Most of us live very well-planned and ordered lives.
In school, we follow a set schedule of classes, sports, projects and
clubs. We set out to find the right school, the right major, the right first
job. We carefully plan out the wedding, the first house, the birth of our
children, the security of our family.
We work hard to cover all the bases, to leave nothing to chance.
Regardless of what happens, we stick to the program.
But more than once along the way, our carefully ordered world is
knocked off kilter. Schedules are delayed; plans are interrupted;
arrangements are changed. Something goes wrong—and we have to
work out a “Plan B”.
Sometimes our well-planned and tightly structured life is
interrupted—by God: God in the form of someone in need, someone in
crisis, someone rejected or forgotten. God breaks into our life and
disrupts our carefully laid-out world. God insinuates himself into our
lives—and we find that it is no longer about us, but about someone else.
That’s what happens to Mary in Luke’s Gospel. Her life is pretty
well set: She has been brought up in the faith of her people, she has been
taught how to manage a home, she is set to marry the carpenter Joseph
and settle into the life of spouse and mother.
And then God interrupts.
God calls her to give birth—now—to his Son. It will be the first of
many times Mary’s life will be interrupted by God.
And Mary always says yes.
Today’s Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception honors Mary for
her yes to God, for her willingness to let God break into her set and safe
world for the sake of the world beyond herself; God appeals to her
selflessness and humility to give birth to his Christ.
God interrupts our lives as well, calling us to put aside our own
needs and wants to give birth to his Son at times we had not planned for.
Gabriel appears in our busy days in the form of the poor, the forgotten,
and the hurting, asking us to put aside that day’s agenda to be the
compassion and peace of God for that messenger at the door.
Let us pray today that, like our sister Mary, we may welcome
God’s “interrupting” our lives to do something good and healing and
holy for others; that, like our mother Mary, we may take on the selfless,
demanding work of giving birth to God in our own Nazareth’s and
Bethlehem’s.
Gracious God, may we possess the faith and trust of your daughter
Mary to say yes to your “interruptions” in our lives, when you call us to
make your presence real in our own time and place. In our welcoming
of your Son into our homes and hearts, may we embrace the Advent
meaning of this gift of time you have given us.