The salvation of the world begins with a story of infertility in a Priest's family and a great deal of angelic activity and the birth of a person with Holy Sprit already installed. No not Jesus, but John the Baptist. Interesting that he is not to imbibe any other spirit (verse 15). Note also that infertility was a public disgrace for John's Mum (verse 25) an attitude which has not even yet wholly disappeared. From verse 26 there is the opposite problem an illegitimate pregnancy. Another angel comes and provides the basis for the first Church Canticle from this chapter: Hail Mary full of grace..... (Ave Maria) which also take words from Elizabeth's greeting in verse 42. Mary's response to the angel provides the second canticle, known from the latin first word Magnificat: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord........ We need to look carefully at the way she praises God in verses 51 to 54 and humbly ask questions: Has God  brought down the mighty and lifted up the lowly, has He filled the hungry with good things. If we move on to Zecharia's (John's dad) prophecy beginning in verse 68 we have a third canticle and a further question: Did God save Israel, His chosen people, from their enemies?. It's no good ducking these questions, because, in effect, they are precisely the questions that sensible people ask when the Gospel is preached. I think the three answers are clearly NO. That raises a lot of other questions about how God's will can be (has been?) thwarted, but I hold fast to my faith conveniently expressed in verses 78 and 79:  which say of Jesus:

Amen