TO BELIEVE

December 20, 2024 – Fifth Day of Misa de Aguinaldo

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122024.cfm)

There is something I want you to do now. This is a short breathing exercise for this morning. Ready?

Breathe deeply and inhale God’s Spirit. Hold.

And exhale your fear and negative emotions.

Inhale God’s assurance of love. Hold.

Exhale your doubts and anxieties of tomorrow.

And inhale the gift of the present moment. Hold.

Now, exhale the pains of past.

Doing this would hopefully help us to think clearly and recognize what we have in life at the moment. Possibly, some of us now have many concerns and worries in our own homes that we also bring at work and in our studies or to our relationships.

 Things can be complicated when we do not see the direction of each aspect of our life. Home, work, friendship, love-life and other extra-curricular activities when they come together, our hands will be full. And when there is one or two aspects in our life and become overwhelming for us, other aspects of life will also be affected. And from all the stress and burdens that we experience each day, there is indeed a need to take a break, that we will first breathe deeply and re-balance our life.

And our faith has something important to remind us today. We are able to recognize this in the life of Mary, who in the midst of confusion and worries, when the angel appeared, she was able to manage and gather her mind – and she was able to do that because she has faith, because she believed.

Yet, what does it really mean to believe? What is the meaning of faith in our everyday life? Or does it have a meaning at all in our daily life and daily affairs?

The Gospel brings us now into that story and life of Mary, in which she believed even in the midst of a seemingly unbelievable circumstances in her life.

Thus, the Angel Gabriel greeted her, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!” Reflecting upon it, we find that the greeting is so deep. It is a statement from God that Mary is certainly favored and that God is delighted with Mary. Mary is, indeed, filled with GOD!

In her simplicity and being an ordinary woman, she accepted God’s invitation extra-ordinarily because ‘she believed’. In her simplicity, Mary felt the trouble of being honored as favored by God. I am sure that Mary with her human emotions felt confused and afraid when the angel appeared before her. The revelation of the angel was difficult to understand, thus, she pondered in her heart the meaning of those.

These troubles, confusion and fear led her to ask in all honesty, “how can this be?” It was neither a question of defiance nor of doubts but of concern on how she would go about it. The answer she got was God’s promise, that God is with her. This is how Mary inhaled God’s spirit.

This promise from God inspired Mary and motivated her to give her consent, her big YES to God. Mary was called by God to be the Mother of Jesus, and Mary responded with joy and confidence. Her response is out of gratitude to God for being good to her and out of love and kindness for that was her experience with God. And this is how she exhaled her fears and anxieties.

This tells us now that when we also respond out of joy and serve others out of gratitude, then, we will be able to give life to others, like Mary, because we too will be able to breathe God’s spirit and expel our fears and worries.

Indeed, Mary’s whole life is all about love, only love. There is no bitterness in the heart of Mary; no scars of fear or hate, only love. That is why, Mary would always choose to love which she always does. In her heart, there are no grudges, no malice. This love of Mary makes her affectionately close to us. Thus, we should neither fear nor hesitate to be close to her.

The mission of Mary now was to be part of our story of salvation. Mary has a big role here, and that is, to be the Mother of the Redeemer of the World, who will bring peace and mercy. With Mary’s open heart, pure conscience, deep faith and love in God, she accepted the call from God and prompted her to declare, “Behold, I am God’s servant. Let it be done to me according to your word!” She owned this statement and kept it in her heart despite her confusions and anxieties. And this is how Mary inhaled the gift of the present moment – because in doing that she has placed herself in God because she believed in the saving presence of God.

Everything became possible with God because Mary believed. Remember, God cannot and will not work wonders with us unless we give our consent and believe.

This is the invitation today for us, TO BELIEVE, because God reveals His presence in the events of our ordinary life.

TO BELIEVE, then, is to be constantly aware of God’s many revelations in every single moment of our life. And so, inhale God’s spirit.

TO BELIEVE is to trust in the Lord’s Words and promise despite our troubles and questions, worries and anxieties. And so, exhale your fears and anxieties.

TO BELIEVE in the Lord also means to be aware of the needs of others –that we may become more responsive to the needs of others like Mary who responded for the salvation of all. And so, let us inhale love not hatred.

TO BELIEVE is to listen to God’s invitation so that through our life, the Lord will be able to do wonderful things when we allow God also to change us. And so, exhale our arrogance.

TO BELIEVE also means being pregnant with God’s presence. Yes, God invites us today that our life, our words and actions, and our relationships with one another will become pregnant with His loving and compassionate presence. And so, inhale God’s presence. Hinaut pa.