Fiat

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation. This day in the church calendar is set aside to honor Mary for her Fiat, her yes to God. In case you forgot here is the Gospel:

Luke 1:26-38

The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then, the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end."
But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God." Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

As I was reflecting on this reading today, I began to reflect and pray about this reading in a different way than before. Today, I focused on the YES that Mary said so freely and without hesitation.

No one would really blame her for telling the angel that she needed to think awhile on this, and needed some time to process all that was happening to her. But she didn't. She accepted her role with love and devotion to God.

I wish I could say in my life, I have been like Mary but in reality I haven't been. More often than not, I go kicking and screaming toward my yes. Even if I get pretty clear signs, I still often times want to be comfortable; to not step outside of my little box.

But as I looked at this reading today in the context of the adoption process I recognized the yeses we have already given. Even though sometimes we go kicking and screaming to those yeses I noticed that we have said yes many times.  We said YES to God when he put it on our hearts to adopt knowing the mounds of paperwork and questions about our lives that awaited us. We said YES to God when we accepted his will in our lives to adopt a child. We say YES to God when we give our yes to situations that months ago would have scared us. We say YES to God when we continue to be open to life, because all things are possible with God.

And, I pray that we will continue to say yes. I pray we will say YES to love our child, whenever they come to us and love them unconditionally and be a reflection of God's love for us. And, that we will say YES to teach our child the faith and pass down on all the good values that were passed down to us. That we will say YES to the sacrifices we will make as parents. That we will say YES to teaching our child about their biological families and share with them the love that they have for them.

We never know how our YES will change our lives and the lives of others. Mary's YES changed the course of history. Her yes, is a vital part of salvation history.

When we continue to say yes, we can't be guaranteed what fruit will come from it. But we can trust that if God leads us to something he will see us through it.

How will you say YES today?