Praise be Jesus and Mary.
In the Gospel reading today, we hear about the Archangel Gabriel coming to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
There are a few important points.
Actually, there's more than a few, but we'll just target a few today.
A few important points in this conversation to be aware of.
First, the greeting of the angel, hail, full of grace.
The word used for hail would be a word used
for the Holy Spirit.
By a person of lesser importance to greet a person of greater importance.
For example, a word used by a subject to greet a king or a queen.
We also note that he doesn't call her Mary, but refers to her as though her name were
simply full of grace.
In other words, knowing that in ancient times, a person's name was thought to say something
about the very essence of the person.
Who the person was, and what it was that they were about.
And for the angel to greet Our Lady in this matter.
manner tells us the very essence of the Blessed Virgin, that she was full of
grace. And as she pondered what sort of greeting this might be, it's interesting
that the angel then says to her, do not be afraid. Not that she was afraid because she
was full of grace, and certainly not that she had to be afraid because Mary, you know,
knowing that
she
here was something, someone, you know, sent by God to ask her something of supreme importance.
She had the proper kind of fear that, you know, by her decision, she might offend God.
Of course, you know, the grace was there to be able
to
do the will of God perfectly, but only, you know, but Our Lady, you know, knowing human
weakness, realized that on her own, you know, she certainly could make a wrong decision.
And she had that gift of the Holy Spirit, the fear of the Lord.
Next, the angel says, you have found favor with God.
Now,
you know, if we avail ourselves of the beautiful sacrament of confession, you know, we can
be filled with grace. Of course, not the fullness of grace that Our Lady had because
she never had original sin, and she never once sinned her entire life. But, you know,
with our sins forgiven, and our souls, and our lives, we can be filled with grace. Now,
in a state of grace,
we can find favor with God.
So we need not be afraid.
But it's a problem that many of us face.
You know, unfortunately, for many of us,
it's not a filial fear like Mary had,
but a servile fear.
We're afraid to let go of our attachments.
We're afraid to change our lives,
to stop sinning,
which is a tragic reality.
We're terrified of God,
but we're not afraid of the devil.
It makes no sense at all.
We need to recognize that the evil one
who hates our guts
is the one who's lying to us
and trying to get us as far away from God as possible.
You know, he does this by keeping us from confession
and then from mass
and then eventually, you know,
from the practice of our faith altogether.
You know, Satan needs to be rejected.
But instead,
it's all too often
God, whom we reject
because he calls us to greater holiness.
And we tell him,
no,
because we like
our mediocre spirituality too much.
You know, we don't,
we don't want to give up TV
or stop doing whatever it is that we're doing.
We don't want to give up
all of our pleasures
and ease and comfort.
We don't want to have to suffer at all.
Therefore, we tell God, no.
Yet, when Satan comes along and says,
this will feel good,
this will be pleasurable for you,
this will make you happy,
you know, tragically,
we jump right in
and we don't fear him at all.
What we have to do
is have our lady's attitude.
Be it done unto me
according to your word.
The word of God
is Jesus.
We need to allow God's word
to be accomplished in us
because we've been incorporated
into that word.
That word who was obedient,
you know, even unto death.
All we have to do is be obedient.
But we're afraid.
So, we need to listen again
to the answer.
To the angel's words, you know.
Do not be afraid.
There's nothing to fear
because, you know,
God doesn't want anything bad
for us.
We simply need to trust him.
We need to let go
of our own self.
And we need
to put ourselves
in his hands.
There's nothing at all
to fear from God
because he loves us
and we have found favor
with him through our baptism.
He's made us.
His children allowed us
to share in his life
through that gift
of sanctifying grace.
And when we come to truly accept that,
and to believe it,
then we can have our lady's attitude.
We can come before the blessed sacrament
and with no fear
and no trepidation
and no hesitation,
we can actually be able
to look right at our Lord
and say,
be it done unto me,
according to your word.