Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent Dec. 20th

Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent
December 20, 2006


“Hail (Mary), full of grace.”
Luke 1:28

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Imagine you are in your house. Mary, the mother of God and our mother, walks in and sits down. How awesome would that be to be in her presence? What would you do? How would you respond? Would not we want to know what she knows, to see what she sees, to think what she thinks? We would want to be in total union with what she is experiencing.

Mary, full of grace! Mary, full of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Mary, full of the source of all the salvation and love and joy for every human being that has lived and ever will live. Mary, the creation we all want to be most like.

Mary could have said “no” to God and rejected being full of grace. Thankfully, she said “Yes”. But isn’t it incredible that we have the gift and responsibility to say to say “yes” or “no” to the grace of Christ. It is so astonishing that God would be self-limited by his own creation. In other words, our acceptance of God’s grace determines the goodness of God that can come through us.

Like no other, Mary resounded with the grace and light of God. What do people see when they see you and me? When we walk into someone else’s house do others want to draw near to us? Do they want to be in union with what we are in union with?

St. Augustine taught, “God made us without our permission but will not save us without our consent.” How much consent have we given to the grace of Jesus in our lives?

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John