, over the objection of Zechariah's family members. All that time being speechless seems to have allowed Zechariah fully to listen, finally, to what Gabriel said. It isn't only through angels that God speaks to us. So we might tamp down our knee-jerk reaction to disagree and figure out our opposing argument, and sit with things a bit. Who knows? If we do that, we might learn something, and not be rendered speechless for nine months.