Third Thursday in Advent - December 20th
Is 7: 10-14 / Ps 24: 1-6 / Lk 1: 26-38
The readings today assure us not to be afraid. God’s love is always there for us. We are always welcome to ask for God’s help, for a sign of God’s presence in our lives.
Yet we hesitate like Ahaz did when the Lord invited him to “ask for a sign from the Lord, your God.” Perhaps we’re afraid to ask for the wrong thing, for the mundane, to appear to desire “what is vain.”
When Gabriel spoke to Mary, she too hesitated and needed to be reassured. Because Mary’s “hands are sinless” and “her heart clean” she “found favor with God.” Gabriel tells Mary “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.”
Like Ahaz and Mary, we may not fully understand God’s call to us. As “handmaid of the Lord,” Mary helped bring the divine to us in the person of Jesus. Now we have Jesus as the sign of God’s enduring commitment to us – as Isaiah had promised.
While we continue to search for meaning in life, to fully understand the human experience, and to search for truth, we should do so without fear.
Hail Mary, full of grace
The Lord is with you
Blessed are your among women
Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God
Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death, Amen
Craig M. Wheeland
Academic Affairs
