We are not by ourselves
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How can this be? Those four short words make up one of the most famous questions in all of sacred scripture, a question we hear spoken by Mary to the angel Gabriel long ago and yet, surprisingly also a question I find myself thinking or saying a lot these days.
It seems that almost every week I hear about something that someone somewhere is working on, and it just astonishes me. After all, every time I think how can this be — that’s exactly what happens. It is! We’re going to land people on the moon? We’re going turn sunlight into electricity? We’re going to carry around an encyclopedia in our pocket — in a phone — no less? We’re going to have cars that drive themselves?
These things still astonish me. And most people outside of these specific fields probably couldn’t believe that these things would actually come to fruition.
In one sense we kind of understand how these things come about. After all, each of the examples I gave all involve technology. But what about the things that don’t involve a lab or research or computers or science or the solving of a given problem? What about these other things? Let’s call them matters of the heart or of the soul or of the spirit — the kinds of things we can’t really quantify or precisely define. Are all of these things possible too?
Can I forgive someone who has wronged me? Can I give love even more than I want to receive it? Can I be generous even if I don’t have much? Can I act in someone else’s interest and not my own? Can I be patient and kind and compassionate — even to people I don’t like? Put another way — can I really do what God wants me to do?
On the surface it might seem that it’s easy to answer yes to these questions. They don’t seem as complicated as the technological pursuits which dominate our world. And yet, I would argue the exact opposite — that we often act as if these questions are impossible to say yes to, impossible to live out, to embrace to the extent to which God calls us. The only answer is the same answer given to Mary by the angel Gabriel. Two thousand years may have passed but God is still acting as he always has, in harmony with his very essence. How can this be?
The Holy Spirit will come upon you — that’s our answer. In fact, that’s one of the deepest and most profound realities. The seemingly impossible becomes possible because we are not facing these things alone. Our loving God is not at some distance watching and waiting. He’s not expecting us to figure everything out on our own, or act on our own or go through life on our own. Nor would Mary give birth to Jesus, the Savior, alone. God was with her. God was within her. And God never abandoned her. And it’s the same with us. Advent and Christmas can help us realize that. What seems impossible to you? What makes you think how can this be? Now imagine it. Now live it. And don’t worry — you don’t have to do it by yourself.