A checkout clerk at my neighborhood supermarket is a young, very
engaging African American fellow with an unfailingly positive outlook on
life and really big dreams – which he sometimes shares with me: a
higher-paying job, a law degree, winning the lottery, a knockout of a
wife (his words!), a round-the-world cruise, and most recently, a trip
to Mars. Whenever he shares one of his dreams with me he looks me in the
eye and adds, “You know, ain’t nothin’ impossible for God.” I love his
spirit and, of course, I never disagree with him about that!
“Nothin’s impossible for God.” That’s the
message that literally leaped off the page in today’s scripture
readings. In the reading from the Book of Samuel King David was front
and center, comfortably settled in his palace, victorious over his
enemies, a mighty figure by any reckoning. But it’s well to remember
David’s story and where he came from. David was the youngest of seven
brothers, a shepherd tending the flocks, a nobody – until the day the
prophet Samuel arrived, called for him, and anointed him. But why David
and not one of his more mature and impressive brothers? Well, the short
answer is that God likes to work wonders with very little; the short
answer is that “nothing is impossible for God.”
We got the same story in today’s passage from
Luke’s gospel. A nobody, an unknown young girl by the name of Mary in a
backwater town called Nazareth is visited by an angel, presented with an
invitation from God, gives her consent, and finds herself with child by
the Holy Spirit. Unlikely? Absolutely. Impossible? No. Because
“nothing is impossible for God.”
My friends, this will be a short homily because
- let’s be honest – we’ve got a lot of ‘church’ to do in the next
twenty-four hours!
But, for just a moment, let’s look inwardly and
ask ourselves a question or two: like, what have I declared to be
impossible in my life? Shaking an old habit? Overcoming a crippling
addiction? Breaking out of my self-centeredness? Becoming more loving?
Saving my marriage? Loving a difficult family member? Being more ethical
at work? Becoming a saint?
Or take a little broader look and ask ourselves
what else we’ve given up on? Our idealism? Our hopes for the Church, for
our country? Making a dent in the glaring inequalities that cause hunger
and homelessness? Bringing climate change under control? The possibility
of world peace?
If we find ourselves saying yes to these things
and others like them, the question then becomes: what will it take for
us to believe again – really believe - that we have a God who, with our
cooperation, turns things around: makes the crooked ways straight and
the rough ways smooth, a God who never runs out of surprises, a God who
can do so much with so little – with insignificant Mary of Nazareth,
with you, with me.
My friends, what would it be like if we were to
draw close to the crib this Christmas – with all its smells and all its
squalor yet with all the glory of the Godhead wrapped in rags – what
would it be like if we were to see there, perhaps for the first time, a
whole new world of endless and exciting possibilities, thanks to the God
for whom nothing – absolutely nothing – is impossible!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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