Monday, December 19, 2016

Homily for 20 Dec 2016

20 Dec 2016

So often in the life of faith, we find ourselves where Mary found herself—sitting there saying, “This doesn’t make sense, God.  It doesn’t make sense.”  The angel Gabriel said to her, “You will conceive and bear a son.”  To which Mary said, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”  It doesn’t make sense.

And it isn’t only with things that have happened already.  It’s also with the promises God gives us.  For instance, Jesus says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will have eternal life.”  Well, humanly speaking, that’s a hard thing to wrap our minds around.  Or when Jesus says, “Whoever does my will are my brothers and sisters and mother.”  There again, how does doing God’s will make us a mother of Jesus?  And, from the male perspective, how can a man be a mother?  It doesn’t make sense.

But, in faith, we just go with it.  We don’t have to understand everything that God is doing.  We don’t have to understand where and how he’s leading us.  It doesn’t have to make sense to us for it to be a good thing.  And so, often in the life of faith, we find ourselves doing just that . . . living a life of faith.  And the more we do that, the more we step out in faith, the more we see that God is right, and that life turns out the way it’s supposed to.

Mary stepped out in faith and simply said, “May it be done to me, God, according to your word.”  And, from that, God came and lived among us.  A wonderful thing happened through Mary’s faith.  What might God have in store for us if we do the same?  What might happen if we really live a life of faith?  

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