“For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Lk 1:44

Today, I share three things that came to mind as I read the Gospel readings.

They describe two scenarios in Luke, Chapter 1, verses 26 to 48, regarding the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, and Gabriel telling Mary she’s gonna have a kid.

My reflections aren’t necessarily related to the stories, but more as a general view of life and how I have conversations with God.

Maybe, you can get something out of it.

#1 – Questioning

The first thing that I latched onto is the idea of questioning God’s will, or questioning what you hear from God, and being curious about what’s happening and seek greater understanding of it.

It comes from Mary’s response to Gabriel in verse 34 when she simply says, “how can this be since I have no relations with a man?”

She received this message that she’s gonna have a baby, and she’s fully aware she has not had sex with anybody, which begs the question “how could this be?”

What I hear from it is not necessarily doubting a message that you receive from prayer, or someone giving you guidance, but more about being curious and making sense of the message.

To me, this is part of the human experience. It’s okay to go through a process of questioning and seek greater understanding of what’s happening in your spiritual life or life in general.

#2 – Willingness

The willingness to submit to God’s will and the message you receive. That comes in verse 38 when Mary simply says, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May be done to me according to your word.”

To me that is similar to how Jesus was saying (paraphrasing), Hey, can you, can you hold back on all these things that are going to happen, but your will be done.

It’s an interesting contrast to wrestle with a direction, question a message, and still be willing to go through the process and follow the direction that God sends me.

It takes a lot of humility, it takes a lot of processing and, in a way, bravery to be willing to go to in a direction that doesn’t make any sense to you, but you’re gonna step in faith to what the Lord is saying.

This is a battle I go through daily, and it seems very common among all of us living this spiritual life and experience on earth.

#3 – Recognition

This comes from Elizabeth’s response to the visitation of Mary when she says in verse 44, “for at the moment the sound of your greeting, reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”

I started thinking about what if this baby Elizabeth is referring to is a representation of my soul that recognizes very quickly the word of God.

I’m sure you’ve been in situations where you immediately felt this clear answer of yes, no, or not now response to something that’s happening to you, something that’s been offered, a message that you see, or somebody you meet.

I’m not talking about an emotional reaction, but more a feeling that is a simple yes, no, or not now.

It seems to be an immediate recognition of whether the message is aligned with you or not. It has no negative or positive reaction to it, just a yes, no, or not now.

I admit to experience these moments but I regularly ignore them until life forces me to follow. I’m working on being obedient to those moments.

These are the three things that spoke to me from the readings: a combination of being able to question what’s happening, to be willing to submit after certain considerations, and then the recognition of the truth that comes from God.

Let me know what you think and I’ll see you on the next one.

In peace,

~Juan