Because Mary Said “Yes…” — A Reflection For The Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord

SaltAndDignity ^ | March 25, 2015 | Fr. Thomas Rosica

[Steelfish]

Because Mary Said “Yes…” — A Reflection For The Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord

March 25, 2011 by Fr. Thomas Rosica

Standing in the middle of the present day city of Nazareth is the mammoth Basilica of the Annunciation, built around what is believed to be the dwelling of Mary. In a grotto-like room at the heart of the basilica is a small inscription on an altar. It reads, “verbum caro hic factum est,” here the Word became flesh. There, it is believed, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and her response changed the world forever.

Imagine yourself in Mary’s place, asked to say “yes” to a divine plan so vast, so profound and so seemingly impossible that you cannot comprehend it. “How can this be?” she asks, bewildered. She is rooted in the faith of her ancestors, and yet now an angel has appeared in the midst of everyday life, extending a startling invitation. “You have found favor with God,” the angel says, “and you will conceive and bear His Son.” Will she accept?

It is Mary above all others who can teach us what it means to live by faith, and how to respond when God’s providence disrupts the daily course of our lives, overturning its rhythms and expectations. Despite her fears and uncertainty over how this promise could be fulfilled, she still answered “Yes.” Are we able to respond to God this way?

When we reflect on the Annunciation to Mary, and her acceptance of the angel’s message, we also reflect on our own vocation — our own calling from God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” — an echo of Mary’s “Be it done unto me according to your word.”

Each time we commit ourselves to embracing God’s call and accepting His will, we mark a new point on the path of our relationship with Him. For the rest of her life, Mary pondered her extraordinary encounter with God, turning the weight of the angel’s message over and over again in her heart. From the manger to the cross, Mary’s life was radically changed — her relationship with God profoundly deepened — the moment she said “Yes.”

Mary received and welcomed God’s Word in the fullest sense — becoming impregnated with it, and bearing it to the world. Angels might not appear in our doorsteps, but we do encounter God in each of our daily prayers, and he whispers to us a similar invitation: Will we accept His love and bring it joyously to those around us? Will we trust in His providence, even when we can’t see the path ahead? Amid the noise of everyday life, will we listen for and embrace his call?

When making his pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Annunciation, Pope Benedict XVI offered this prayer to the humble Virgin of Nazareth. It speaks for all of us who likewise seek to accept God’s will with joy:

Mary, Mother of the “Yes,” you listened to Jesus, and know the tone of his voice and the beating of his heart. Morning Star, speak to us of him, and tell us about your journey of following him on the path of faith."

[CynicalBear]

I break bread in remembrance of Christ’s broken body and shed blood with other’s who are believers.

[af_vet_1981]

I break bread in remembrance of Christ’s broken body and shed blood with other’s who are believers.

That could apply a wide variety of meals, iafter whatever it is your group does. I suppose no one really needs to know the private rites.

[Mark17]

Here here.

[boatbums]

I am no expert (at all!) in the rather wide vistas of non-Catholic Scriptural commentary, so I'm speaking in admitted ignorance here, but I must say I have rarely or never seen a truly Christological interpretation of the many feminine types in the OT. Since these are feminine types, they refer not to Christ, but to His Mother, that Blessed Lady who is His closest --- in fact, His only --- kinship link to David, to Abraham, to Adam , which is to say, His link to the human race. But I'm here to learn.

I can think of some feminine types in Scripture that DO refer specifically to Christ and not to Mary:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matt. 23:37)

As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. (Deut. 32:10-12)

Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. (Deut. 32:18)

[Steelfish]

“All these degrees and the guy never read the Bible..”

Augustine, Aquinas, Newman, Benedict and a vast constellation of Lutheran and Episcopalian Protestant theologians who after a lifetime of study, prayer and teaching converted to Catholicism, never read the Bible?

These folks never read the Bile but somehow you did!

So have David Koresh, Billy Graham, Jim Jones, Joel Osteen, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Moonies, and they all have come to different and conflicting interpretations. Maybe, Protestants should get their own Bible and not the one assembled by the Church Fathers in the Synod of Rome in AD 328 as the true canonical texts were assembled based on infallible Petrine authority.

Until the Protestant Reformation in 1517, for ELEVEN centuries saints, no one read the Bible the way you do. Not the saints and martyrs of the Church either.

Such is the shallow stuff of Bible Christians.

[caww]

To simplify:

The God of which the Koran speaks is not the God of the Bible/Christianity regardless of language.

[Legatus]

Not exactly what I wanted to see when I woke up on Good Friday. It does allow me the opportunity of apologizing to Vlad for writing publicly what should have been done privately. I stand by what I wrote but I shouldn’t have said it in front of everyone else.

[Resettozero]

I stand by what I wrote but I shouldn’t have said it in front of everyone else.

I have lived to regret many times not that I've posted my thought but, instead, the wording and the manner in which I have posted it.

Ephesians 4:15 English Standard Version (ESV)
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

[metmom]

Consider though....

It’s not like your comment made public a matter that was done privately. I would agree that that would be out of line.

Since the posts mentioned were posted publicly, unless the rebuke is cone publicly, then anyone reading other Catholic’s comments will only presume that they approve of them by their silence.

Public actions should get public rebuke.

Think Matthew 18.

[Resettozero]

I awoke this morning remembering it is the day most Christians commemorate the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, for benefit of all sinners who believe in Lord Jesus Christ and repent of their sins and follow Him only. (Thank you Jesus!)

Also, this thought came again to me...

There are six Roman Catholics currently serving on the U.S. Supreme Court: (Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Sonia Sotomayor, and Clarence Thomas) and three Jews (Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagen).

Why is Roe v. Wade still on the books as law of the Land?

[af_vet_1981]

The God of which the Koran speaks is not the God of the Bible/Christianity regardless of language.

The God of Abraham is the one and only God of all nations. There is only one God. The Moslems acknowledge this and believe He is "the God" of Abraham, as well as Moses. They, like most Jews, completely reject the books of the New Testament and the Trinity (which some professing, albeit heretical, Christians also reject).

[HossB86]

The God of Abraham is the one and only God of all nations. There is only one God. The Moslems acknowledge this and believe He is "the God" of Abraham, as well as Moses. They, like most Jews, completely reject the books of the New Testament and the Trinity (which some professing, albeit heretical, Christians also reject).

While I said I was done, I could not let this blasphemous post stand unrefuted. And hopefully, this, coming from someone who actually KNOWS something about Islam, will help you understand something that the rest of us, somehow, have figured out:

Try reading: http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/god.htm

The Note To Reader at the bottom of the explanation at that link says it all:
"NOTE TO THE READER

We are well aware that the name Allah is used by Arab speaking Christians for the God of the Bible. In fact, the root from which the name is derived, ilah, stems from the ancient Semitic languages, corresponding to the Mesopotamian IL, as well as the Hebrew-Aramaic EL, as in Ishma-el, Immanu-el, Isra-el. These terms were often used to refer to any deity worshiped as a high god, especially the chief deity amongst a pantheon of lesser gods. As such, the Holy Bible uses the term as just one of the many titles for Yahweh, the only true God.

Yet the problem arises from the fact that Muslims insist that Allah is not a title, but the personal name of the God of Islam. This becomes problematic since according to the Holy Bible the name of the God of Abraham is Yahweh/Jehovah, not Allah:

God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am Yahweh (YHVH) and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty; BUT BY MY NAME, YAHWEH, I did not make myself known to them." Exodus 6:2-3 Therefore, Christians can use Allah as a title or a generic noun for the true God, but not as the personal name for the God of the Holy Bible."

"Allah" is not Yahweh. Muslims do not worship Yahweh in any way, shape, or form. Try going to the link and read. Note that I didn't have to make anyone Google it --

Seriously. Muslims don't worship the one, true, Living God in ignorance. They worship a FALSE god they call Allah.

With that, square CCC 841 to the truth.

Hoss

[CynicalBear]

The Arabs are descendent of Ishmael not Isaac. It is not the Yahweh Christians serve.

Genesis 17:21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

It would be through Isaac that Abraham's seed would be named.

Genesis 21:12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Ishmael is called the seed of Hagar but never called the seed of Abraham. It was 13 years after the birth of Ishmael that God changed Abram to Abraham and promised:

Genesis 17:7 "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your seed after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

Notice that God never said He would be the God of the seed of Hagar. When Abraham said he wanted Ishmael to live before God he was told no that it was going to Isaac.

Genesis 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

God never said He would be a God to Ishmael. He said He would be a God to Isaac.

For people, especially the Catholic Church, to not recognize the implications of those statements by God is fodder for error. It doesn't matter that Islam was supposedly started centuries later. The religion of Islam is still holding to a god that is NOT Yahweh and that statement by the Catholic Church simply shows they are not being led by the Holy Spirit.

[CynicalBear]

>>There is only one God.<<

Jeremiah 25:6 Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you."

Exodus 12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.<<

Numbers 33:4 For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the LORD had smitten among them: upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments.<<

Exodus 23:32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

Why would you disagree with what Yahweh, the one true God, says? He acknowledges that people have other gods. Why don't you?

[af_vet_1981]

The religion of Islam is still holding to a god that is NOT Yahweh

Let me point out the absurdity of your position.
1. You, yourself, have made the case for Moslems believing in the God of Abraham and Moses by writing the English transliteration of the name God gave to Moses that coincides with the Arabic pronunciation of said name. You pronounce it with "wah" which is the Arabic equivalent of "Vav" and you evidently acknowledge this by your use.
2. Moslems agree that there is only one God, "The God" and that he did, in truth, give Moses the name recorded in Exodus that is now held to be unpronounceable.
3. Thus your point is invalid, for the Moslems worship, albeit in error, as do others, "The God" of whose name you write, and pronounce in Arabic every time you say it.
4. Do you actually call upon the God of Abraham using the name you wrote ? If so, why ? If not, why not ?

Your comment can be correctly rendered as The religion of Islam is still holding to "The God of Abraham," albeit with seriously flawed error. It is only by worshipping "The God of Abraham" in the spirit and truth of His Messiah, obeying His commandments, that any religion may worship the "God of Abraham" acceptably.

[af_vet_1981]

The Arabs are descendent of Ishmael not Isaac.

Are you a descendent of Isaac ?

[CynicalBear]

You go right ahead and defend the god of Islam if you choose.

[af_vet_1981]

None of the gods of Egypt are “The God of Abraham” whom the Moslems, Mormons, J Witnesses, and Oneness Pentecostals say they worship. Do you worship the “The God of Abraham” that they worship, albeit in serious error ?

[HossB86]

Why would you disagree with what Yahweh, the one true God, says? He acknowledges that people have other gods. Why don't you?

My guess is because that would mean undermining the Roman Catholic Church(cult)'s Catechism... which, by extension would mean refuting the RCC(c).

Good Catholics can't do that.

Hoss