“How can this be?”

By Tom Quiner

Good Friday and the Annunciation clashed in my heart at morning Mass this morning. I know it’s an odd connection, but I was struck by the Gospel reading from the first chapter of Luke.

You know the one. The angel Gabriel appears to the young Mary and informs her that she will bear a Son conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary is shocked and exclaims, “how can this be?” as no man had ever touched her.

As this was read, I looked at the giant cross on which Jesus hung over the sanctuary at St. Augustin Catholic Church here in Des Moines, Iowa.

“How can this be?” I wondered? On the first Christmas morn, God gave the world the Gift for which we had longed for. A mere third of a century later, we killed the very same child, grown to a man, who came to rescue us. The answer is: that’s not the end of the story. The love that the Child brought into the world burns with intensity 2000 years later. God sacrificed His Son on your behalf  because you’re worth it.

Because I’m worth it.

Because God loves us incomprehensibly, ridiculously, and unceasingly in spite of everything. All we have to do is embrace the Child.