Special Weekday Message –  March 22nd  – Fr. Thomas

Today, March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation, celebrating the announcement of Jesus’ conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (Luke 1:26-38.)  Now how do you think Mary must have felt at the annunciation?  An angel, Gabriel, had come to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you!” Was it a dream? Was she hallucinating? Was she crazy?  Maybe she wasn’t fully sure.

So what do you find most impressive in the story?  Maybe it’s Christ’s birth to a virgin. That is impressive, but, for the God who created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, that’s a minor miracle in God’s bag of surprises.  OK! So you haven’t had a vision of an angel lately.  However, how do we respond to those daily annunciations, those decisions we must face every day either to do the right thing, or the wrong thing?  Here’s what the Mother of Jesus did.  Mary teaches us how to practice “spiritual availability.”  Her  yes to God is an example of how we too can provide space where God enters in.

Mary’s response challenges us to ask of ourselves: When God makes a loving overture into our lives, do we try to avoid the encounter?  Do we demand full knowledge before responding, or can we trust without complete knowledge or understanding?  Do we let God be in control of  my life,  my plans,  my future?  Do we ask of God what cannot be answered, do we dare to say “Yes” that will change us forever?

The greatest gift is not our skills, abilities and possessions. The magi had their gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Mary had only space, love, and faith to offer.  What part of us prevents Christ from being evident in our lives and presenting Him to the world?  Our time, talent, and treasure?  What about the gifts and talents of art, writing, scholarship, and social justice?  These are all gifts worth having and sharing. But leaders lose their charisma, scholarship can grow pedantic, social justice alone does not suffice.  In the end, when all other gifts have lost their luster, the virgin who is boldly in love with God, and who makes a sanctuary of life in us, is the one who delivers Jesus Christ, who then delivers us from sin and death.

This is a perfect feast for Lent; these days of waiting for God’s will to be revealed, our hearts open to God’s presence.  In these anxious times the most fearful thing is the loss of God’s presence.  But, we have nothing to fear, God is with us, and we have been called by God to bring his Son into our own world and in our own time.  God gives us these days to sort it all out, to make sense of it, so that we can say with Mary, “Let it be to me according to your will.”

Maybe there is some decision you’re having trouble saying “Yes” to.  What stumbling block needs to be removed before we say  Yes to God and trust in him?  God will not compel us to say  yes. Grace makes us sons and daughters, not slaves; lovers, not clients. God had to be born in Mary’s heart before he could be born in her womb; as someone once said, “In Mary, God fell in love with humanity.”

So, only nine months until Christmas. Isn’t this really the mystery we celebrate not just at Christmas; but every day of the year? Christ is born in us. God is here  in us. If we truly grasp this mystery, think how much we can spread the  joy and the  hope of Christmas all year round to a world which painfully needs some good news these days.  Perhaps, like Mary, be a womb of welcome, a sacred place made holy by the God who dwells within.  It’s no surprise that she who bore the Son of God, was the channel by which “The myth has become reality, the heavenly becoming earthly, the Word, flesh, God, man.”

Lord, let it be done to me as you say.  Blessed are you Mary among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Son of God, Son of Mary.

Urgent Message – Please continue to pray for an end to the COVID-19 virus and its victims and thank you for your continued financial support (check, automated bank transfers or electronic donations via www.myeoffering.com or Facebook donate button or PayPal) to the life and witness our congregation in this community.