Today the Word became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin and dwelt among us. The events of this Solemnity, the events of our salvation, show us the power of God who works however He wills, yet gently while asking us to place all our trust in Him. At the Annunciation, the Incarnation happened.
In our gospel reading, “at the Annunciation by the angel two things are made evident (both together constituting the exact fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham and Moses), namely, the absolute sovereignty of God, who alone determines the fact and the content of the covenant, and then the consideration for the partner to this covenant, the creature of God endowed with freedom, whose freedom is not overwhelmed but instead respected and who must therefore express his assent to the terms of the covenant. The sovereignty of God finds expression in the fact that God does not make his action conditional upon the decision of the creature but speaks already in the future tense: you will conceive and bear a son; you shall call his name Jesus. He will be Son of the Most High and will reign over the house of Jacob. And yet this event is announced to the “handmaid of the Lord”, who is addressed as “full of grace”; her Yes is an essential part of the event. God’s action may seem overwhelming, yet he does not violate his free creature.” (Priestly Spirituality by Hans Urs von Balthasar)
“For those tempted to dismiss this “fiat of history” as bereft of any real active participation on the part of the Virgin (as if her consent was only a type of passive recognition or simple submission), we note that Mary’s “fiat” in the Greek is expressed in the optative mood, a mood which expresses her active and joyful desire, not merely a passive acceptance, to participate in the divine plan. The humble virgin’s “yes,” soft-spoken to the archangel Gabriel, is amplified and resounds throughout creation and time….It is humanity’s yes by humanity’s best, for she speaks not only for herself but in the name of humankind, when she gives her consent to the Father’s design for a Redeemer….The Triune God so respects human free will, typically fragile and fickle, that he awaits human consent for a mission upon which literally every human soul’s eternal destiny depends. Yet, above all human creatures, the sinless Mary is most free to choose, most able to offer herself to the Father for the accomplishment of his will. And when her consent is given, he generously responds with the man-God.” (De Maria Numquam Satis)
Now that we have God with us, should we not be like Mary? Of all the titles of the Blessed Virgin, Mary identified with being called the ‘handmaid’ of the Lord; such humility before God. And more so, in her fiat, she submitted her entire will to that of the Father. Are we able to do the same? As we read from the Letter to the Hebrews today, and in union with the whole Church, let us re-echo the response to the psalm, “I have come Lord to do your will.”
– Fr. Malachy Orjiebele
The Evening Chapel 