December 20, 2020 - Fourth Sunday of Advent

"God Has a Plan"

Audio Clip

It seems hard to believe, but we’re approaching the anniversary of the first time any of us have heard the phrase “corona-virus”. While we’ve done our best to stay healthy and in a positive frame of mind, life’s been more difficult regardless of who you are or what station in life you occupy. For many of us, challenges have taken on a deeper meaning, perhaps it’s because of the isolation we feel sometimes. But, within this feeling of isolation there are moments to pause, and to listen to the whisper of the Lord as He asks us to place our lives in His hands.

The challenges we face can look and feel very different --- some will carry more significance than others, but for each of us, they can be defining moments --- I’d like to share a story from our family.

Our daughter is a member of her college’s soccer team. As a freshman, sometimes playing time is hard to find, and regardless how well you’ve been competing in practice, you may not get a chance to play very often. It can be a strange, difficult place to be for a young student/athlete. And, during Covid and the social distancing guidelines of college campuses, there isn’t much else to do to find enjoyment.

So, one evening at dinner, after a game in which she didn’t play, we agreed that she was doing everything that she could to prepare herself for game competition, and in the midst of a few tears she said, “Dad, I’ll be alright, I know that Jesus has a plan for me.”

Now, fortunately, we weren’t talking about something like a serious illness or financial hardship, but right now, playing soccer is one of the most important things in her young life. So for us, when we’re faced with circumstances which seem beyond our control, do we truly believe that Jesus has a plan for us?

In today’s Gospel, Luke shares the account of the Annunciation --- the glorious beginning of God’s plan for the salvation of the human race. Sometimes, Holy Scripture reveals how much lives have changed in two thousand years --- this is one of those instances. How many of us know that the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary when she was only fourteen years old and was already engaged to be married to St. Joseph? How many of us know that the Virgin Mary had spent most of her youth in the Jerusalem temple as a devout Jewish believer? How many of us know that a Jewish teenage girl, engaged to be married, and found to be pregnant by someone other than her fiancee, could be stoned to death according to the Hebrew bible (Deuteronomy 22:23, 25, 27, 28)? These were the circumstances of the Virgin Mary’s life when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and still, incredibly, she trusted God and the plan which was shared with her to become the Mother of our Savior.

Many of us have faced circumstances which have felt like we were carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. And, certainly, we are not “full of grace” to the degree which the Virgin Mary was during her life. So, it’s understandable that when we’re faced with a challenge which is new to us, and takes us out of our comfort zone, we may not be as quick to accept the challenge as Mary did.

Although the Gospel shares that the Virgin Mary was “greatly troubled”, she never doubted that God could do it. Mary didn’t say, “get lost, this can’t happen!” --- this fourteen year old believed, and only asked “HOW can this happen?” --- if you close your eyes, you can almost see the incredible innocence of this young girl asking her question. So, the angel described HOW it would be accomplished and even provided an example of a similar miracle with the pregnancy of Mary’s elderly cousin Elizabeth, the mother of the great saint, John the Baptist.

“Thy will be done” moments can occur throughout our lives (even if they won’t be as consequential as the Annunciation). When they happen, it’s important that we take the time to trust that God’s plan for us is greater than anything we can imagine. Nothing that He may ask of us, can be as difficult to BELIEVE as what He asked of the Virgin Mary. But, I also believe that what God may ask of us can be equally as difficult to accept --- it may involve relationships, or our health or the health of someone we love, maybe a job or living arrangements or perhaps another life event that is unique to you and to your family. It can be incredibly difficult for us to stand before the Lord and to allow Him total control of our lives and the lives of those we love. But, if we can respond, “yes, let it be done to me as You say”, He will take our worries and our trials, and change them into glorious spiritual victories in this world and in the world to come. As theologian Fr. Jacques Philippe teaches us, “We are not always masters of the unfolding of our lives, but we can always be the masters of the meaning we give them. Our freedom can transform any event into an expression of love, abandonment, trust, hope and offering (for the Lord).”

In these days leading to Christmas, let us pray that our Lord Jesus will fill us with the gift of faith so we may more confidently place our lives in His hands --- willing to accept the good we receive with modesty and humility, and the trials we receive with trust and perseverance. And, may God’s grace give us the wisdom to know that the Divine purpose of all of our life experiences is to bring us closer to Jesus Christ.

We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.