Isaiah 7:10-14 / Luke 1:26-38
The word "sign" in everyday language can have a few meanings.
A sign can give information, as in the information on a signboard.
It can give directions, as in road signs.
Or it can have a symbolic meaning, as in someone's words or actions are indicating a peculiar meaning or happening.
But when the Bible uses the word "sign" as in the 1st reading, it means that God was intervening for His people.
In the 1st reading, God was pledging that He would be with king Ahaz as he faced the threat of the foreign powers, and the prophet Isaiah was calling on Ahaz to trust in God because of the sign that was given.
Similarly in the gospel, God was also intervening when He sent the angel Gabriel to tell Mary that God was with her.
When the world was crumbling in its sin, God intervened and gave a sign.
He sent His only Son, born of a virgin, who became like us in all things except sin, to save us.
At every Mass, we celebrate God's saving intervention when we hear the words: The Lord be with you.
Let us respond by being with God and in God always, so that in everything, we see the signs of God's saving love.