Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38
Consider Mary's life one hour before this encounter with the angel. She was engaged to Joseph and living a simple life in Nazareth. She would be about the ordinary events of life, while at the same time planning a wedding and imagining what life will be like in her marriage. In this one hour, Mary is not unlike any other human being with daily activities and duties, hopes and dreams - everything that exists in a young person on the threshold of life.
Then comes the angel and everything changes. She is asked to accept a difficult task. Mary asks a few questions, but she remains open to the work of God in her life. Ultimately she accepts this calling and all that will come with it. There will be misunderstanding and innuendo. There will come exile in a foreign land as her life and the life of her son will be threatened. There will be the poverty of Nazareth under Roman occupation. There will be the cross. But in all this she brings forth God into the world.
How do we respond when God breaks forth into our lives? We have our day to day, our hopes and plans. But God often intervenes in our lives, and most often we are unaware of it. We have opportunities like this each day to bring forth God into the world by accepting God's call to extend mercy, healing, liberation, and nourishment to others. If we remain open, like Mary, to these moments in our day, we too can bring forth God into our world.
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