Mar 25 Tue
How did Mary accept the mission announced to her by the Archangel?
The whole of creation had long yearned for that moment; the mystery we commemorate today: the Incarnation of the Word, who comes into the world to free us from sin and eternal death, and to make us children of God.
Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. At the announcement of Gabriel, Mary was greatly troubled... and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. The whole history of our salvation depended on her reply. “Open your heart to faith, O Blessed Virgin,” exclaims St Bernard, “your lips to consent, your pure womb to the Creator. See how the one Desired by all peoples is calling at your door. What a calamity if you should delay in opening to him and he should pass on, and afterward you should go back in sorrow to look for the beloved of your soul! Rise, make haste, open. Rise by your faith, make haste by your devotion, open by your consent!”
There is not a shadow of doubt in the words of our Lady when she questions the Archangel, but rather only the desire to know with certainty what the Will of God was, in order to put it into practice. Likewise, our Christian vocation leads us to fulfill the divine Will with the same generous self-giving we see in the Blessed Virgin.
As laypeople, we must listen to the voice of God amid our daily concerns. “We are contemplative souls, because in the middle of our work, our heart escapes to God, it goes often to the oratory, and we tell him, without anyone hearing us, without doing anything strange: ‘My Jesus, I love you.’ Don't be afraid to call him Jesus, to call him that often."
The response of Mary to the announcement of Gabriel expresses her immutable decision to fulfill the Will of God exactly as it has been made known to her. In the words of our Lady, there is a tone of resolve, of firmness, of something finished, definitive. She does not respond with a mere yes to the divine Will, but with a fiat! - let it be done! - which expresses an active and total conformity to what God is asking of her. It is much more than a mere giving of permission. It is a resolute adherence to the plan of God, a commitment of her whole life without wavering.
Before the example of Mary, we can consider whether our dedication to God is also total, full of faith, cheerful, and unquestioning, without the slightest hesitation. “Ask Jesus: Lord, how is my dedication? Has there been some look of displeasure, something that can hurt you, Lord, my love?"
Remember, “God has chosen us from all eternity; He has called us by our name. It is not we who have chosen him, but rather He who has chosen us first to do something specific on earth."
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