The Good Word

Hello and welcome to the Word, bringing you the Good News of Jesus Christ every day from the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province. I am Fr. Karl Esker from the Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, NY. Today is Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent.Our reading is taken from the holy gospel according to Luke.In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “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. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “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 called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.The gospel of the Lord.HomilyWe are five days from Christmas and our readings show how the Son of God’s coming to earth began. The immediate beginnings of Jesus’ taking on our flesh and blood was the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, which we hear in today’s gospel. We all know Mary’s reply: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Many of us, I am sure, are filled with awe at the grace God is bestowing upon Mary, calling her to be the mother of Jesus. We do not so often think about Mary’s courage in the face of the tremendous upheaval in her life that her acceptance would entail. We catch a glimpse of it in her question to Gabriel: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” She is betrothed to Joseph, but not yet living with him. What is his reaction going to be? How will her family react to something she cannot adequately explain? But Gabriel assures her this is truly God’s will and doing, and the Spirit of God will protect her. Mary believes and trustingly places her whole life in the hands of God.The first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah tells quite a different story. The time is seven hundred years before Jesus, when God asked king Ahaz to have confidence in God’s protection, while he was being attacked by enemy kings wanting to depose him. The king preferred his own counsels to those of the prophet, and refused to look to God. Even so, God’s will found a way; and, after admonishing the king, the Isaiah declares: “the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” As this prophecy was read and re-read down through the centuries, the people began to hope in a Messiah who would be sent by God. Jesus’s disciples came to understand his coming as the fulfillment of this prophecy, which revealed the faithful and protective power of God in favor of God’s people.God is always faithful, we are the ones who struggle to be so, at times imitating King Ahaz and other times imitating Mary. When a difficult arises or a serious decision needs to be made, The immediate response is: What am I going to do? We can either give in to the moment, choose whatever most satisfies ourselves, or search for the most adequate answer under the situation. To follow the example of Mary, we need to pray, to present our pain, doubt, or confusion to the Lord and ask the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We should consult trusted friends or counselors. Mary herself sought guidance from Gabriel. And when the direction becomes clear in our heart, we can confidently act. The results may not always be what we expect, but we can be sure that God’s protection is with us.Jesus did not come into our world to make our decisions for us, but to assure us that he is God with us who will guide us in his love and accompany us with his protection as we struggle to follow the path he has set before us.May God bless you.Rev. Karl E. Esker CSsRBasilica of our Lady of Perpetual HelpBrooklyn, NY

It is understandable that people confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Annunciation. After all, the Gospel readings are the same. Luke’s gospel has the Angel Gabriel appearing to the young Virgin Mary to announce that she is to be the Mother of the Redeemer. With Mary’s humble acceptance of God’s gift, we become the beneficiaries. The telling words of the Archangel that separate this Holy Day from the Annunciation are: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” These words form the basis of the Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary which states that “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, (Mary) was preserved free from all stain of original sin….” Even though Jesus had not yet been born to her, it is through his merits that Mary is preserved from original sin. The same grace that saved Mary from original sin also sets us free. It is through God’s grace that we become holy, adopted daughters and sons of the Most High. God is love (1 John 4:16) - and love does not create barriers. Love does not remember offenses or brood over injuries. Love does not calculate or impose conditions. St. Alphonsus Liguori would say that we have a God who is crazy in love with us. Today we celebrate this God who cannot wait for us to join in the divine life of the Trinity. God prepared the Virgin Mary for her role in salvation history by the singular grace of her Immaculate Conception. Mary’s “yes”in the Annunciatioin has transformed human history. Through God’s unsurpassable generosity and mercy, we, too, are “full of grace.” Advent Blessings,Fr. Kevin MacDonald, C.Ss.R.