Hail, favoured one! The Lord is with you

Gen 3,9-15.20; Ps 97,1-4; Eph 1,3-6.11-12; Lk 1,26-38.
8 DECEMBER

Today, the whole Church is invited to rejoice, be happy and exult. The one that God has chosen to be the Mother of his Only Son, of his Eternal Word is conceived. Mary is not only conceived as immaculate, that is, preserved in anticipation of the merits of Christ Jesus from every stain of original sin, but is also filled by God with all grace, truth, justice and holiness. God makes of Her his home on earth. The Holy Spirit elects her heart to a permanent home. The Son dwells in Her, waiting to be made flesh in her very pure womb. From this moment the heart of Mary is the true temple of God on our earth. God has poured all his love into it. Christ Jesus wrapped it with his grace. The Holy Spirit governs it with his truth and eternal light, moving it from faith to faith, obedience to obedience, charity to charity and justice to justice. We can attest that Mary is from the very beginning of her conception a true reflection of the love of the Father, of the grace of Christ and of the communion of the Holy Spirit. She is modelled on the Father, on the Son and on the Holy Spirit. She is the creature that more than any other is in the true image and a true resemblance of his Creator, Lord and God.

The contemplation of the Virgin Mary on this day of her conception must create a very high truth in our hearts. If Mary, in order to be able to fulfil the mission of Mother of the Saviour, needed that all the Blessed Trinity were at work to create such a holy, perfect and true woman, can we think we can do one single work of God, detaching and separating ourselves from him? If we want to obey God, the God who is outside of us must command and the God who is within us obey. Christ Jesus who is outside of us must want the work and Christ Jesus who is within us do it. The Holy Spirit who is the external truth must become the interior truth, truth in the flesh, so that he can work truth in hearts. It is the God within us who must operate the redemption of the world, but he cannot operate without God, if we do not offer him a body, a spirit, a heart and a soul sanctified, perfect in every virtue. If the God within us is poor, small, insignificant and hardly sketched, even the work will be poor, small, insignificant and hardly sketched. If the God within us is dead, the work will also be dead. Here is the Christian’s commitment: making God grow in him.

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, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour 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.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Christian confusion precisely consists in this: in not having a strong, true, just and holy God in us. Having each a very poor God, he speaks and works from this poverty. Being this God without any identity, even our words will be without any Christian identity. But without a Christian identity, they are words even without human identity. Truth, supernatural, celestial and divine confusion become anthropological, moral, relational and behavioural confusion. There is an urgent need to make God true within us. As long as the God within us is not true, never might the God outside affect according to truth in us or for us in the world. In Mary the true God is made flesh and from her flesh is given to the world as its one, only and true God.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that our God is truly very holy in us.