St. Gabriel

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My immaculate mother, Saint Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

God chose Saint Gabriel to announce to Our Lady the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God. Among all the angels, says Saint Bernard, only Gabriel was found worthy to declare God’s plans to her and to accept her fiat, or ‘be it done unto me’ (Luke 1:38). The angel’s greeting is so simple and charged with meaning. “Hail Mary, full of grace,” has become the most familiar and long-standing prayer of the Christian people.

Gabriel is linked to the Messianic messages, and his presence in Sacred Scripture points to the fullness of time. Earlier, he had been sent to Daniel to presage the period of Christ’s birth, and to Zechariah to foretell the birth of John the Baptist. Since the first centuries of Christianity, Saint Gabriel has been honored in the liturgy. In the 9th century, his name appears in the list of saints for the 24th of March, associated with the Feast of the Annunciation.

In 1921, Pope Benedict XV declared the feast of Saint Gabriel for the Universal Church. Currently, the celebration occurs together with the feast of the Archangels, Michael and Raphael, on September 29.

The angel Gabriel appears to men to communicate the divine message. His name signifies both ‘servant of God’ and ‘God has shown his strength.’ He is always present as the bearer of good news. Above all, he’s entrusted by the creator to deliver the most joyful message of all: the incarnation of the Son of God.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Daniel had already announced the time for the coming of the Messiah.

Gabriel is sent by God to make known to Mary the ineffable mystery to take place in her most pure womb. Since it was a message of such transcendence, the Almighty chooses for the mission an archangel, an angel of the highest caliber. His name signifies ‘strength of God,’ because he would presage Christ, who, despite his humble appearance, would inspire awe even in the principalities and powers. It’s natural for such an exalted figure to foretell the coming of the Lord of hosts and the hero of battles.

The Archangel’s words are repeated countless times each day, an everlasting praise of the Blessed Mother. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:28), as we often tell her in the intimacy of our prayer.

Saint Gabriel prefigures the birth of John the Baptist, too. He states, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your petition has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13).

He also provides the surprised father with three more reasons for joy over the miraculous birth of the precursor. God will grant him extraordinary grace and sanctity. He’ll be an instrument for the salvation of many souls, and his entire life will be consecrated to preparing the arrival of the awaited Messiah.

We know Gabriel through his appearance when children are to be born. In a mysterious, supernatural way, he expedites the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. Previously, in the case of John the Baptist, he tells Zechariah before taking his leave, “I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news” (Luke 1:19).

News of a birth to come is always good tidings. We know that God directly intervenes in the creation of each person by bestowing an immortal soul. “We shall have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth” (Luke 1:14), the angel proclaims.

Saint Ambrose comments, “Through this text, parents are reminded of their duty to give thanks to God.” The saints are invited to rejoice over the birth of their children, for the Lord has greatly blessed us with this awesome capability of propagating the species and our own families.

The Holy Family of Nazareth and the family of Zechariah and Elizabeth set off in a new direction from the moment Gabriel makes his message known. The Archangel can be a great intercessor before God for many married people who desire children or who are already blessed with offspring. Each baby who comes into the world has a divine purpose. Parents, therefore, collaborate with God as administrators of the sources of life. The gift of procreation is granted to them in order that they may have many children who will know, love, and serve the Lord and reach eternal life.

In the face of aggressive propaganda in favor of population control, mothers and fathers have more need than ever to be responsible before God in their parenthood. He frequently asks them to have a large family in keeping with personal and family circumstances. Pope John Paul says, to maintain a joyful family requires a great deal from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others and share their burdens.

Each one must show concern not only for his or her own life, but also for the lives of the other members of the family, for their needs, their hopes, their ideals. Decisions about the number of children and the sacrifices to be made for them must not be taken only with a view to adding comfort and preserving a peaceful existence.

Pope John Paul says, reflecting upon this matter before God, with the graces drawn from the sacrament, and guided by the teaching of the Church, parents will remind themselves that it is certainly less serious to deny their children certain comforts or material advantages, than to deprive them of the presence of brothers and sisters, who could help them to grow in their humanity and to realize the beauty of every stage of life in all its variety.

As Saint Josemaria says, as with other aspects of our fidelity to God, the Lord rewards our generosity even in this life. We experience the fruit of knowing and striving to fulfill the will of God. We must never forget that matrimony is a great and marvelous divine path on earth. As in all human participation in divine things on earth, there are concrete manifestations of correspondence to grace, which are generosity, dedication, and service.

There’s no greater delight in a family than the arrival of a new child. No gift of God is superior. This is the joyful doctrine of the Church that we need to transmit to the whole world. The words of the Archangel Gabriel are always fulfilled when a child is born: “You shall have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth” (Luke 1:14).

Pope John Paul frequently insists on the idea that Christian civilization is a life-enhancing and life-valuing society. John Paul says, “Human life is precious because it is the gift of God, whose love is infinite, and God gives life as his forever.” Life is also precious because it is the expression and fruit of love. The great danger for family life in a society that values pleasure, comfort, and independence lies in the fact that people may close their hearts and become selfish. They may prefer a little more material comfort to the joy of bringing more children into the world and educating them to be good citizens and sons and daughters of God.

Each child that God grants is a wonderful blessing from him. We are told in The Forge, “Do not fear having children.” We can ask Saint Gabriel, who informed Our Lady of the coming of life itself into the world, to gain for us the fortitude to do apostolate in favor of life, generosity, and joy.

Pope John Paul points out: when the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we shall affirm that no one has the authority to destroy unborn life. When a baby is described as a burden or looked upon only as a means of satisfying an emotional need, we must stand up and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God with a right to a loving and united family. When the institution of marriage is abandoned to human selfishness or reduced to temporary and conditional arrangements that can easily be rescinded, we will stand up and affirm the indissolubility of the marriage bond. When the value of the family is threatened because of social and economic pressures, we reaffirm that the family is necessary, not only for the private good of every person, but also for the common good of every society, nation, and state.

When freedom is used to dominate the weak, to squander natural resources and energy, or to deny basic necessities to people, we will insist on the demands of justice and social love.

When the sick and the aged or the dying are abandoned in loneliness, as John Paul says, we will reiterate time and again that they are worthy of love, care, and respect. The Lord has wanted us to be apostles of all that is positive, good, and noble in the world, by drowning evil in an abundance of good. Like Saint Gabriel, may we too be bearers of good news for the family and the world, from our place in society.

Many are bent on spreading evil, and we put even more effort into radiating goodness, beginning with our own family. In national life, says Saint Josemaria, there are two things which are really essential: the laws concerning marriage, and the laws having to do with education. In these areas, God’s children have to stand firm and fight with toughness and fairness for the sake of all mankind.

In the document on the Laity of the Second Vatican Council, and also in a later document called Christifideles Laici of John Paul II, it says each member of the lay faithful should always be fully aware of being a member of the Church, yet entrusted with a unique task which cannot be done by another, and which is to be fulfilled for the good of all.

Pope Leo, in an interview before he was elected Pope, remarked how, when people think of the Church, they tend to think of its institutions, or the religious orders, or the Pope and the bishops. But, he says, the Church is not just those things. The Church is the people, the laity. This is very much a Vatican II idea. We are the Church. I am the Church. It’s the way the Church wants each one of us to think. Therefore, I have a responsibility to evangelize, to evangelize culture, to be in touch with the world. If I have a vocation to be a lay person in the middle of the world, I’ve got to know what’s going on in the world, to read a newspaper, to be in touch with reality. The Church wants us to act with that quality in social, professional, and political life. In The Forge, we’re told, “Your task as a Christian, as a Christian citizen, is to help see Christ’s love and freedom preside over all aspects of modern life, culture and the economy, work and rest, family life, and social relations.”

We can ask Saint Gabriel today to help us to fulfill this aspect of our Christian vocation: to be very aware of my calling to be a lay person in the middle of the world, and particularly to see what I can do to promote the family, to promote all the key ideas, seminal ideas, that are contained in the doctrine of the Church, about the dignity of the human person, the dignity of human procreation, and to help to spread these ideas to the four corners of the world.

That document of the Council talks about the absolute necessity of an apostolate exercised by the individual. The apostolate exercised by the individual, it says, which flows abundantly from a truly Christian life, is the origin and condition of the whole lay apostolate, regardless of all circumstances. All lay persons, including those who have no opportunity or possibility for collaboration in associations, are called to this type of apostolate and obliged to engage in it.

Such an apostolate is useful at all times and places, it says. But in certain circumstances, it’s the only one available and feasible. It’s interesting to hear the documents of the Council and later documents speaking with such force and clarity of the importance of the lay person in the middle of the world.

Saint Paul says to the Corinthians, “We are ambassadors for Christ. It is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ, we appeal to you to be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

As ambassadors of Christ, we are ambassadors of those key ideas, doctrinal ideas of what’s right and wrong, about the social teaching of the Church, about the doctrine on marriage and the family. Therefore, it’s our role to promote the family and marriage through public opinion and through conferences, where of course the importance of schools or parents’ associations in this whole endeavor is very important, or the importance of pro-life or pro-family organizations, which help to mobilize souls and to spread truth.

At a pro-life conference in Manila many years ago, in the 80s, 40 years ago, there was a lady doctor from Liverpool speaking. She was talking about the side effects of contraceptives, and she made an interesting statement. She said, “Women are not being told the truth, and the first right of women is the right to know.” 40 years later, that comment is still very relevant.

We have to try and see what we can do to spread truth, to help people to know and to be more informed, so that they can have a bigger influence in society. In Saint Luke we are told, “When you have done all that you’ve been told to do, say, ‘We are useless servants, we have done no more than our duty’” (Luke 17:10).

In our prayer, we can ask Our Lord to help us to see what specific initiatives God wants us to have in promoting these truths. We find in any upright activity the raw material for our sanctity and the field of our apostolic life.

An apparent wasteland, perhaps, which is rendered fertile by heaven’s graces, when we cultivate it with the means that God has marked out for us. First, our personal friendship and confidence, the key to true effectiveness in our apostolate, which enables us to enkindle other hearts with the love of God burning in our own. Then the specific means of formation that we have, the focal point upon which our efforts should converge.

We know full well the crucial importance of our task within the Church’s mission, and with this conviction, each of us can undertake the initiatives that seem to him or her most appropriate, perhaps mentioning them in spiritual direction. Saint Josemaria used to say, “Freedom, my children. Freedom,” which is the key to the lay mentality all of us have to have. We need drive, initiative. God counts on our personal freedom and responsibility, and our lay mentality. He wants us to be salt dispersed to the food it seasons, and not to remain a solid lump.

He wants us everywhere. Each one in his or her own place, so as to impart a Christian flavor to the environment in which we move. Meditating on those documents of the Council and asking the help of Saint Gabriel, we can be convinced of the importance of exercising our personal freedom, which brings with it a corresponding personal responsibility to get involved in national and international bodies, which can be a platform for promoting Christian values regarding the family, education, the defense of life, and many other issues which have to be approached in accordance with the Church’s teaching.

If our work is anything to do with media, just imagine the apostolic impact it would have if, as it performs its informative and cultural roles, it also bears the stamp of our unity of life. The horizons are immense. The possibilities are immense. We can be inspired by the immense panorama of placing Christ at the center of all human activities, to give of our best, spurred on by the holy desire of achieving more for love of God, perhaps achieving more than those colleagues of ours who are motivated by mere ambition or by a noble but earthly idealism.

We have to try and draw the people around us closer to God–try to help them more. But also bear in mind that those who are most in need are the ones who have received ten talents, since their responsibility is greater, and God expects more from them. We’re told in The Forge, “You are an ordinary citizen. It’s precisely because of that secularity of yours, which is the same as, and neither more nor less than that of your colleagues, that you have to be sufficiently brave, which may sometimes mean being very brave, to make your faith felt. They should see your good works and the motive that drives you to do them.”

In The Furrow, he says, “It’s difficult to make one’s mark through quiet work and the proper fulfillment of our duties as citizens, so that later one can demand one’s rights and place them in the service of the Church and of society. It’s difficult, but it’s very effective.”

The moment, we are told in The Forge, that you have anyone, whoever he or she may be, at your side, find a way without doing anything strange, to pass on to him the joy you experience in being a son of God and living as such. We can ask Saint Gabriel to help us to expand our horizons and that influence of our lay apostolate that God wants us to perform in the world, through our friendship and through our confidence.

I thank you my God for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My immaculate mother, Saint Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW