It is nine months until Christmas. Thus, today, the Church celebrates the Annunciation. This is the day we remember Mary’s simple “yes” that changed the past, that moment, and the future—of everything, for everyone, everywhere, for all time.
We pray the Annunciation often. It is the first Mystery of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. How do you picture the scene when you pray it? The words of the Gospel are beautiful and lend themselves to creating a picture in our minds:
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
It was a great “yes!”
In his book, The Human Person According to John Paul II, Fr. Brian Bransfield talks about the great significance of Mary’s yes at the Annunciation. He speaks of how there were seven steps to sin in Eve’s fall from grace and seven steps back to grace which came from Mary’s “yes” to Gabriel.
He makes the point that sin entered history through Eve’s “no” to obedience to God as she believed Satan’s lie. Grace entered history through Mary’s “yes” to obedience to God as she believed Gabriel’s truth.
Mary took the battle of good and evil from cosmic proportions to simple human, family life. She just said “yes,” trusting that God would work it out for her. She had a practical question, “How can this be, since I do not have relations with a man?” But she was satisfied with Gabriel’s answer, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
And she checked out Gabriel’s announcement that her cousin Elizabeth was “with child” in Hebron. As she did, the salvation story moved forward to The Visitation mystery.
Mary, Full of Grace
Because the simple young woman Mary became the Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Blessed Mother, the Mother of God, it is easy for us to put her “yes” in a very different category from our simple “yes” or “no” to what God asks of us.
True, Mary did not have to struggle with original sin. She was “full of grace.”
Nonetheless, God chose to enter history with the fullness of his plan of salvation through the simple yes of a young woman living an ordinary life. As we live our ordinary lives and tell God “yes” or “no” about ordinary things all day every day, it seems very important to meditate on Mary in her ordinariness. As Bransfield puts it:
“The Gospel of Saint Luke records the steps of God’s saving plan with particular detail. ‘In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.’
The passage is particular and specific, but is not a simple recitation of facts. God sent an angel not just to any town, but to one in Galilee called Nazareth; not just to anyone there, but to a virgin; not to any virgin, but to one named Mary, betrothed to Joseph: God is aiming, focusing, sharpening the kingdom. As grand and as wide as it is, the kingdom has an address. God draws near in a particular way and in a particular place.
The annunciation of the birth of Jesus begins the culmination of God’s saving plan. Ever since the protoevangelium of the Book of Genesis, God’s people have been living in hope and expectation. God has been preparing a wounded world through the entire Old Testament. Finally, in Mary, the plan crests. The annunciation to Mary is the great reversal. Gabriel announces that the plan of God is taking place not in a distant temple or military maneuver, but in the very family structure proper to the identity of the human person. The fallen angel Lucifer whispered a temptation to the virgin Eve and wounded the family structure. God offers a remedy to the evil of Sin. Whereas Satan bypasses the family, the occasion of grace always paves its way with unity.” (Bransfield, p 165-166)
Our Yes–or No
Bransfield’s whole book revolves around St. Pope John Paul’s Theology of the Body and other work on who we are as humans and how God manifests himself in our ordinary human lives.
We are all created in the image of God, with capacity for living lives of truth, compassion, and fidelity—characteristics of God, our Father. We have original sin created into us—but we also have redeeming Grace, God’s life in us through Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, and Eucharist.
We can say “yes” or “no” to what God asks of us—whether he asks through the angel Gabriel, a burning bush—or the people in our home, parish, and neighborhood. These days he might ask through the internet or the morning news.
When God calls, how do I answer?
What is God calling me to today? What questions do I have about it? What struggles?
Good questions!
Prayer:
Lord, help me to see the importance in saying “Yes” to you and “no” to temptation. Help me to realize that my “yes” to you is part of building your Kingdom through my ordinary life. Lead me and guide me, Lord, to do my part. Amen.
