Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
December 20, 2007
"For nothing will be impossible for God."
- Luke 1:37

The words, "For nothing will be impossible for God", are given to Mary by the angel in The Annunciation. God has chosen Mary to the Theotokos(God-bearer), to conceive and give birth to Jesus. Mary will conceive a child, not through the normal course but through the power of the Most High showing that nothing is impossible with God.

That nothing is impossible with God, however, is not just the truth for Mary. They are words given to all of God's children. Think about your own existence. Isn't it amazing that you are alive and you had absolutely nothing to do with making that happen? God made you out of nothing and wants to share everything that is good, beautiful and true with you forever. The fact that you are alive and reading this means that you are loved infinitely by the God who created you!

Now, while we do believe that there is nothing impossible with God, St. Augustine taught that there is something God cannot do. God cannot love us more than he does in giving us Jesus in the Eucharist. How could God love us more? How could he love us more intimately than asking us to receive his very body and blood into our own body and blood? What more could he do to show us who he is for us? So, in this sense we might say that it is impossible for God to show us that he loves us more then his love poured out for us and into us in the Holy Eucharist. It is if somehow God has exhausted his divine ingenuity to make his love be real for us in His Body and Blood that Jesus commands us to take and eat/drink in memory of him.

In his infinite seeking to intimately fill us with his body and blood, God has another impossibility on his hands. He cannot make us receive His love and life. God cannot take away our free will and make us welcome Him with love into our hearts. While God is all-powerful, He cannot make us receive that power of life without end. Thus, we can make it impossible for Christ to save us by our "No" to His coming.

Let us pray to continue to say "Yes" to God as Mary Our Mother did: "Loving God, Mary was the first person ever to receive the Eucharist, Jesus, into her body. You cannot love us more than giving us your Son, Jesus, in the Eucharist. May I do everything I can to make it possible to receive your love into my life. May I do everything I can to receive The Eucharistic Love of Jesus' body and blood into my body and blood. I know there is no greater love and like Mother Mary I say "Yes" with my whole being to receive your Son in me. Amen."

We are infinitely blessed!

+ Fr. John