Saturday, December 19, 2026 — Saturday of the Third Week of Advent (O Radix Jesse)
Do not be afraid, Zechariah
Luke 1:5-25
Readings of the day: Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a; Psalm 71:3-4a, 5-6ab, 16-17; Luke 1:5-25.
The Gospel
Zechariah and Elizabeth are righteous before God, but they have no child, and both are advanced in years. While Zechariah offers incense in the temple, the angel Gabriel appears at the right of the altar and tells him his prayer has been heard: Elizabeth will bear a son, John, who will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord. Zechariah asks how he can know this, and because he did not believe the angel’s words, he is struck mute until the day these things take place. Elizabeth conceives and says the Lord has taken away her disgrace before others.
Reflection
God’s promises do not expire with our years. Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed, waited, and grown old; the angel’s answer comes when it seems too late, and Zechariah, who has spent his life serving in the temple, cannot believe it. His doubt is not punished with rejection but with silence: nine months to listen, to watch the promise grow, and to learn that “greatness in the sight of the Lord is greatness of soul, greatness of virtue,” as St. Ambrose says. St. Athanasius teaches us to read our fears this way: “if joy has succeeded to fear, we may know that relief has come from God, because the peace of the soul is a sign of the Divine Presence.” Elizabeth’s joy at the end is the proof: the Lord had not forgotten. The O Antiphon today calls Christ O Radix Jesse, O Root of Jesse: from a cut-down stump, from a barren womb, God brings forth life.
From the Fathers
“Greatness in the sight of the Lord is greatness of soul, greatness of virtue.”
— St. Ambrose, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:15–17
“If joy has succeeded to fear, we may know that relief has come from God, because the peace of the soul is a sign of the Divine Presence; but if the fear remains unshaken, it is an enemy who is seen.”
— St. Athanasius, Life of Antony, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:11–14
Saint of the day
Saint Anastasius I, pope from 399 to 401 and friend of Saints Jerome and Augustine. He defended the faith against the errors of Origenism and guided the Church with a poor and prayerful life; he died on 19 December 401. The Church also commemorates today Blessed Urban V, pope from 1362 to 1370, who worked to bring the papacy back from Avignon to Rome.
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Sources: the day’s readings follow the daily lectionary (USCCB, Lectionary 195). The Gospel text is not reproduced here; read it at the link above. Patristic quotes: Catena Aurea on Luke 1:5–25, compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by John Henry Newman (1841, public domain).