December 8, 2011 at Saint Mark Catholic Church in Norman, OK
Genesis 3: 9- 15,20 – Psalm 98 +Ephesians 1: 3-6,11,12 + Luke 1: 26-38
There are two women set before us today by the Scriputres. The first is called, Eve. Created by God, sinless from the very beginning.
She enjoyed the best of everything: a garden where everything was for her, and maybe best of all, intimacy with a God she could see face to face, a God who walk with her, talk, and listen. Yet instead of talkng and listening to the creator, she decided to talk with the creation, a serpent. With all the abudance of creation, she decided to be concerned with what she did not have. She lost trust in the God who created her in love, and disobeyed. Then that wasn’t bad enough, she had to get someone else to do the same.
We know the consequences of that behavior. We live with them everyday and every hour. Instead of abundance we now suffer from hunger and loneliness. Instead of having all we need provided for us, we must work and plant, wait and harvest. Most difficult of all, we have the immediate presence of God. We no longer see God face to face, no longer easily know God’s will, and it is difficult to know good from evil and choose to do good. Now instead of living with all things good, there is evil, sickness, violence, fear, and death.
Inspite of all God has given us, we still fail to trust. We still often choose our plan over God’s, and so we hurt one another, poison our enviornment and this beautiful earth. We suffer from despair and loneliness, depression and an emptiness we try to fill with all kinds of things that will never do what God alone can do.
Gladly, what we celebrate today is an assurance that this is not the end of the story, and it need not be this way for us. Another woman comes into this scene also created sinless by God out of love. She never had what that first woman had, all of the fruits of the garden and she never saw God face to face or enjoyed walking and talking with God in peace and confidence. When God’s will is made known to her, she sets aside her plans and dreams, and accepts what she does not understand. Unlike Eve, she accepts God’s plan and entrusts herself to God. As a result, a Savior is born to us, Christ the Lord.
As Eve was the mother of all human kind, Mary becomes the mother of all believers. On this Thursday, in the middle of the week, we do something that is not usually part of a Thursday. We gather in this place because the truth of faith is more important to us than anything else at this hour: the truth that what she received from God is also in store for us when we trust God’s plan, obey God’s will, and are willing to give ourselves body and soul to the fulfillment of God’s will for creation.It is the will of God that we be without sin as God created us. It is the will of God that there be no evil, sickness, loneliness, and death. Listen to the words of Paul today: “God has chosen us in Christ to be the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless.” On our part, we must work and pray everyday to make the will and the plan of God for us become real. God has chosen each of us from the beginning to do what no one else can do in fulfilling and completing his plan for creation. Though we may not have all the gifts that Mary had, we can still hold on to the hope that she offers us, and the promise that she fulfills. With her and by her example we can and we do have if we just ask the strength, the grace, and the faith to say, “Yes” again and again and again to everything God asks of us.