Following
her example of obedience to God, we can learn to serve delicately without being
slavish. In Mary we don’t find the slightest trace of the attitude of the
foolish virgins, who obey, but thoughtlessly. Our Lady listens attentively to
what God wants, ponders what she doesn’t fully understand and asks about what
she doesn’t know. Then she gives herself completely to doing God's will: Behold
the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word. Isn’t
that marvelous? The blessed Virgin, our teacher in all we do, shows us here
that obedience to God is not servile, does not bypass our conscience. We should
be inwardly moved to discover "the freedom of the children of God."
- St. Josemaria Escriva: 1902 –1975 was a Roman Catholic priest from Spain
who founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the
teaching that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path
to sanctity)
Scripture
Text: (IS 7:10-14; 8:10)
The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your
God;
let it be deep as the nether world, or
high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the
LORD!”
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary
people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give
you this sign:
the virgin shall be with child, and
bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us!”
Today we remember the astonishing fact
that God became a helpless and tiny human being attached to the wall of a
teen-age girl's uterus. The almighty infinite God became human flesh smaller
than our fingernail: no one ever imagined it or prayed for it.
God's incarnation was so astounding
that to the present day we do not know what to think of it. Why would God do
such a thing? Why would the all holy and all powerful God become human?
To Muslims and Jews it seems blasphemous to suggest that the Supreme Being
became a tiny human in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Why would the Creator
become a creature? How can this be? The incarnation of the Son of God blows
our minds.
The only response we can make to the
mystery of the incarnation is "God is love." He does the
unimaginable because he is love. He became a man because he is love. He lets
himself to be crucified on a tree and die an ignominious death because he is
love. He gives us himself, his body and blood in the Eucharist because he
is love.
If we begin to understand that the
incarnation of the Son of God is a mystery, we will be wise enough to worship,
obey and serve Jesus with abandon. We will receive the incarnate Jesus in Holy
Communion as often as possible, we will tell the world about him. We will
never be the same. We will be shocked out of our selfishness into reality.
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