Christmas Thoughts: Angel Moments
Fr. Tony Lalli, Xaverian Missionary at our mission center in Holliston, Massachusetts, shares with us a wonderful Christmas meditation. Read on…
Thursday of the 3rd Week in Advent: Is 7:10-14; Lk 1:26-38
Today we listen to the story of the Annunciation. It’s a very familiar story, one that we have already heard twice during this Season of Advent, (Immaculate Conception and Guadalupe) and at least a couple more times during the year. But now Christmas is less than a week away and we are dwelling more closely upon the events that immediately preceded the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I find this gospel reading one of the most beautiful in the entire New Testament. It conveys very well the mystery of the scene and the confusion, humility and faith of Mary. The story is told in such a straight-forward and direct way that the drama takes second seat to the reality of the situation. It is as if the drama draws back so as to highlight the magnificence of the mystery of the Incarnation.
A young girl is visited with astonishing news and she has a most human response: she is troubled and frightened. As with most of the “call narratives” in scripture, Mary has the perfect excuse in response to the invitation to be a mother. She is not married. The visitor has the perfect solution around her excuse. God will do something that involves faith. She is aided by a pregnant bit of news that her cousin, who herself is advanced in age, is going to have a child as well. Mary’s response to all this is a kind of, “Well, if Elizabeth can then so can I, by the favor of God.” And so she accepts willingly. God’s love visits the earth and the process of redemption goes into warp speed with Mary’s Yes.
Mary says Yes to the process, seemingly convinced that Gabriel’s message, the Lord be with you, was really the only thing that mattered. Yes, she was fearful (she was greatly troubled at what was said) and that fear would not simply disappear when the messenger assured: Do not be afraid, Mary. This would only be the beginning for Mary, the young girl who would be turned into the woman of faith in her relationship with Christ.
I would think that having a visit from an angel with high praise for her and an exact part to play would make it somewhat easy o decide to go along with the program. WE all have had experiences of having to make decisions angelically- unaided. WE get senses or little urgings to move on down the road of faith and we wonder why Mary gets lots of credit, but are not our faith-jumps even more of trust. We do move though and it is this life-walk, this faith-leap, that allows for the angels’ visits.
All the time Mary was pondering, listening, reflecting, discerning not only what has been said, but what was being offered, revealed, given, and created for her and through her. She ponders and questions respectfully in the face of a very challenging and confusing assignment. This is our pattern as well. Discernment does not lead to decision, that is only the beginning The God Who calls is faithful and so we are invited to ponder, reflect and sense, as the road unfolds before our feet. There are “angel moments” which are real, but not winged and feathery. They are faith-charged with a glimmer of light which indicates and urges gently.
I would like some kind of God-o-gram reassuring me that I am doing God’s Will by being a Xaverian missionary priest here in Holliston, MA, and the this-and-that’s of my life here, well what is best, whatever that means. There are little “angel- moments”. The whole problem for me and us, and was even for Mary, I suspect, is that we want certainty, “Gabriel-moments” and more than once. We want map-quest clarity and GPS guidance and then call that journey, FAITH.
God wanted to build a house among us, and did so by entering the house of Mary, taking up residence in the humble abode of her womb, and now pitches His Tent among us as we walk the road of watching, questioning, discerning, accepting, responding in our own unique circumstances and conditions. Our questions, too often, center on us, instead of focusing on God. Faced with a task, a challenge, a call/vocation, we ask: Am I ready? Am I fit for the task? Do I deserve to be in this position? How will it all work out? These and many similar questions, all of which focus on me, pale in comparison to the recognition and the response to the One Who calls me. I need, like Mary, to focus not on myself, but on the Lord who calls, The Lord is with you. And that makes all the difference. As with Mary, my call is to recognition: that God is with me and to trust in that despite what I see as my failings or any hesitation
I may have.
Contemplating Mary’s experience, we ponder our own – let the Lord enter – recognize the Lord’s presence – seek not what is vain – seek the face of God. I am the handmaiden (servant) of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. And so, “The virgin is with child and shall bear a son, and will call him Emmanuel (‘God-with-us’). – Isaiah 7:14
