The Feast of the Annunciation: Mary's "Yes"

In today's responsorial psalm we pray: "Here I  am, Lord, I come to do your will.  Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me.   Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, 'Behold I come'."

Both Mary and Jesus model this kind of obedience.  Mary, an engaged teenager, and her fiancé Joseph are preparing for marriage when the angel Gabriel visits Mary. "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you" is how the angel greets her.  He then says to her, when it is obvious that she is shaken: "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 the 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."  Mary could have said: "Oh, no thank you. Joseph and I have plans! Besides, I do not know man." But, no! She asks how this is to come about.  The angel says to her: "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, again, Mary could have responded:said: "Become pregnant through the Holy Spirit? You got to be kidding! Find someone else, Gabriel. Not me!"  The angel then tells her that her elderly cousin, way beyond childbearing years, has conceived a child and is in her sixth month, "for nothing is impossible  for God." Mary's response: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to  your word." And the angel left her.

Oh, my God. What now? Mary is pregnant out of wedlock and risks being stoned to death!  Solid in her faith, however, Mary says "yes" to letting God control her life. Will you and I let God do with us what He wills or are you and I taking things into your own hands, as did Adam and Eve?

Jesus: A "Yes" to All God's Promises

“For however m any are the promises of God, their Yes” is in Christ Jesus.  “Therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory.”  Jesus is God’s “Yes” to all of His promises.  As disciples of Christ, we, too, are a “yes” to God in Christ Jesus.  It is Jesus who gives us “security” and who has “anointed us in God; he has also put his seal upon us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment” (2 Cor 1: 18-22).

Wow! Jesus is God’s Yes to all of His promises: the promise of eternal salvation, the promise that Satan’s head would be crushed, the promise that we would become one with the Father and the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus, the promise of eternal life forever ; the promise that, in Christ Jesus, we would conquer Satan and not be  eternally exiled from the Lord; the promise of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the entire Church and each of us, taking up His dwelling place within our hearts forever; the promise of being  our Light in the darkness of this world, the promise of the Way to the Father; the promise of healing  by God and transformation in God!

Jesus said “yes” to God the Father in all things: leaving the glory of heaven and coming to earth, becoming a human being like us in all things but sin, being sin for us (2 Cor 5:21); becoming the Lamb of God and being slaughtered on the cross to take away all sin; rising from the dead, sitting at the Father’s right hand interceding for us and sending us the Spirit to teach us all things that He taught us while on this earth, and, at the end of the world, returning to take us where He is in life eternal!

Am I a “yes” to God or a "yes" to the world and its pagan values? Am I a “yes” to God or a "yes" to Satan, who is prowling this world seeking someone to devour in his lies? Am I a “yes” to living a life of integrity, honesty, love, compassion, mercy and forgiveness? Am I a “yes” to living a pure life, a moral life, a life of virtue/goodness/justice for all? Am I a "yes" to being faithful to the Lord, to others, to the Spirit within me?