“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” The Angel Gabriel makes this simple statement to Mary. Mary has found favor with the Lord. What an amazing and wondrous thing. But, still, we cannot imagine how Mary felt at the visit from the Angel Gabriel, this holy messenger of God. Mary had just been told that she miraculously will bear a child, a child who is to be the Son of God, the Son of the Most High. Can we even begin to imagine the fear or shock that Mary’s is feeling at that moment? Like Mary, we can have fear of the unknown in our own lives, fear of something that is new and unimaginable, fear of something that is surprising and shocking. Sometimes, God can call us to a place that can scary or disconcerting. We might have thought that we knew the world around us, that we knew the rules, but then the present times seem so different from what we knew and grew up with, with values that are very different from what our faith teaches. It is not only Mary who has the responsibility to carry out God’s will in her life. All of us have that responsibility as disciples of Christ. We are to take the Good News of Christ we receive in our lives and to apply it to our vocation and with the interactions we have with others.
I really love the season of Advent, this time of reflection, waiting, and renewal. In his book A Pilgrim’s Almanac, Edward Hays says this: “Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent…If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. Ours is a great responsibility not to waste this Advent time.”
During these last days of Advent, may we use this time productively to prepare for the coming of the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment