NOTES for Luk 1:37-38
These words are spoken at a completely special moment: the Annunciation, when the Angel calls the Virgin Mary to become the Mother of the Son of Man. It is here that the Virgin Mary says the words that became decisive in the relationship between God and humanity: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to Me according to your word." Her question about how this can happen is answered by pointing to the omnipotence of the Divine Word, and it is on this Word that She relies.
God creates the world by His word; God sustains it by His word. This word is almighty... until it encounters the human will. The power of God is the power of love that refuses force, love that can seem like powerlessness when God, century after century, keeps addressing His word to people instead of using force. But biblical history shows that this word is not powerless: under the influence of the word of God, humanity travels a path, changing from covenant to covenant, from prophecy to prophecy. And finally, God Himself comes into this world as the Word in the flesh, not as force, but not in powerlessness either.
How important it is for us to accept that God's Word is not powerless, and to put our hope in Him. Then God's love and our faith meet; then Christ is born and grows in our heart, as He did in the womb of the Virgin of Nazareth.