2 Samuel 7:1-5.8-12.14.16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38
At the heart of the
Gospel today lies a moment – a few seconds – an instant which changes everything.
It was a moment in which God, through the Archangel Gabriel, revealed his divine
will to a young maiden in Nazareth.
She listened intently
as, step by step, he uncovered his plan and then, in a moment of breathtaking
humility and freedom, she replied: Let
what you have said be done to me. It was as simple as that. Mary said yes – and the angel left her.
Mary believed and she
obeyed and the Saviour was conceived in her womb – God made man – the greatest of God’s mysteries. No wonder we all,
even today, two thousand years later, bow our heads in the Creed when we say
the words: And by the Holy Spirit was
incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
But let us go back to
that moment. We notice, firstly, that God does not actually ask. There is
nothing tentative or invitational about what he lays out before Mary.
“Listen! I have been
thinking. Would you be willing to conceive and bear a son? I thought Jesus
might be a good name for him. What do you think?”
No! The plan of God is
sovereign and will not be sidetracked or modified: You are to conceive and bear a son and you must name him Jesus.
Further to these
imperatives there are nine more times when the angel uses the word ‘will’. Let
me read them for you:
He will be great; he will be
called Son; God will give him; he will rule; his reign will have no end; the
Holy Spirit will come upon you; will cover you; the child will be holy; will be
called.....
There it is, loud and
clear. The angel has delivered the message and waits for a response.
I am the handmaid of the Lord ...
let what you have said be done to me.
We marvel with
profound awe at the wisdom of Mary’s answer. She did not say ‘I will do it.”
That would have been inappropriate. She is not accepting an offer – She is
bowing before the will of God.
The exchange between Gabriel
and Mary is too intimate for public broadcast and so there is no newsflash, no choirs
of angels filling the sky with announcements of the Incarnation. At the time it
occurred it was an intimate, private encounter which would be made known in the
fullness of time through the Gospel of Luke. It is available to us today to
read and meditate on. And having done this we bow our heads before the
inexhaustible mystery of God’s love for us – and Mary’s love for God.
And so the subject
matter which today the Church gives us to ponder is the simple reality of the will
of God in our lives. In her sublime wisdom she gives us a prayer to say, a
prayer which we can carry with us for the rest of our lives. It is the
Responsorial Psalm. Let us say it together from the bulletin: Alleluia, alleluia! I am the servant of the
Lord: may his will for me be done. Alleluia!
