Mary's Fiat
Brethren, this year's feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on April 8, instead of March 25, because March 25 fell in Holy in which we do not celebrate any feast and solemnity but only focus on our Lord Jesus Christ, his passion, death and resurrection. The feast of Annunciation of the Lord is celebrated exactly nine months before Christmas, when Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a fulfillment of the prophecy in the first reading of today. The Church gives us this Solemnity today to invite us to walk with Mary over these coming nine months so as to join her in her rejoicing over the birth of her divine Son. God has become man, to live among us and like us except sin, and He is Emmanuel, “God is with us.” God takes the first initiative to come to us, to save us according to his promises. Therefore, the sole purpose of Annunciation is for our salvation as Matthew 1.21 puts it clearly that he will be called Jesus meaning that he will save his people from their sins. The Name Jesus therefore means Saviour.
This salvation was made possible through Mary’s Yes, which is normally called Mary’s Fiat. What a Yes that wrought our salvation! Indeed, we owe everything to Mary for having accepted and said Yes and to let the will of God be done in her life. Mary was greatly troubled after the Angel came to her with words of favour from God. “Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with you” and then after with a message of bearing a son. Mary’s question, “How can this be…?” is not a question of doubt or disbelief or of asking a sign like that of Zechariah after doubting the message of an Angel that Elizabeth would conceive and bear John; it was a question for a deeper understanding of the manner in which the conception would take place. Mary accepts the message and says Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done according to God’s will. What a great Yes!
Mary’s Fiat was “a full ‘yes,’ total, for all her life, unconditional,” said Pope Francis (Angelus, December 8, 2016). “Mary’s ‘yes’ opened the way to God among us. It is the most important ‘yes’ in history, the humble ‘yes’ that overturns the arrogant ‘no’ of the origins, the faithful ‘yes’ that cures disobedience; the willing ‘yes’ that overturns the egoism of sin,” Pope Francis added. She was full of grace and completely conformed to the Father. Mary strove at every moment to fulfill God’s will in her life. We are less perfect, but must strive to give our “yes” to God as does our Mother Mary. “Sometimes, however, we are experts in the half-yes: we are good at feigning that we do not understand what God would like and what our conscience suggests to us,” Pope Francis says (ibid.). We grow in our capacity to say “yes” by becoming full of grace. When we avail ourselves of the sacraments, adhere to our Lenten sacrifices, and love others the way Christ does, our half-yes become “fiats” for the glory of God the Father.
Mary had freedom to say no, but she made use of the greatest freedom a human being can ever have, that is, choosing to do the will of God. Pope Benedict wrote that the lowest type of freedom is choosing between right and wrong. The greatest freedom is to know the grace that God gives and offer it right back to God. This is what Mary freely chose to do, to know that she had received grace beyond measure–“Hail full of grace”–and to offer it right back to God by her “fiat.” It was a choice made out of the greatest possible freedom because she was choosing to do what God desired.
Today we are invited to be Christ Bearers not in the literal way she did, but as instruments of His continual Incarnation in our world. Mary brought the God-man into this world through her “yes” to the angel. He encouraged her with the words, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.” We are offered a multitude of opportunities to bring Christ into this world—to give of ourselves in kindness, to swallow our pride, and incarnate Christ through our own personal “fiat” to God’s will. When we do so, we can take the words of the angel as our own encouragement: “Do not be afraid, you have found favor with God.” We should be ready to tell God when he calls, see I have come Lord, to do your will, as our psalm of today goes.
Today’s feast is also a clear reminder to us that life begins in the womb; it does not begin after the baby is born but at the very minute of conception. Mary’s stomach was still very flat but when she went to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth, John the Baptist leaped in Elizabeth’s womb in salutation to Jesus whose presence he already felt inside Mary’s womb. Any abortion therefore is killing a person; just imagine if Mary had aborted!
Let us Pray
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