As we approach the Nativity of Our Lord, I happened to look up the holy city Bethlehem on Wikipedia. There, at the bottom of the sidebar, were the words:
Name meaning
House of Meat (Arabic); House of Bread (Hebrew & Aramaic)
I was just listening to a Catholic podcast, when the presenters shed a new light on these familiar words:
The angel Gabriel went in and said to Mary, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’
Luke 1:28
“The Lord is with you.” Five words that we all take for granted now, but which our ancestors in faith probably reacted to very differently, more like:
Uh oh.
When Moses was sent by God on a “mission impossible” to free the Israelites from Egyptian captivity (Exodus 3:7-12), what did God say to him? “I shall be with you.”
Uh oh.
When God called Jeremiah to preach repentance to His wayward stony-hearted children (Jeremiah 1:4-19), what did He say to him? “I am with you to protect you. They will fight against you, but I will deliver you.”
Uh oh.
It seems that in the Bible, whenever the Lord says that He is with someone, it’s often in the context of “I want you to do something that will be exceedingly difficult, possibly even life-threatening, and turn your life upside-down, but you’ll be fine because I am with you.”
So when a young peasant girl in a backwoods village is told that the Lord is with her, what do you think her reaction would be? Scripture tells us:
She was deeply disturbed by these words
Luke 1:29
Uh oh.
Most of us don’t hear that directly from the Almighty. Instead, it’s others who tell us that He’s by our side to support us, so we don’t take it too seriously, treating it as “just something people say for comfort”, and continue with our daily lives the way we want to.
But what happens on the day we do hear directly from God, like a priest receiving his calling? Will it be:
Oh my God, you’re really real! Oh my God, you’re talking to me! Oh my God, you want me to totally change my life, don’t you? OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! … Um, can KIV or not hah?
Or will it simply be:
Lord, I am Yours.
If we are too wrapped up in our secular lives and possessions, the latter response would be almost impossible.
Now that COVID-19 has upended all our lives, and especially as we approach the Nativity of Our Lord, let’s take the time to reconsider everything that we hold dear, and be prepared to leave it all behind and go to God when He calls, for whatever reason.
Because as surely as night follows day, He will call us at least once, and on that “day’s end”,
Uh oh (I’ll surely burn in hell)
would be a truly unfortunate response.
O God, I know you are with me, but I keep taking Your presence for granted. Grant me the grace to say “no” to sin, “no” to self-indulgence, “no” to clinging to the mundane, and say “yes” to holiness, “yes” to loving community, “yes” to Your Will that is Life. I love You, Father, in union with Son and Spirit, one God over all. Amen.