Mary the Model of Saying Yes to God #WorthRevisit

The Most Important Yes to God

Mary’s yes to the angel Gabriel, hence to God —her “let it be done to me according to your word,“ is an amazing model of responding to God’s call in our own lives. Mary said yes to so much more than just being the vessel to carry the baby Jesus, she models for us great faith and fidelity.

Mary personally welcomes and receives Jesus into her life. We are called to do the same. To acknowledge all that he is — fully human and fully divine. To contemplate the power and truth that he humbled himself to be born man so we can see he truly understands our struggles, pains, desires, and fears.

He walked among us in human flesh, completely able to sin, but choosing not to, the ultimate example of fidelity to God and obedience to his will in our lives. Mary, likewise was capable of sin but did not, however, not of her own merit but of the grace bestowed on her from God through Jesus’ salvific work on the cross. Mary received Preemptive Grace, beyond our human comprehension, how does a Son save his mother. “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Mary models the power of yes, to accepting, Jesus’ grace to protect us from sin.

A Yes to the Holy Spirit

Mary was open to the action of the Holy Spirit.

It is the spirit that testifies or witnesses to the truth. The truth that God is our Father – that it is He, who Gave His one and only Son so whoever may believe in him, may not perish but have eternal life. The Spirit that moves and breathes within us. It is through the Spirit that we touch Jesus nail holes and spear pierced side — testifying to the resurrection, not in matter but in the very marrow of our beings.

When we allow the Holy Spirit to testify to us in the deepest recessed of our hearts, we choose not to lean on our own understanding but to allow the supernatural spirit of God himself to direct us. In that beautiful surrender of our will to his, great and mighty things can be done through us, as it was with Mary.

Sr. Nancy Keller, at the 2009 Boston Catholic Women’s conference, told this wonderful story of the transforming power of allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our lives. Sr. Nancy shared with us a vision of herself as a bird sitting in a cage. The door had been completely moved from the cage, Jesus had removed it through his Paschal Mystery, but yet the bird stayed perched in its confines.

Jesus called to her urging her to come forth, for He had set her free. She wanted to, her heart burned to be free, but she was afraid, and replied to Jesus that she could not move, she didn’t have the strength. Jesus gently spoke to her soul, assuring her that he knew she could not fly on her own, and that is why he sent his the spirit — God’s Holy Spirit, the one that if we cooperate with, is the wind beneath our wings.

Jesus is the Word of God made Flesh

Lastly, Mary embraced the Word of God (as it became flesh within her) and allowed that Word to be implanted within her and grow — in turn bearing fruit!

We too can embrace the Word of God through making time to read the Bible, listening attentively at the readings during Mass, and by studying the Scriptures. Working together with the Holy Spirit to be enlightened in the Truth through the living Word of God; letting it implant in our hearts bringing us closer to our Lord and our God.

May Mary’s fiat — her YES to God is a true model of faith and fidelity to each of us.

Let us respond with our own resounding YES — welcoming and receiving Christ daily into our hearts, being open to the movement of the Spirit in every aspect of our lives, and embracing and sharing the precious Word of God.

May it be done to me according to your word (Luke 1:38). All Rights Reserved, Allison Gingras 2018
Images Courtesy: Pixabay, PD

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