Gospel according to Saint Luke 1,26-38:

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth. He was sent to a young virgin who was betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, «Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you». Mary was troubled at these words, wondering what this greeting could mean.
But the angel said, «Do not fear, Mary, for God has looked kindly on you. You shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call him Jesus. He will be great and shall rightly be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his ancestor; He will rule over the people of Jacob forever and his reign shall have no end». Then Mary said to the angel, «How can this be if I am a virgin?». And the angel said to her, «The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the holy child to be born shall be called Son of God. Even your relative Elizabeth is expecting a son in her old age, although she was unable to have a child, and she is now in her sixth month. With God nothing is impossible». Then Mary said, «I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as you have said». And the angel left her.

Not afraid of chaos

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, December 24, 2023 | Fourth Sunday of Advent

2Sam 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Rom 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38

What we are about to relate below is a news item from 2002, which was indeed disturbing, but may help us to understand more about today’s Gospel story, nothing less than the announcement to Mary of her unique and exceptional mission.

A London newspaper reported a surprising and anxiety-laden incident that took place in a hospital in England.

The hospital’s computer system, which is normally used to send form letters and e-mails, reminding people of their schedules, check-ups and doctor’s appointments, was in the hands of a newly hired worker who pressed the wrong key.

He mistakenly sent identical form letters to more than 30 unsuspecting patients informing them that they were pregnant. Among the recipients of the letters were six elderly men. Can you imagine the surprise of those six men? “Your doctor is pleased to inform you that you are expecting a baby!“. This was quite shocking…to say the least!

There were probably various puzzled reactions from different women who were no doubt also surprised to receive the letter: how could this be? One fainted; another teenager was on the verge of committing suicide, while another exclaimed: It’s not possible, I think I’m going to be sick! Naturally, there was much anxiety in the homes of some of the patients who received this letter.

In today’s Gospel reading, Mary, like the panic-stricken patients in the London hospital, received her own pregnancy message from heaven, where impossibilities become possible. For Mary it was indeed an emotionally distressing, life-threatening and unsettling visit and experience. Mary was only a teenage virgin engaged and betrothed in marriage. She had never been with a man; however, she recognized the new challenges that would arise in her engagement and the crisis into which this pregnancy could plunge both families, bringing her to shame and even execution according to Jewish custom (Deut. 22:13-21 and Num. 5:11-31).

Many pages have been written about Mary’s “Yes”. Many of us have moments when we say “No”. Of course, it does not refer to refusing a life project, nor to refusing to persevere in our concrete way of living our vocation, as a member of the common life, a committed married Christian, a religious sister or consecrated religious, but rather it is about the various ways that you and I have of refusing what the Holy Spirit asks of us through a person close to us who needs help, or someone who asks us to participate in a mission, or simply to do a small favor.

Let us note that Mary had all the circumstances to have refused the angel’s proposal:

– Fear of not being the right person.

– Fear of not having understood well, nor being understood.

– Having other plans for that moment in your life.

These are the “defenses” that we normally put up in our minds when someone asks us to do something, or when we determine in our inner self that we are justified in doing like the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Even when faced with a simple task, we choose the unsympathetic attitude of the generous Pharisee Simon: See this woman? I came into your house and you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has watered My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair (Lk 7: 44). That is, we do not feel generous enough to “do still more things”.

I am convinced that I can do no more. I do not even consider the possibility of reflecting to alleviate the urgency or the need of my neighbor.

Let us remember that God has determined that our collaboration is necessary for his miracles to be performed. As we read in our Sabato ceremony: And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief (Mt 13: 58). Those who did not believe were his own, those who had known him for a long time, like us. They did not doubt Jesus’ goodness at all, but they did doubt the relevance of what he was asking of them.

Actually, we do not believe that right now God will work a miracle through us, because we ask for a sign, something visible, like the holy High Priest Zechariah, who demanded from God a sign to prove that his elderly wife Elizabeth would give birth to a son. But miracles, for the most part, happen progressively, as St. Paul explains in the Second Reading: God manifests himself in creation, then through the Prophets, and finally through Christ.

Mary did not ask for any visible sign. Rather, it was she who gave a very clear one, declaring herself to be the grateful servant of God the Father.

It should be added that, although Jesus exclaims on the Cross: All is finished (Jn 19:30), this does not mean that he will cease to act in us. That was his promise, when he announced that he would send the Holy Spirit. And that is our daily experience.

—ooOoo—

The angel greets Mary by calling her “highly favored,” or full of grace. However, already in Lk 2: 35 She hears from the mouth of Simeon: A sword will pierce your soul. Later, Mary was a happy witness of how Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature and in favor with God and mankind. But also later, in Nazareth, she saw how they drove her Son out of the city, and led him to the top of the mountain on which their city was built in order to throw him down (Lk 4; 29). Then came Palm Sunday, which undoubtedly filled her mother’s heart with joy. But, soon after, before the cross, she would go through moments of anguish difficult to imagine… Her life was full of contrasts, of setbacks such as the impossibility of finding a suitable place to give birth, the need to leave her land and go to Egypt.

The world in which Mary lived was complicated, full of lights and shadows, of uncertainties and misunderstandings. The situation of the Roman occupation was consolidated after crushing several attempts of uprising and her relationship with her own family and that of Joseph had been deteriorated by her pregnancy. Difficulties of all kinds, internal and external. A situation that could well be called chaotic. And yet the angel called her “highly favored”. And yet, the announced miracle took place.

Two questions seem appropriate for each of us: What is the chaos that makes my life difficult? What is the miracle that is being performed in me?

A hasty, ironic and superficial answer is usually: The chaos is clear to me, but the miracle…I don’t see it.

In my personal chaos there may be a conflictive relationship with some person(s); a vice that I don’t recognize and that I deceive myself by making it unimportant; the anxiety produced by all the obligations I have; an economic situation; a health problem that I don’t know how to approach or maybe it has no solution, etc.

A chaotic situation is not the same as a determined problem. In chaos I cannot always determine exactly what is happening to me; in fact, there may be several problems at the same time and there is also a lack of control, because it is a question of simultaneous difficulties internal and external to me. Let us remember again the case of Mary, who recognizes herself as small and powerless, especially to alleviate the pain of the one she loves the most.

But God’s miraculous response, visible or not, discreet or conspicuous, is given in chaotic situations, sometimes when we are on the verge of abandoning everything or of admitting that we will never change, that we will die in mediocrity. That divine response is not long in coming, simply because it is already taking place, just as the gestation of her Son was taking place in Mary. In us, the divine response can be summarized in a few words: You are being my instrument, my servant, thanks to you I have reached the heart of your brother.

It is important that we are convinced that God’s response to our chaos is certain, though unpredictable. In the First Reading, the elderly King David, after endless struggles with the Moabite and Ammonite tribes, after the conflicts and murders among his own sons, decides to build a Temple to strengthen the kingdom. But this was not God’s will. Through the Prophet Nathan, who was surprised by Yahweh’s revelation, he understood that he did not have to build a material Temple, but that his descendants would last forever. These are the words of the Old Testament to which King David refers:

You have shed blood in abundance, and have waged great wars; you shall not build a house for my name, because you have shed much blood in the land before me. Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of peace; I will give him peace from all his enemies round about, for Solomon shall be his name, and in his days I will give peace and quietness to Israel (1Chro 22: 8-9).

Let us make the decision to imitate Mary in her joy and in her faith to be servants, because being “unprofitable” has a very positive connotation in the Gospel:

Unprofitable servants we are; we have done only what we ought to have done (Lk 17: 10).

A king ordered two of his servants to draw water from a well to fill a basket. They began to work, but, as expected, water escaped from the basket, and for hours they continued the impossible task. One of them said, “Enough of this useless work,” and went away. But the other replied, “Our king pays us for this, and he will surely have his plans. So, after many hours, he emptied the well completely and saw at the bottom, on the mud, a huge and valuable diamond. The king rewarded him and when he returned to find his companion he said to him: Our work was not useless; if the well had not been emptied, that diamond would still be at the bottom.

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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President