I am no holy person to deserve a visit by an angel like Mary did. I am likewise far from being full of grace. But often, like Mary, I ask the question, “How can this be?”
I sit here in prayer in faraway California, with my Anabelle still asleep in our bed. It is a long way from Quezon City where we started out with our married life together and built ourselves a home and a family. It is even a longer way from Angeles City where I grew up. As I reflect in prayer, I ask myself, “How have all these things come to pass?”
I grew up often wondering what I would be when I grew up. I thought I would be a teacher like my father. And I was happy at that thought. Then, I aspired to be a priest. In fact, I spent my formative years in the seminary. What and where I ended up – it was all beyond my wildest dreams and imaginings. Every step of the way, I asked “How could all of these events be happening in my life?”
Now, as I go into my twilight years, I still get this feeling that the best is yet to come. My life has been slower and more leisurely of late. There are still problems and worries. But through it all, there is an abiding realization that gets stronger and stronger and it somehow echoes what the angel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.
~ Psalm 98
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
Luke 1:26-38