December 08, 2008 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK
Genesis 3: 9-15, 20 + Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12 + Luke 1: 26-38
The Gospel for today tells us three things about Mary that she was “Full of Grace”; that she had “found favor with the Lord” and was the “handmaid of the Lord.” The model of believers, a woman of faith, and the first one to bear the light of Christ into this world is described by Luke in terms of what we shall become if we are attentive to her example. When the church suggests that we think of Mary as a new Eve, we are invited to think of this woman in terms of what God originally had planned for us, a plan rejected by the first Eve and her companion in their pride and sin. In the divine plan to restore creation to its Original design, there comes a new Eve who is what each of us was intended to be: full of grace, favored by God, and a humble servant of this loving Creator/God.
The day after reflecting upon beginnings the recreation that Mark’s Gospel announced yesterday, we have before us a model of what we should have been but yet can still become. While the doctrine of this feast speaks to Mary’s Immaculate Conception, the truth of this feast speaks of what our Creator/God has intended and willed for us all from the beginning. In Christ creation begins again, and the new Eve graced, favored, and humble is this time without the sin of the first Eve.
All so that we too might be born into this creation full grace, favored by the Lord, and humble in his service. This is what we too become when the power of the Spirit comes upon us, when the power of the Spirit leads us to say, “Yes” rather than “No” to the will of God. This is what we become when we awaken to the power and grace of our Baptism and how the Lord has favored us with a faith that leads into the mystery of his presence leaving us humbled by a love that so heals and strengthens us that we can be nothing more than be God’s humble servant.
Full of Grace is what God would have be.
We are a people who have found favor with God or we would never be in this place.
We are called to be God’s servants – to fulfill God’s will – and to humbly and faithfully bear the presence of God’s Son into this world.
Mary stands before us today as the model of what we shall be, of what God has willed from the beginning, and as a reminder that in Christ, all creation is new for those who say “Yes” to the Will of the Father. Redeemed by the Blood of Christ and washed in the water of salvation, we are full of grace, and live in the favor of God. Coming to understand this can have only one consequence that we shall serve the Lord all the days of our lives.