According to your Word, Lord

December 8, 2008

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Beth DeCristofaro

He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself." Then (God) asked, "Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!" The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it." The LORD God then asked the woman, "Why did you do such a thing?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it." (Genesis 3:10-13)

(God) destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved…. In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will. (Ephesians 1: 5,6, 11)

(The angel said) for nothing will be impossible for God." Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." (Luke 1:37-38)

Piety

Mary, we humbly and gratefully acknowledge your “Yes” which opened the world to salvation. You brought the Word of God to flesh within your own body. Guide us to know and love the Word more completely as you did. In accepting God’s will you rejected fear and undertook a path you could not see and had not anticipated. Guide us to also choose God’s will when we are doubtful and do not see the way clear. Mary, in saying “yes,” you opened your heart to unlooked for joy and sorrow. Stand with us as we humbly and trustingly bear the crosses of our lives. Remember us always to your son Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Study

After millennium, one might think the tendency to refuse guilt and blame someone else for our sins could be part of our genetic code. After all, our fore-parents, Adam and Eve, wasted some precious moments with God playing the “It’s not my fault” game which toddlers, school kids and (face it) many adults play to this day. Rather than accept the freedom and trust, which God’s gift of free will offers, they chose to hide and dissemble. In fact, they chose something other than God.

Mary did none of these things. In order to follow God’s will, Mary faced the option of a world turned upside down and reached into the fear, into the uncertainty, into the irrationality and placed herself into the hands of God. Although he was not speaking directly of Mary, Fr. Jean Pierre Caussade might have been describing her witness as he said “…let us be resigned to our frailty and dependence on God, who would never reduce us to being unable to walk on our own feet if he had not the mercy to carry us in his arms. What need have we of light, O Lord, to see, feel, have confidence, inspiration or judgment since we are in your hands?…We will remember only to love you, avoid all sin, both grievous and slight, and fulfill our duty. That is the only responsibility, dear Lord, you leave to your beloved children. You, yourself, take charge of all the rest.”

In Mary’s “yes” we can find strength to also plunge into the unknown of each and everyday. Free will is a gift trumping any genetic hard-wiring. We can choose as Mary did. Mary put aside herself, her expectations for her life as wife, mother and devout Jew to choose “Yes, I will” rather than “I couldn’t because he/she made me do it.” St. Paul reminds us that we are pretty special: (God) destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will.

Action

If, like Mary, we each day practice turning ourselves over to God, trust and certainty in God will come more naturally. Like air, God surrounds us. Do we breathe God? Like water, God is indispensable. Do we bathe our soul in God? Or do we hide in the underbrush because we feel ashamed, proud, self-sufficient, afraid, blind or way-too-mortally-human? Caussade also uses the beautiful image “the soul cries out: Every moment I seem to be falling down a precipice. I know that I am surrendering myself to God, that I can achieve nothing unless I cease to act on the strength of my own virtue.”

As we prepare the way of the Lord in Advent, pay special attention to the irrational, unexpected opportunities which God gives you. Mary’s “yes” changed her life expectations in Nazareth but it also altered lives, hearts and minds across the whole world. Leap into a precipice should it yawn before you. Close your eyes and let God take charge of all the rest. “Yes, Lord”

Image credit: John William Waterhouse, The Annunciation, c. 1914.

Reference: The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Jean-Pierre De Caussade, translated by K. Muggeridge, Harper One, 1982, p. 94 and p. 93.