Luke 1:26-38
The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God…For nothing will be impossible with God.” (1:35, 37)
The Old and New Testaments are filled with accounts of visits from angels. In the Annunciation story, God sends the Archangel Gabriel with a message for Mary. Gabriel conveys God’s message that Mary is chosen to bear God’s Son. The angel’s visit changes Mary’s life and changes the world for all time.
We don’t hear much about angels today. In the West, the very notion of angels has been largely defined by the media and actualized in gift shop “tchotchkes”. If angels visit us, in our dreams or even our waking hours, we aren’t talking about it.
Yet Gabriel’s parting words to Mary remind us that “nothing will be impossible with God”. In each of us there exists the potential not only to receive visits by angels, but even to serve as messengers of God.
Like Gabriel’s life-changing, world-changing effect, each of us has the potential, and baptismal call, to change the world. It is us, God’s contemporary angels, who can heal a hurting world. The Holy Spirit bestows the resources, the will and the responsibility upon us at our baptism.
A hungry child…a struggling woman, afraid for her life…a young boy, forced to hold a rifle…all are waiting for an angel.
What will it take for you to be the angel? – Bonnie Anderson
JW – What a nice way for a woman to be told she is with child?! I am always struck by the calm and soothing power and love in Mary’s encounter with Gabriel. Wow. God sends this incredible angel to Mary, calms her immediately with those two simple words, ‘Fear not’, and bingo; the power of God’s love for us is staring right at us. God is telling us He really loves us, and if we doubted that, is sending His only Son to be with us here on earth. That the enormity of God’s sacrifice is later confirmed in His Son’s crucifixion and death…..well, all I can say is it sure doesn’t compare with being struck by lightning. I get it. It is indeed all about love, and it starts with His love for us. Today, I need to make sure I’m listening…..when God tells me which neighbor to love.
Speaking as a mother, I can’t think of any encounter more terrifying; unwed, very young and possibly without her own mother to support her. She goes to see Elizabeth, her mother is not mentioned.
With all the power that the patriarchal (my word) society held; I think it would take more than ‘Fear not’, to calm me with news such as that being dropped on me. However I see where you are going here. I agree with God’s love for us. My daily question and concern – how do I carry out sharing that love in my daily life?
I am not sure it’s which ‘neighbor’ to love but all our neighbors.
A real evidence of God’s love and care is the fact that Gabriel tells Mary about Elizabeth who is also carrying a “special” child- God knows that the two women have need of each other in the months to come.