There were so
many entry points for prayer and reflection in my Scripture study today for the
Solemnity of the Annunciation. “A
sign from God”, “Here I am Lord I come to do your will”, “the will of God”, “the
Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us”, “do not be afraid”, “the
Holy Spirit will come upon you”, “nothing is impossible with God”—these are just some of the threads
that jumped out at me as I read and reflected [Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10, Psalms
40:7-11, Hebrews 10:4-10, Luke 1:26-38].
I couldn’t decide where to focus my attention. Finally, I decided to try and discover what
they all might have in common. Where I
landed was the concept of being chosen and my belief that we’re all chosen by
God simply in our being created. Don’t
we all wish to have a sign from God, to know if we’re doing the right thing or
doing God’s will? Isn’t this just
another way to say that we’d like to know that we’re chosen? And yet, we are. “The Word of God became
flesh and dwelt among us” and continues to dwell among us as we each carry Christ to the
world. What an awesomely big
responsibility. But we hear, “do
not be afraid, nothing is impossible with God!”
St. Teresa of Avila said it so well when she wrote:
“Christ
has no body now but yours. No hands, no
feet on earth but yours. Yours are the
eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do
good. Yours are the hands through which
he blesses all the world. Yours are the
hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Since we’re
bringing Christ to the world, maybe it’s important to take a minute and ask
ourselves some questions as we pray with Mary: Who is she? Why was she chosen? What was special about her? Today is also a great day to spend some time
contemplating how we’re called, each of us, individually and uniquely to bring
Christ to the world. Who am I? Who has God created me to be? What’s special about me? How am I gifted – we all are – uniquely
called? Why was I chosen? How am I called to bring Christ to the world?
Again, we’re
all chosen, created in the image of God, to bear Christ. How will that manifest in us today?
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