Monday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 20, 2021

Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”  But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”  Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

The following link and information will take anyone interested to the live St. Matthew’s Gospel Bible Study tonight at 8:00 PM eastern time, 7:00 PM central time.  We are looking at the Sermon on the Mount.

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/3806645258?pwd=MUNuU0ZxNFM3NnpiclZCcFF6SFhyQT09

Meeting ID: 380 664 5258

Passcode: 140026

“The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin.”  Gabriel and the other angels had been created by God before the creation of the world.  They possessed keen intellects capable of fully understanding at a glance, and a will that could not be changed, once formed, or broken.  They had been put to a test after their creation.  We do not know the nature of this test although some theologians have posed theories.  Perhaps it could be compared to the subsequent test of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  As a result of the test, a certain number of angels rebelled against God.  As many as a third may have rebelled (cf. Revelation 12, 4).  These were cast out of the heaven God had created for them by Gabriel and the other angels who remained loyal to God.  These loyal angels then ascended into the highest realm of heaven to gaze upon the living God face to face.  Gabriel and the others looked on when God created the earth and then human beings.  They saw the humans, endowed with far lesser intellect and will than their own, fall prey to the enticements of the evil angels, but then heard God promise a Redeemer for them.

Through the ages, Gabriel watched the human race flounder about in its self-imposed darkness.  He also performed missions for God to help its members.  He prayed for the coming of their Redeemer.  And at a certain point, God chose him to bring the news of that Redeemer’s forerunner to the human who would be his father.  When that man doubted, Gabriel struck him deaf and dumb as a sign before returning to heaven.  And then Gabriel was assigned the greatest of his missions: to announce to a Virgin that she would be the Mother of the promised Redeemer.  Mary was unlike any human he had seen before since the creation of Eve, and she was even greater than Eve, for she had never sinned.  Her purity reminded him of his own, and as a result her intellect and will were stronger than any other human’s.  She would be a fit Mother of the Redeemer God was sending.  This Redeemer would be far more than a mortal man.  He would be the Son of God, whom Gabriel had worshipped in heaven with the Father and Holy Spirit from the dawn of his existence.  This Redemption struck Gabriel with awe.  Meditating on the feelings of Gabriel at the sacred moment of his announcement, a Greek poet would later write, “Gabriel was rapt in amazement as he beheld your virginity and the splendor of your purity, O Mother of God, and he cried out to you: “By what name shall I call you? I am bewildered; I am lost! I shall greet you as I was commanded to do: ‘Hail, O Woman full of Grace!’ '’

Let us, in prayer, see the awe of the angels at the Incarnation and Birth of the Lord Jesus, and ask them to help us feel something of it.