The Barren Wife

Homily for Thursday, December 19

There are no fewer than seven stories of their and women in the Scriptures – six in the Hebrew Scriptures and one in the Christian Scriptures. Sarah, wife of Abraham, Rachel, the wife of Isaac, Rebecca, the wife of Jacob, Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, the unnamed wife of Manoa (of whom we hear in today’s first reading), and the great woman of Shunem who served as an acolyte for the prophet Elisha, all shared the shame of being childless with Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah (of whom we hear in today’s Gospel text). There are so many prominent women in the Hebrew Scriptures who bore the curse of being barren that Scripture scholars point out that these stories are a paradigm which tells us about the relationship between God and God’s people.

In agrarian societies during the biblical period, bearing children was highly valued, and a woman’s primary role was that of mother. Birthing and raising children, however, were fraught, given the high rate of maternal death in childbirth and of infant mortality; only half of all children born survived to the age of five. In the biblical stories of barren women, maternity is further complicated in order to heighten the drama of the arrival of the promised son, emphasizing the divine role in conception and birth. In the case of the patriarchal stories in Genesis, the matriarchs’ barrenness emphasizes that it is God who disrupts continuity, in the transition from one generation to the next, and then selects the true heir to the covenant.

The motif of barrenness highlights the unique destiny of the promised son. In each of these Bible stories the life of the son is somehow threatened and/or dedicated to God. Take, for instance, the story of Isaac who is bound and placed on an altar as a sacrifice by his father Abraham. Joseph is killed and ultimately sold into slavery by his brothers. Samuel is delivered to the temple and dedicated to service of God. In today’s story, Samson, the son of the wife of Manoah, is dedicated as an as a Nazarite to God. Of course, the Gospel story of the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist is the proleptic individual who signals the coming birth of Jesus.

All of these stories remind us that it is God who is the source of life. God holds the keys to both life and death – what God gives, God can take back. In each of these stories, God hears the prayer of the barren woman and promises her a son. It is God who opens the womb and has the right to demand the life that emerges from it.

The stories of these barren women highlight the fertility of the Virgin who gives birth to a son without the intervention of a human father. Mary, who is full of grace, is full of life. Her son will also dedicate his life to fulfilling the will of his Father.