Grace

This only makes sense if we let Gabriel be literal! “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor [grace] with God.” (verse 30)

Gabriel, “mighty warrior” of God. Of all the angels, God sends mighty warrior angel? When Mary asks; “How can this be?” Gabriel is, well, comforting, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

Nine months and a few years later, listen. Maybe Gabriel is knocking on your door. We all need to hear those beautiful words; “Rejoice, you have been graced. The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid for you have found grace with God.”

When non-Christian people ask me to bury their wife or mother, baptize their son, welcome their daughter into confirmation class, they tell me why. It is almost a slogan; “You are not judgemental.” People want to be loved by God. People want to be with a God who comforts, makes them feel they are graced, whose joy is with them.

I don’t know what it means to them. But what I know or don’t isn’t important. What is important is that we are messengers of grace. When grace is given, maybe God will hear those other beautiful words from someone, “Let it be with me according to your word.”

God, may I give to someone this day a word of grace, an act of grace, a gift of grace. Amen. — BL