December 20 (Lk. 1,26-38): Sheltering God

Six months after God sent Angel Gabriel to Zechariah, he also sent him to a woman engaged to a man named Joseph. The woman was Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anne.

We cannot live alone. We cannot satisfy all that we need with our own strength alone. We need others to take care of us. We need to belong. This is the reason that a person does not come into being on his own. When he comes to be, he comes to be in a family, in a home. The home makes a person. We are how we are largely because of our homes.

When the fullness of time came for God the Father to work his plan of salvation, he found in Mary the proper home into which his Son was to be born. From eternity, God had seen in Mary the kind of motherhood fit for his Son. To prepare her for the holy task of mothering the Son of God, God made his favor rest on her. Sanctifying grace protected her from the stain of sin so that she would be worthy to be the home of the Son of God. Human as she was, she was chosen to carry the Divine in her womb.

But God was not forcing her to take the office of motherhood of the Son of God. Mary had the freedom to concur with the will of God or to beg off. After all, he freely gave man freedom, yes, as a gift. Was she going to say yes?

“Rejoice, O highly favored daughter! The Lord is with you,” greeted Angel Gabriel. He added, “Blessed are you among women.” This angelic salutation disturbed Mary so much. She could not immediately make out that greeting. She must have been dumbfounded. The angel felt her confusion. And so he told her not to worry. In fact, she found favor with God. Among all women, she was favored to bring forth the Savior, to usher in the Light that would dispel all the darkness in the world. The child that she would conceive would free mankind from the grip of death and bring everyone into the glory of life everlasting, where he would reign over heaven and earth forever.

Mary was deeply honored for being chosen the home of the Divine. In her simplicity, and not out of unbelief, she asked: “How can this be since I am not yet married?” She did not say, “This is impossible. How can a woman who has not known any man be with child?” She did not question the power of God. She had faith that for God nothing was impossible. She wanted to know just how everything the angel told her would take place. The angel told her that the Holy Spirit would take care of that. The Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and she would conceive a son and name him Jesus, for he would save men from sin.

Because of her deep faith and unflinching love for God, she unhesitatingly accepted the divine invitation. She said “yes” to the will of God: “Let it be done to me as you say.” She trusted in the word of God. And with that occurred the wonderful event of the incarnation: God becoming man.

Mary’s yes was a crucial point in the history of salvation. It was her loving and faithful yes which allowed God’s grace of salvation to gush forth into humanity’s spiritual lowliness. By that yes, man was saved.

But God also waits on us. He also wants us to be other mothers, to be Marys. Let us shout our “yes” to God and allow a special place in our hearts for the Son of God. Let us bear him lovingly and faithfully for others to behold, that is, show them that we have Jesus in us, that Jesus is with us, by our acts of faith, of hope, of charity.