Fiat

 Daily Readings for Monday 8 December

First Reading   ~  Genesis 3:9-15, 20

Psalm   ~ 98
Second Reading ~ Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12

Gospel   ~ Luke 1:26-38

This Advent I'm learning - slowly and imperfectly - how to make room for a Babe in my heart and my life. This daily series at Ardent Devotion documents my journey with God's word throughout Advent, and the little ways in which He is revealing His Truth to me day by day. I invite you to join with me in committing to a Christ-filled Advent, so that we can arrive at the manger-side with wondrous hearts.

 The 2nd Monday of Advent
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Am I the only one who thought, as a child (okay... until like a year and a half ago), that the Immaculate Conception was the fancy name for the Annunciation? I totally assumed that it was the celebration of Mary conceiving Jesus in her womb. And the daily readings certainly aren't helpful, are they? We get the full-on Angel Gabriel, "be it done unto me" gospel happening on the day that Mary was conceived, not Jesus. Super duper confusifying, amiright? Though I guess the fact that we are just seventeen days out from Christmas at this point in time should have clued me in. It would have been the shortest gestation period in human history (that being said, not many things about Mary's pregnancy were precedented!). Anyway, this message goes out to all of you who, like me not so long ago,  get confused by this feast day:

Today we are celebrating the day that Mary was conceived - pure, holy and without original sin (i.e. Immaculate). 

Got it? Me too (finally)! Good. Now that we're clear. 

A lot has been said about Mary. A lot has been written about Mary. As the Mother of the Church - our Lady Queen of all Hearts - Mary holds a special place within Catholicism, and rightly so. But as such, the beautiful passages of scripture relating to her have been studied, extrapolated from and analysed extensively. Debates rage on between Protestants and Catholics as to the place Our Lady should hold within Tradition. And even within the Church, a broad spectrum of opinions and devotions have evolved surrounding the Mother of Jesus. Over the course of two millennia, this one simple, radiant, scared young woman has become a complex and complicated point of discussion.

I think it's time to strip back. Reading the Gospel this morning, I was struck by one thing in particular - how confused Mary was. We sometimes paint this picture in our minds of Mary, Queen of Heaven, in control, totally in sync with God and peacefully aware of all that is happening. Well, maybe now she is like that as she reigns by Jesus side - but two millennia ago, in a little home in Nazareth, the Angel Gabriel was sent to a very young, very simple, very pure young woman. And she was petrified. 

St Luke very diplomatically makes this point - Mary was "greatly troubled" by the way in which God began to manifest His will in her life. She needed time to "consider in her mind what sort of greeting this might be". And when she finally found her voice, she couldn't help but cry out to God, "How will this be?" How can this radical thing that You have promised possibly overcome logic and earthly reasoning? It didn't make sense. She struggled to grasp eternity, and the fact that the God of the universe wanted to use her in His plan for the salvation of mankind. She was, in short, confused. 

 

But still she said yes. 

 

When Mary could not understand what was happening in her life, she surrendered. She recognised that she didn't get it. She had the humility to acknowledge that this mystery was totally beyond her. And it was in that confusion, in her acceptance of her own simplicity, that she laid her life down before God, trusting that He knew better.

She chose to serve - to become the Lord's handmaiden, and lay down her life, her hopes, her dreams - even her reputation, simply because He asked. One simple word: Fiat, and her life would never be the same again. 

In each of our lives, the time will come when the Lord will ask. Maybe the question He asks will be a stirring in the depths of your heart that you can choose to ignore or choose to embrace. Maybe it will be an opportunity presented to you that you can choose to seize or choose to let slide away. Maybe it will be a circumstance you are placed in that you can choose to see joyfully or choose to allow to destroy your peace.

 

And sometimes - most of the time - the question He asks, the opportunity He presents, won't make sense. We won't understand. God constantly defies our human reasoning in order to show us that He is not bound by what we see as logical or reasonable. He is a God of passion - a God of the Cross, a God of the Song of Songs. He works beyond what we can grasp. He worked beyond what Mary could grasp, pure and perfect though she was. But Gabriel's words promise peace - "the power of the Most High will overshadow you." Faith will supply for all the weaknesses in our understanding of God's plans. The Holy Spirit will envelop our weakness and lift our hearts to a more full and pure trust in God's will.

And He gives us a choice. How gracious that He invites us to Truth. He awaits our Fiat. We are not slaves - we are free to say yes or say no, because He wants us to choose Him. To choose life. To choose to bear our Saviour in our hearts and let Him be born again in this world as a result of our labour. 

 

As we celebrate Our Mother on this feast day, let's be like her in fear. Let's be like her in confusion. Let's be like her in a need to cry out to God, "I don't understand!" But most of all, let's have the same courage she had to say yes even when fear and confusion stood in the way. Let us say, when at last we find our voice, "Behold! I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be unto me according to your word." 

 

Let's give our Fiat to God, today and every day.

~~~

Hail and blessed be the hour and the moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin, at a stable, at midnight in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech thee, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through our Saviour Jesus Christ and His most blessed Mother.

AMDG

Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ, John answered and said to them all, "As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. - See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/John-The-Baptist#sthash.vgrtbjBE.dpuf