Well, blessed and highly favored, indeed! That is the good news for each one of us and for all of us together as the Christian community here this morning. In some parts of the African American community, in particular, and maybe other places as well, a woman will give this response when you ask her How are you today? Blessed and highly favored! I have also seen it printed on the zip cases for their Bibles that they carry to church to refer to the texts the pastor is preaching on. I first heard this response at Grace House when I would ask someone how she was doing, from time to time, someone would answer with a big smile, Blessed and highly favored! At first, it was surprising and disconcerting because I knew an awful lot about the women’s lives and they were dealing with some tremendous obstacles in their paths. I would think, Really? This would be someone who was struggling with addiction, trying to get her high school diploma, being turned down for an apartment, maybe had just been fired due to criminal background check, whose family wanted nothing to do with her except get the little money she had coming in…. I could go on with obstacles. I noticed that I would also sometimes feel a little resentful. Before long, though, that twinge of annoyance became awe and recognition of God at work in people and eventually, recognition of God at work in me and I understood in a new way what it meant and how it feels to be blessed and highly favored by God. That was a tremendous gift that I received from the women there. I had received it at other times in my life in different forms, but had lost track of the message. So, if you are sitting here today, bubbling and hopping and dancing in God’s favor, great – pass it on!

Sometimes, though, we don’t know. Sometimes, to know it, to know God’s favor, to know that we need God’s grace, we seem to need to be brought pretty low. As St Benedict tells us in his chapter on Humility, we need to be able to say “I am a worm.” In the gospel stories, that is mostly who is able to recognize and respond to Jesus as the Christ. I’m not sure if it is so much that God has a preferential option for the poor or that the poor, the struggling, the people on the margins know they are in need of so much and so are more easily persuaded that they are in need of God, as well. Maybe. I say this in no way romanticizing poverty. I know very directly the terrible effects that poverty and marginalization work in people’s lives. I also know, as do many of us, the extraordinary resilience and openness to the Spirit of God that can coexist with suffering in those conditions.

I want to remind us that from where we stand, a way we can practice this willingness, this openness is through the virtue of REVERENCE. Last Sunday, many of us were reminded that as Benedictine Sisters of Chicago, we say that our mission is REVERENCE: Through common prayer, stewardship, hospitality, and mutual respect, we seek to find and honor God present in each person and in all created things. To find and honor God present in each person and in all created things – that is a virtue and a gift. The gospel of the Annunciation reminds us, begs us, urges us, encourages us, emboldens us, (it depends where you’re at today) to trust and believe that Gabriel’s message is meant for each one of us. When we are able to first honor God present in ourselves, that is what allows us to recognize Christ present in each other person. It sounds cliché to say, make room for God in your heart, make room for the Christ child to enter in. It is though, exactly what the centurion says when he appeals to Christ to enter his home – the centurion whose words have been repeated-in one form or another- by probably millions of people for thousands of years as they prepare to receive Eucharist! That is exactly what this story tells us – one of the things. If you are struggling with that today, give thanks. Just thank God for everything. When you wake up in the morning, say “Thank you, God for waking me up today,” and start counting ten things you are grateful for. Do the same thing when you are falling asleep. The way is smooth – Jesus tells us this – “My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” Throughout the day, give thanks; count out the blessings on your fingers like when you were a small child learning to say the rosary. Out loud, or in your heart. The rest, the common prayer, the stewardship, the hospitality, and the mutual respect are all born from there, from that place of gratitude. By the same token, if you are struggling with this message today, you may need to accept hospitality from someone else first. Maybe that blessing is what will allow you, will give you the grace to recognize God in yourself today, because someone else is recognizing it first for you, pointing the way. For that, we need to be awake – well that’s a different gospel…. But, same season of the year. Let us each resolve as the week goes on, to grow in awareness of what this means for us - that we are blessed and highly favored. Let us be willing to be surprised. Let us be willing.