Imagine yourself as Zechariah.  There you are a righteous individual, a priest who faithfully adheres to God’s Law.  You and your wife are “advanced in years,” and you may think that you know all that life has to offer.  One day you are at work by yourself, in an area where no one else should be, going through the steps of a routine procedure.  Without warning, a frightful figure appears.  (I assume a frightful appearance since fear came upon Zechariah; and Samson’s mother, in our first reading, describes “the appearance of an angel of God, terrible indeed.”)  This figure then tells you something quite illogical: You and your elderly wife, who couldn’t produce a child at an age when you biologically should have been able to do so, are going to have a child.  And not just any child, but a child who would grow up “to prepare a people fit for the Lord.”  If you are like me, and evidently Zechariah, your response would convey a level of skepticism.  “What?  How?  That makes no sense.”
Zechariah’s story raises some troubling questions in my mind.  Is the life I am living one of righteousness and faith, one that would cause God to decide I could be entrusted with a great, or even a small, responsibility?  How would I respond if God called me to upend my somewhat orderly and comfortable life, especially if I do not understand how or why?  And why am I asking “if” God would call me to change my life, when I should be asking “How is God calling me and how should I respond?”