One 'Yes' Can Change the World
by Sarah Reinhard in Faith on Monday, March 22, 2010 6:00 AM
All too often, I turn down the opportunity to be like Mary, to say Yes with my arms unconditionally open to embrace God’s will. So many times, my Yes comes out with a list of Buts:
Yes, but not if it requires sacrifice.
Yes, but not if You need extra effort.
Yes, but don’t make me cry.
Do I say Yes to the small hand tapping me on the leg, or do I ignore it and let her wander away to amuse herself? Do I say Yes to the little prompting to call a friend for whom I may be the only adult voice before dinner, even though I have other work to do? Do I say Yes to keeping my voice silent, instead of responding with a funny comment?
There’s a lot to learn from Mary’s Yes at the Annunciation, but for me, today, the Annunciation points to three lessons.
Lesson 1: God loves ME.
Mary’s faith never wavered, not even at the foot of the Cross. (See paragraph 149 in the Catechism.)
How could she be so certain in God’s love for her?
Well, let’s look at the Annunciation. God didn’t have to send Jesus, and he didn’t have to go the traditional mother-and-child route. He chose this route. “This He does for the elect,” according to an article at EWTN.
Why? Because He loves ME. (You too!)
Lesson 2: Staying humble is worth the struggle.
“Mary is silent when commended, and answered not a word [until] she had well considered what she ought to say,” points out the EWTN article.
Does that mean that if I can learn to be humble – small in the eyes of the world, truly submissive to God’s will, unpresuming and modest in everything – that I will be like Mary?
If the answer is Yes (and I think it is), then not only is it worth the ongoing struggle, it has a reward that’s eternal.
Lesson 3: Yes is a heavy weight, but God helps me carry it.
Sometimes, I forget that Mary had a hard life. I think of her crowned in Heaven and see her on the pedestal at church, and I forget about the scrapes and bruises of everyday life in Nazareth, the struggle at the foot of the Cross, the tears outside the tomb.
I forget that the weight of that first Yes weighed on her for her entire life.
Where did she get her strength? What was her secret?
Mary’s secret is not a secret at all: her faith never wavered. God gave her the strength she needed, but she had to say Yes to His help. Looking to her, I can see the trail she blazed for me to follow.
Can I cooperate with the grace God sends me all day long? Can I trust Him to know what’s best for me, though His plan may be different than mine? Can I follow Mary’s example and continue to say Yes through pain and joy?
Yes, yes I can. (And so can you!) I can change my world, one Yes at a time.
For Further Reading:
- The Annunciation at Catholic Culture
- The Scriptural Rosary: the Annunciation
- Narrative Logic in the Annunciation, by David T. Landry
—You’ll find Sarah Reinhard, a self-proclaimed Mary geek, at SnoringScholar.com.
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