Many of us live as spectators in the world. With the help of TV we are able to sit back in our comfortable chairs and watch people participate in some form of life. We watch young men and women run, fight, and struggle up and down a rectangular court to put a ball inside a basket. We watch upbeat, attractive commentators sit at tables out in the cold describing how excited they are about a holiday parade. Even at Church we watch our priests, deacons, and ministers carry out their duties on altars and pulpits.
Then along comes another Christmas season. We prepare ourselves once again to be spectators watching a conversation between the Angel Gabriel and Mary, watching Joseph and Mary struggle along the road to Bethlehem, and watching the angels sing at the birth of Jesus. Hopefully we get good feelings as we sit on the sidelines watching the Christmas story unfold, once more, before us.
Many, to speak truthfully, do not get “good feelings” as they watch the world get into the “Christmas spirit.” Though we want to deny it, there are many people (including ourselves?) who are feeling lonely and depressed as they watch the Christmas “noise” on TV. Some are experiencing a recent family loss, others are struggling to pay the next bill that comes at them, many feel they just don’t belong anymore and experience their lives as being without purpose.
As we sit back and watch another Christmas go by, are we just supposed to try to work up some kind of artificial Christmas feelings—especially if the thought of Christmas awakens sad feelings in our hearts? Where is the good news for us today?
As always, we turn to God’s Word to seek an answer to this question. Today we listen to the story of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38). It begins with Angel talking to a virgin.
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you…Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.”
Full of grace! Found favor with God! Conceive Jesus! Now these are three of the best pieces of good news that have ever been delivered! But, does this have any bearing on our lives? Are we just Mary’s spectators?
Stop for a moment and become a participant. These words were meant uniquely for Mary two thousand years ago, but they are “living words” being addressed to each of us today. We are actors on the stage, not nameless faces in God’s audience. Yes, the Holy Spirit is greeting you and me as “full of grace.” Isn’t that what Baptism was all about? When Jesus took residence in our hearts we were pulled out of the audience onto the stage. Divine grace was planted in our hearts. Even though we know that we are sinners, we accept the fact that God looks at us through the lens of his mercy—we are “favored” in God’s eyes—right now! And even we men are conceiving Jesus in the womb of our spirits! This is not make believe or just a story of long ago. God’s Word is alive and active. The Annunciation is taking place in my life today! I am as Mary listening to the intervening voice of God. Can you think of any better, more practical news?
Accustomed to being spectators, we wonder, as Mary did, how this can be—especially if we are at a low point in our lives? Does God really have a new purpose for my life today? Gabriel has an answer for us:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
Let’s forget Mary for a moment and put ourselves in her place. Let’s substitute our names for Mary’s and read the story as the “now” story of God in our lives. There is no limit to what the Holy Spirit can do in our lives, if we are willing to believe in the “impossibilities of God.” And we know that he always favors the lowly and the abandoned when he doles out his merciful love.
Being a Christmas spectator might seem like a comfortable route to take, but it is often accompanied by loneliness, depression, hopelessness, and fear. So we get up from our recliners and let the good news shake us up a little today. We let the power of the Holy Spirit pick us up and put us right between Mary and Gabriel on the stage of God’s plans.
Hail ___________full of grace, the Lord is with you. Put your name in the blank space.
“O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness” (today’s Alleluia verse).
