December 1999
Commetary on the Word of Life (original historical version):
Nothing is impossible to God.
(Lk 1:37)
When Mary asked the angel at the Annunciation: “How can this be?” the answer was: “Nothing is impossible to God” and, as proof of these words, she was given the example of Elizabeth, who in her old age had conceived a son. Mary believed and became the Mother of the Lord.
God is almighty. This name ‘Almighty’ is often found in Holy Scripture and is used when expressing God’s power in blessing, in judging, in guiding the course of events and in achieving his plans.
There is only one limit to God’s all-powerfulness, and that is human freedom. It can oppose his will, making the human being powerless, when instead he or she is called to share in the very power of God.
Nothing is impossible to God.
These words opportunely come to conclude the year dedicated to the Father, in the Catholic Church, before the Jubilee of 2000. They lead us to have unlimited confidence in the love of God who is Father because, if God exists and his being is Love, complete trust in him must be the logical consequence.
All graces are in his power: temporal and spiritual, the possible and the impossible. And he gives them to those who ask and also to those who don’t, because as the Gospel says, the Father ‘makes the sun rise on the good and the bad’ . And he asks all of us to behave like him, with the same universal love, supported by the faith that:
Nothing is impossible to God.
How can we live this Word in daily life?
At one time or another we all face difficult and painful situations, whether in our personal lives or in our relationships. And at times we experience how powerless we are because we realise we are attached to things or people that enslave us in bonds we wish to be free from. We often find ourselves facing walls of indifference and egoism and we feel helpless in front of events that seem beyond us.
In these moments, the Word of Life can help us. Jesus allows us to experience our inability, not so as to discourage us but to make us understand better that ‘nothing is impossible to God’. This prepares us to experience the extraordinary power of his grace, which is revealed especially when we see that we cannot manage with our own little strength.
Nothing is impossible to God.
If we repeat this to ourselves in the most crucial moments, we will receive from the Word of God the energy that it contains, making us share somehow in God’s own almighty power. But there is one condition, however: that we live his will, seeking to radiate around us the love that he has put in our hearts. In this way we will be in union with the all-powerful Love of God for all his creatures. Everything is possible for his Love, and this works with all things for the fulfilling of his plans for each person and for the whole of humanity.
But there is a special moment when we can live this Word and experience all its effectiveness. It is in prayer.
Jesus said that whatever we ask the Father in his name he will give us. So let’s try asking him for what we have most at heart, firmly believing that nothing is impossible to him: whether it be solving a desperate situation, or peace in the world, or healing a serious illness, or settling conflicts in the family and in society.
And if there is more than one of us asking for the same thing, and we are in full agreement because of our love for one another, then it is Jesus himself in our midst who prays to the Father and, according to his promise, we will obtain what we ask for.
One day, with faith in God’s all-powerfulness and in his Love, we prayed for a friend that the tumour that had shown up on the X-ray, would ‘disappear’, as if it had been a mistake or a mere shadow. And it did.
This boundless trust, which makes us feel in the arms of a Father for whom all things are possible, should accompany all that happens in our life. This does not mean that we will always get what we ask for. His almighty power is that of a Father and he uses it always and only for the good of his children, whether they realise it or not. The important thing is to live nourishing the certainty that to God nothing is impossible, and this will make us experience a peace we have never known before.
Chiara Lubich
