The feast we are celebrating today happened very simply in a very ordinary setting because of one ordinary person. It came about through the simple yes of a simple woman named Mary. And the Father’s plan for the second person of the Trinity to take human form became a reality.
Let us mull over the fact that if Mary had not said yes, then the taking on of human form of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity would not be fulfilled. Now, does that mean that because Mary said yes we are saved? Does that mean that it is Mary who saves us? No.
What does it mean? It simply means that salvation is not only God’s gift to us, it is also our response to God’s invitation. In the same sense that even if Mary dreamed, in all her sleeping and waking hours to be the mother of God, but if God had not willed it, she would not be the mother of God.
In the same way, if God wanted to take human form, and then the human form refused to cooperate, then God cannot take human form. So, salvation is actually God’s initiative, God’s gift to us, and then our response to God’s initiative. If God does not offer, there will be no salvation. If man does not accept, there will be no salvation.
That is why in Theology we say, God’s gift to us is also our task. When God gives us something, he also challenges us to maximize that blessing. The plan to make the second person of the Holy Trinity, a person, a human being like all of us, was offered to us. Mary was free to say no or to say yes. Because she said yes, salvation became possible for us.
It is the same with us, my dear brothers and sisters. Continually we are being offered to become mothers of Jesus. Continually we are being offered the opportunity to give birth to Jesus. Each time we talk, each time we plan, each time we act. Continually we are being offered to become instruments of the Lord being born into the world. But that offer has to be accepted. We have to cooperate with the offer being given to us. Then the beautiful story of salvation begins.
We will thank God today for His offer of salvation. At the same time, we will acknowledge our failure, our fear, our shame to accept that offer. Some of us are lazy. Some of us are afraid Some of us are fearful about making a leap into the dark. We will ask Mary during this Mass to ask the Father to bless us with the same generosity that she showed to God so that the salvation that happened when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be the mother of God, that same salvation can happen to us.
Annunciation happened two thousand years ago. But annunciation continues to happen to this very moment. The Lord continues to offer. I hope your answer will be as strong as the yes of Mary.
BLESSED AMONG WOMEN
Lk. 1:26-38
Only Jesus, Always Jesus
