Saying YES
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Christmas is almost here. It begins Sunday evening. Today, on this 4th Sunday of Advent, we hear the account of the angelic announcement to the young virgin, Mary of Nazareth. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that God has chosen her to be a key player in God’s plan for the salvation of the world. In her womb God wedded Himself to humanity. In the infant growing in her womb, God and man became one flesh. Mary became the mother of a divine person with two natures, divine and human.
Mary asked the angel, “How can this be…?” Gabriel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most- High will overshadow you.” God worked in Mary’s life in a unique and amazing way. For Mary, God had already given her a unique grace at the moment of her conception in her mother’s womb. But He acted again when the God-man, the Savior of the World, took flesh in her womb. The Spirit of God worked in Mary’s life in unbelievable ways. But Mary is not the only one whom the power of the Most High has overshadowed.
The Holy Spirit has also come upon you too – first, at your baptism. You became a temple of the Holy Spirit on the day you were baptized, and the Spirit came again in power when you were Confirmed and received spiritual gifts enabling you, if you choose, to do great things for God. For most of us, baptism and confirmation happened when we were young. Our awareness of its significance and our willingness to cooperate with the graces of those sacraments depended a lot on how well we were formed in our faith.
The Spirit of God never forces Himself on us but invites us to receive and cooperate. The Spirit’s working in our lives always demands our consent. Mary said a powerful “yes” when she replied, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” And the rest is history. Mary’s yes enable God’s plan to unfold, and we continue to celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation at Christmas and the glory of our salvation and future resurrection at Easter because of Mary’s “yes” to God.
Have you said “yes”? Imagine the ways the Spirit might work and how the “power of the Most-High” might make a difference in and through your life. Great things can happen when we say “yes” to the Holy Spirit and God’s plan for our lives.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life… Merry Christmas!
