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Understanding the Jesse Tree
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Fourth Sunday of Advent
The Angel Gabriel

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 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 holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

When I read this text of the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, I think of the images that were part of my formation in art and religion books.  It usually has Mary with hands in a praying position and head bowed with the angel Gabriel present speaking to her.  However, when you read the text and try to form an image just from what the Gospel is trying to communicate, I think we can create a very different picture in our minds.  When Gabriel comes to Mary, her greeting beings with The Lord is without.  Then it says that Mary was perplexed or confused by his words and pondered what these words meant.  Gabriel needs to reassure her by saying, “Be not afraid, Mary, because you have found favor with God.  Telling someone to not be afraid is usually because the person is afraid, and you are trying to reassure him or her.  So, the first image according to the text is of Mary being confused and afraid.  She has no idea what is happening to her, and neither would we if we were in the same situation.  Once Gabriel gives her the message, Mary is still perplexed because she asks how will happen since she is a virgin.  In the face of confusing and fear, she says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to God’s world.”  That is to me the big lesson.  God calls us and sometimes we are afraid and confused.  We have no idea why, how and what it will mean to answer his call, and with faith we answer it anyway.  Too often fear and confusion stop us from responding to God and yet Mary, our mother, the first disciple, responded in the face of that.  Sometime we wait way too long to respond to God.  We want things clear and safe and that is not faith!  I say, let it happen and see where it takes us.  When I did the funeral of Lilian, who belong to the company of St. Ursula, I found one of her famous quotes that I think is so precious and could be our Blessed Mother’s words to us as we hear angels giving us messages from God, “Do something.  Get moving, risk new things, stick with it, get on your knees, then be ready for big surprises.”  Because of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary with the message, Mary responded in just about the same way and the great surprise is our salvation through the wood of the manger in Bethlehem to the wood of the Cross on Calvary.  This scene with the angel and Mary is really a powerful statement of faith that each one of us will experience if we are open to how God wants to be an instrument of his grace to a hurting world.

There were many silent years after the last prophet brought messages to God's people, but God was still working on his plan.  God had chosen a young girl named Mary to play a very important role in his plan. God sent an angel to deliver a message to her. The angel told Mary that she would give birth to a son.  But he would not be an ordinary son, she was to name her son Jesus, and he would be great. She would become pregnant by the power of God's spirit and the baby would be the son of God.  God's promised plan was beginning to be revealed on the earth.

Discuss as a family how it can be difficult and fearful to do God’s will and to say “yes” to God when he asks something of us.   Too often we want it a clear and easy when there is tough and amazing work to get done.  Explore how to respond to God and how to deal with the fear that comes when we do God’s will in a world that rejects most of what God wants for the world.  Talk about a time when you felt that you were called to respond to God’s will in your life and it was a time of confusion and fear and you needed to trust in God and get on your knees and pray for help.