Luke 1:26-38 His Word, Your Faith

Luke 1:26-38  His Word, Your Faith

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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 the angel said to her, “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.  …Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”

Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?  That’s actually the title of a book.  I saw it one day at a Catholic book store.  I didn’t buy it because the author never answered the question.  In fact, he said he didn’t know.  What kind of author is that???  What kind of answer is that???  He should have said:  “Since this is a scientific question, we will leave it to the scientists to figure it out, for this question could be asked regarding every mammal that exists on the face of the earth.  After all, not only was there a first man who appeared on the scene, but also the first ape and first monkey as well.  This question has nothing to do with Genesis or even faith itself.”

We might not be able to say whether or not Adam and Eve had belly buttons, but when it comes to sin, we can say for certain that Adam and Eve were created without original sin. 

The same holds true for the new “Adam and the new “Eve”.

Today, the first week of Advent comes to an end with an explosion of humility:  The Immaculate Conception. What an ending! 

In the past seven days we have been following our first star, the star of humility, that leads us to the Lord.  Mary is that star’s principle character.  She will always lead us to Her Son.  For where Mary is, so too is her Son.

What does someone, who received a special privilege from God Almighty, look like?  Like Mary.     And what did Mary look like?  Her Son:  like Mother, like Son. 

What did Mary look like as a child?  The same way she looked like throughout her entire life:  meek and humble of heart.

Since Mary kept so many things close to her heart, St. Luke must have worked gently and extremely hard to get it all out of her.    

I know a lot of people who want to be holy.  I know a lot of people who want to look holy.  Well, if you want to be holy and look holy, then start keeping more things close to your heart! 

Stop being offended so easily.  Stop being hurt so easily.  Stop being so offensive and hurtful so easily.

If you can do that, Oh boy, the Lord (and the world) can definitely use you. 

A few days ago, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict, got on twitter.  His twitter address is: @Pontifex.  Within hours of signing up, he received over half-a-million followers, and also some of the most vile and hateful tweets imaginable.  Note:  Many of these messages come from people who claim that religion is the cause of all wars.  Yeh!  Sure!  As if hateful messages generate peace, right?  How pathetic!  It just goes to show you can justify anything you do.

Does the Holy Father feel offended?  Will he tweet back offensive statements?  Of course not!  For the meek and humble of heart stay focused.  They keep staring at the star of wonder, that star that is so bright, that star that is so high above the others.

Will all this negativity bring the Pope down?  Of course not!  Like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Holy Father will humble himself to all this negativity and continue to be the Lord’s servant in his vineyard.  He will accomplish his mission according to The Word, not according to the world. 

God’s Word, our faith!

I encourage all of you to sign up today and receive the Holy Father’s daily messages.  You can be sure his short messages will be filled with faith, hope and love; not vile, not hateful and not offensive.

As we begin the second week of Advent, let us begin to follow another star that leads us to Christ, the star of wonder and shock:  John the Baptist.