The Announcement of God's Plan

Today we celebrate the Annuciation.  The Trinity begins their plan to give birth to the New Covenant, the covenant of God loving us to the point of, not only the Second Person of the Trinity taking on our humanity but also assuming all of the conditions of our humanness, except sin itself. He comes out of love for us, wants to show us the way to the Father, the way of humility, obedience and love beyond all telling.   Jesus becomes the New Israel who, unlike the Israelites who repeatedly mistrusted  God and created their own gods,  trusts the Father to the point of His passion and death and rising the third day.  This plan, for fulfillment, needed a woman who, unlike Eve,  would say “yes” to God, would trust God.  Thus, the Trinity sent Gabriel to Mary to ask her to take on this assignment, so to speak.  She is terrified at the angel’s words.
Imagine being Mary, a girl of 14 or 15 years of age, just betrothed to Joseph, who is to become her husband. “I will become pregnant?  I’m not married. I don’t know a man in that way. How can this possibly be?” Truly, she is confused, scared, taken aback! “Conceive a child out of wedlock?” she might have thought. “Joseph certainly will divorce me. I will be alone.  I could possibly be stoned to death.  With some luck, maybe not killed but left to myself,  facing the prospect of living in dire poverty, an outcast of my culture.”

The angel calms her. “Mary, you have found favor with God. Be not afraid….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.  …[Your] cousin Elizabeth,…has also conceived a son in her old age [she’s ninety], and this is the sixth month for her who was…[known and looked down upon for being] barren; for nothing is impossible for God”  (Luke 1: 26-38).

Full of grace, Mary says “yes ”:  “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1: 28).

Lord, may I have the faith, the humility, the courage and the trust of Mary to say “yes” to you today, no matter how impossible what you are asking of me may sound or how scary that my “yes” might lead to suffering of some sort.  Filled with grace, may I trust you as Mary did and also as Jesus did in leaving heaven and coming to earth to take on human nature and all that being human entails, apart from sin itself. May I leave my comfy zone to follow God’s plans for me today!