“I Come to Do Your Will” by Colleen O’Sullivan
The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying: 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!” Then Isaiah said: Listen,
O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary
my God? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us!” (Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10)
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open
to obedience you gave me. Holocausts or
sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, “Behold I come.” (Psalm 40:7-8a)
For this reason, when Christ came into the world,
he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared
for me; in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight. Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the
scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.’” (Hebrews 10:5-7)
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,
Mary, 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 great and
will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne
of David, his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of
his Kingdom, there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33)
Piety
Gabriel’s Message, 13th-century Basque carol
The angel Gabriel from heaven came
His wings as drifted snow
His eyes as flame
“All hail,” said he “thou lowly maiden Mary
Most highly favored lady, “Gloria, Gloria
His wings as drifted snow
His eyes as flame
“All hail,” said he “thou lowly maiden Mary
Most highly favored lady, “Gloria, Gloria
Study
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| Annunciation (c. 1480), Master of the Legend of Saint Barbara, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons |
Although we break from our Lenten journey today to celebrate the Annunciation
of the Lord, in a sense, it almost feels as though we are back at our readings
for Ash Wednesday. There is a common
theme running through those readings and today’s: In the Ash Wednesday reading from the prophet
Joel 1, God asks the people to rend their hearts, not their
garments. God wasn’t overly impressed by
the sacrifices of animals in earlier times.
God probably doesn’t care today what we choose to do without for Lent
unless it opens our hearts more fully to the Lord. What God wants from us, whether we’re talking
about King Ahaz or you or me, is our hearts.
God desires hearts full of love for him; hearts able to say, “I come to
do your will.”
Judah’s King Ahaz, in today’s reading from Isaiah, was not a faithful
king. He got in with a wrong lot right from
the start. The rulers in northern Israel
and Syria wanted him to join forces with them in going after Assyria, which was
planning to attack the Northern Kingdom.
Isaiah counseled Ahaz to put his trust in God rather than these earthly
leaders. He suggested Ahaz ask God
whether Isaiah’s words were true prophecy or not. But Ahaz refused, claiming that that would be
testing God. Isaiah said, well, you will
receive a sign whether or not you ask for it.
The sign, when it came, was the promise that a virgin would bear a son
whose name would be Emmanuel.
In our Gospel reading, we behold Mary, the young girl God has chosen to
bear his Son. I’m sure she was
frightened and bewildered. I know I
would be if anything like this encounter happened in the middle of my everyday
chores! She sees herself as lowly and
not worthy of this attention from her Lord.
And she wonders how on earth she can be expecting a child when she is
betrothed to Joseph and has never slept with him or any other man for that
matter. God, on the other hand, sees her
as faithful and precisely the type of person God is looking for to raise Jesus. Unlike King Ahaz, her ultimate response to
the Archangel Gabriel is to say yes, I come to do the will of my Lord.
Action
As we continue through the remainder of Lent, the goal of whatever we
are doing to observe the liturgical season is to be able to say, like the psalmist,
“I come to do your will” or, like Mary, “I am the servant of the Lord.”
I know that the times are unsettling, but we can nevertheless give our
hearts to the Lord and show the love of God to our brothers and sisters. Right in my neighborhood, I have been moved
by how willing people are to do for others who need assistance.
1 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12-13)
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Annunciation_Master_of_the_Saint_Barbara_Legend_The_MET.jpg
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