When the angel visited Mary and told her what God had planned for her, she knew her life would be changed drastically. Even having a regular baby can completely change someone’s life. Mary was about to give birth to a baby from heaven who would be the savior of the world. Despite the uncertainty and responsibility, Mary said yes to God’s plan for her and welcomed Jesus into her body and life.
God asks each of us to welcome Jesus into our lives. Everything we do in life should be oriented towards discerning what God wants for us and saying yes to Him. Jesus is not like a friend that you add on Facebook. You add them to your friends list once and then don’t communicate much with them after that. We should always nurture and build our relationship with Jesus every day if we want to grow in our relationship with Him. When others look at us, they should be able to see at least one aspect of Jesus within us.
As Catholics, we can also receive the true presence of Jesus in a special way. If people could see the real presence of Jesus at Mass, there would be a line around the block to get into Catholic churches. Currently only about 63% of the most devoted weekly attendees to Catholic Mass believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. When the minister of communion announces to us “The body of Christ”, they are telling us the truth. We need to try to keep that reality in our mind when we receive. Whether we choose to receive the Eucharist on the tongue or in the hand, we need to always have a reverent posture and attitude. We have just been handed Jesus, not a potato chip.
God wants to be in our life, but there are some things that God asks of us as well. We need to say, “Yes” to Jesus being a part of our lives and we then need to work on growing that relationship with Him. If we echo Mary’s words saying, “Let it be done to me according to your word”, then we will truly be full of grace.
