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Advent Weekday
Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4AB, 5-6
Luke 1:26-38
Summary
In the prophet Isaiah we learn, After chiding Ahaz, its leader, "Is it not enough for you to weary
men, must you also weary my God?", a frustrated Isaiah reveals an extraordinary promise to a
frightened and clueless nation. Our Psalmist sings "Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?"
Apparently the answer is: start with a poor young girl in a remote village. Luke says, Mary con-
fronts her fear of the future bravely, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to
me according to your word.¯
Reflection
Humans evolved into the "civilized age" with a decidedly visual bias. "Seeing is believing!" is the
mantra of our advanced species. Not so with the virgin of this tale. Mary, is astonished more by
the words she hears than by the vision of this otherworldly messenger, Gabriel. What troubled her
was not the sight of the angel who appeared before her but the astonishing greeting and the fu-
ture he laid out for her to embrace and endure. 'Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.¯ The
Lord, according to the messenger was already with her in all her humble status, and yet, she is
told that the same Lord was also about to be conceived inside her against all earthly logic and
vision. It was impossible, but this marvelous Gabriel character seemed certain he had access to
powerful information! "Listen, Mary, and wait."
Against all odds, this poor kid in a small town on the fringe of a great empire was about to be a
sacred fulfillment of a prophesy addressed to a wayward king seven centuries earlier. In utter ex-
asperation Isaiah had publicly offered Ahaz this sign, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you this
sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son," as a prophetic kick-in-butt to a frightened and
stubborn nation and its leaders in the middle of a civil war. Isaiah was demanding that they show
some extraordinary faith in the middle of their perilous uncertainty and take their relationship with
God seriously.
Almost fifty generations later in a quiet, out-of-the-way village, that same ever-present Lord
made good, as always. The addressee this time was a faithful and extremely humble adolescent
who, ironically, was a long-lost descendent of that same dangerous king whom Isaiah was trying
to counsel. The only fanfare in the entire narrative this
time was for Mary herself, those closest to her, and a few
nomads; motherhood is a solemn engagement in the life
of a young woman, even though most of the world tends
to sleep through the evidence in most cases. This was no
woman of note in her contemporary world. The press
would not cover the event. This would only be celebrated
by a few nobodies of the age?and the evanescent
