Blessed are you who believed ...
“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” I was so struck by Elizabeth’s statement to the virgin Mary in the Gospel reading that the Church assigned for today. In hearing this familiar passage today, I realized that Mary had a choice of whether or not to believe what the Lord told her. Since the bible tells us that the scriptures are “living and effective,” I think this verse is a great reminder that sometimes our intuition may be a nudge, or even an explicit word from God (Hebrew 4:12).
Mary received a very clear word from God through the message of the Angel Gabriel.
The bible shows us that Mary knew the messenger was an angel, because Gabriel had to tell her “do not be afraid.” Most of us will never be so directly confronted by an angel. However, that does not mean that God is not regularly speaking to us. How often have you felt a strong urge to go somewhere– or not go somewhere– and, when you listened to that feeling or hunch, the situation worked out the best for you? Or, have you ever felt a gnawing that you should not do something, but then you did it anyway, and you were very sorry about that action after-the-fact? The bible tells us that we are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses,” and that there are angels in disguise walking among us (Hebrews 13:2). It is possible that these feelings or our intuition is really the word of God speaking to us.
In my life, I have definitely seen the difference in times when I have followed my intuition and the times when I have not. Particularly in my younger days, I would brush aside feelings or inner whispers of what to do or what not to do, typically revolving around career pursuits. I explained away these feelings of intuition as “nothing,” or just typical stress or a common worry. However, when I did not follow my intuition, generally that job or academic program turned out to be a terrible choice. I remember struggling through one job for three years, crying often over it, and thinking there was something wrong with me for being so miserable at work. However, from the very beginning, I never felt “right”about taking that job. Throughout the full three years of that employment, I kept asking God for guidance. Finally, my position was actually cut from the program due to Covid-19 budget restrictions. That was a miracle intervention of God’s guidance, and I chose to believe it. Because I believed the loss of that job was a miracle gift from God, I had tremendous peace and joy moving forward. Other career opportunities appeared, and I ended up having the best year of my life financially.
I believed God had given me a miracle in the loss of that job, based on my feelings of intuition, and that “still small voice” in my head. I was blessed financially because of that belief. However, believing in the miracle was a choice. I had four other colleagues at that same institution who also lost their jobs. They felt their program cuts were unfairly targeted, and they rallied together to investigate possible legal action. I was invited to participate and to fight to keep my job. I chose not to fight, because I believed in the “case” for my intuition; what I felt was a word from God. As a result, I was blessed financially through a completely different line of work, but I am not sure how well it worked out for my former colleagues.
“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke Chapter 1). The Gospel today is a powerful reminder that God speaks to us. When we choose to believe and follow this spiritual leading, we are blessed.
If you are in the mood for some uplifting Christmas music, check out my version of O Holy Night.