Yes.

Homily for the Solemnity of the
 Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
9 December 2013

        Yes.

        This is what we celebrate today: A “yes” to the Lord’s will.

        But not just any “yes”, but a “yes” which would alter the course of humanity; a “yes” which would change the world.

        While we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, we prepare our hearts not really for Christmas, but for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, which we celebrate on March 25^th.

        In a sense, we’re celebrating a “pre-emptive ‘yes’”.

        Remember, our God knows everything about everything, past, present and future. He knew that Mary would say “yes”. But He also knew that Mary would have to freely make that decision on her own, for God will not force His will on anyone – including the Mother of His Son. That is the reason behind free will: We must freely choose the will of God in our lives.

        Yet we celebrate this “pre-emptive ‘yes’” today because, in seeing that she would freely choose the will of God for her, Mary was given that special grace for her vocation – a vocation which was overwhelming! –from the moment of her conception. The Father gave the Blessed Mother the ability to accept His will without compromising her ability to freely choose whether to accept the vocation presented to her.

        This “yes” of Mary is the antithesis and the remedy of the “no” uttered to God by Adam and Eve through their disobedience. Adam and Eve, too, were given free will, and they – like us – abused it. Through their pride and selfishness, they thought that they were “better than God”. We do the same thing when we enter into sin: We believe we know better than God, and we pursue those things which leave us more empty, more broken. We refuse that grace God gives to us to live out the fullness of our vocations.

        We need to become more like Mary.

        True, we were not immaculately conceived, but that doesn’t mean God refuses us the grace to say “yes” to His will. It means that WE refuse that grace when we say “no” to the way He calls us to live.

        We need to become more like Mary.

        True, an angel hasn’t appeared to us to reveal God’s will for our lives. Oh, if it were that simple! But God does reveal His will for us through the people He gives to us in our lives. We simply need to pray and reflect upon those relationships in our lives which open for us the understanding of how God is asking us to fulfill our vocation in life.

        We need to become more like Mary.

        True, like Mary, we are confused by the will of God in our lives. We often ask, “How can this be . . .?” It is through this confusion that we must abandon our will to the will of God. It is through this confusion that we struggle to make the “no” of Adam and Eve the “yes” of Mary. It is through this confusion that we learn to trust in God, and God alone.

        Our “yes” may not be like the “pre-emptive ‘yes’” of Mary, but it is a “yes”, nonetheless. When we, like Mary, abandon our will to that of God’s, then we have that same grace which allowed the Blessed Virgin to fully accept the vocation to which God is calling us. It is through the “yes” that we freely choose that we participate in the remedy of that “no” which our First Parents chose millennia ago.

        In choosing to celebrate the Eucharist this day, we have taken that first step in saying “yes” in freely choosing the will of God over our own will. In celebrating the Eucharist today, we choose to accept the beginnings of the joy which will last into eternity. In celebrating the Eucharist this day, we, like Mary, open ourselves to carry Christ into the world in our own flesh, that through the Word and Sacrament, we may become the messengers of the Good News.

        We must become like Mary: In our free will, we must say “yes”.

 

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Enjoy the journey . . .