According to Your Word December 20

Third Wednesday of Advent

By Diane Bayne

The Lord spoke to Ahaz: Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!” But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!” Isaiah, 7:10.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of Grace! The Lord is with you. . . Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be called Son of the Most High. . .”

Mary said: “Behold I am the handmaiden of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:26-27, 38

It is hard to imagine two more different answers given to God than the two above. The first response was given by Ahaz, one of Israel’s worst kings. Ahaz showed a pretense to righteousness by protesting that he would not test God with a sign when, in fact, God had told him to ask. It would seem that Ahaz didn’t really want to know what God had to say. In the current parlance of today, Ahaz “blew off” the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.

How different was the second response given by Mary. Mary was totally aware of the presence of God. Her response reflects her awareness, her full attentiveness and reverence, and her complete trust. From the first word the angel uttered, Mary heard, Mary believed, and Mary wholeheartedly obeyed. In this she is the model for all who would follow her son.

In the book A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, Albert Edward Day says: God is forever trying to establish communication with us; forever aware of the wrong directions we are taking and wishing to warn us; forever offering solutions for the problems that baffle us; forever standing at the door of our loneliness, eager to bring us such companionship as the most intelligent living mortal could not supply; forever clinging to our indifference in the hope that someday our needs, or at least our tragedies, will waken us to respond to his advances. The Real Presence is just that, real and life-transforming. Nor are the conditions for the manifestation of his splendors out of the reach of any of us! Here they are: otherness, openness, obedience, obsession.

Piety

Lord, help me today to be more and more focused on you, that even in the midst of this busy holiday season, I may hear you clearly when you speak and give you my full attention.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/122006.shtml

Lord, show me today how I may learn more about Mary’s total awareness of your presence–and how to follow her example of otherness, openness and obedience.

Action

Lord, may the focus of my mind, and the searching of my heart, help me become more aware which positive actions encourage my awareness of your presence and which negative actions hinder it. Then help me to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.