Did you ever notice the the best decisions always seem to make themselves? No struggle involved. It is like that commercial where there are kids picking sides for a basketball game. One of them has the first choice to pick someone to be on his team. Among the group of options of children his own age he also has the option of picking former NBA great, Charles Barkley. A no-brainer, right? That is an easy decision to make. Contrast that one with the Geico commercial where teenagers are running away from something in the woods and stop outside this haunted looking house in which there is a garage with numerous chainsaws hanging in the opening. Behind them is a running car that they can choose to take. Instead, after deliberating, they all agree that hiding in the garage…with the chainsaws…and the guy with the hockey mask behind them, is a much better choice.
We all have choices every day. Some we dispense with quickly and some we agonize over for endless periods. When Elise and I were first married back in the 80s we were considering leaving our lives in Pennsylvania, in the eastern part of the United States. It took us about 6 months to decide to move back to the Chicago area. And for the past 5 years we have been weighing the factors to help make a decision on whether we should move back there since we are both now mostly retired. I think the one thing we learned through these difficult decision-making ordeals is that if you are not sure what choice to make, don’t make a choice at all…at least for the time being. When we were in veterinary practice, and we were working with someone struggling to make a decision on the care of their pet, we would suggest to them to wait. Give themselves some time and the choice will eventually become obvious. If you are struggling, then that seems to indicate you are not ready to decide. Eventually, the correct choice will present itself.
Contrast this with those decisions that are just right. There is no struggle. There is no agony. When Elise and I were in vet school I remember like it was yesterday. I was crossing the street and ran into her This was before we were dating. At the spur of the moment I asked her out to go to a movie. It just seemed like the right thing to do. From that moment on, we have been together. It has not always been rosy along the way but I never once questioned whether we should be together. No cold feet asking her to marry me or on our wedding day. Two years ago our pastor asked me to help to run the Confirmation program at our church. The opportunity came at a time when I was looking for God to present me with a direction and working in our parish was something I had considered but just didn’t know in what aspect. God prepared me for the question form our pastor. When Elise retired from our veterinary practice several years ago she worried what she was going to do. Two days later she got a call from the local community college asking her to teach a class for veterinary assistants. She loves teaching. It was right up her alley. She gladly accepted.
Which brings us to Mary. In her conversation with Gabriel she stops just once to ask him how it could be that she is to carry the Son of God since she has not “known” a man. The angel explains that all things are possible with God, using Mary’s cousin Elizabeth being pregnant in her old age as proof of that. And we know what happens next. Mary’s Fiat. Her unconditional “Yes” to Gabriel and to God. At 14 years of age she takes on history’s most daunting task without so much as asking advice from her family…or Joseph. Also apparently a no-brainer for her.
Contrast that decision with the one made by Eve in the garden. The serpent tells her, of course you can eat the fruit of the tree. God knows if you eat it you will be just like Him. A god as well. Go ahead. You know you want to. Eve’s initial reluctance is overcome but the persistent urging of the serpent. Of the devil. If Mary’s decision was a “no-brainer”, Eve’s was certainly a “brainer” (Is that even a word?). I have heard that advertising is the act of convincing someone to buy something that they don’t need. And I think this was what the serpent was doing with Eve. He needed her, and Adam, to disobey God. He needed to sell it to her that eating this one piece of fruit was way better than the great life they already had. They, and the world, paid the price for that decision.
Mary said “Yes” to God and she never looked back. And the world was changed forever. She helped to start the process of undoing the sin that Adam and Eve committed by saying Yes to the serpent and saying no to God. She allowed herself to become the new Eve and to become the tabernacle, prepared for this job by God through her Immaculate Conception, that would host God’s Son. And the rest is history.
