The Annunciation: Saying “Yes” to God

Mary said “yes” to God. A woman’s consent was the pivot point of history.

We are about to enter Holy Week, the time when the Church remembers Jesus’ last teachings, suffering, and victory over death. God was coming to heal the wounds between Heaven and Earth. He would not just judge us or forgive us from a distance, but come and be with us. He would feel what we felt and that included being born fully human.

What if she had said “no?”

We will never know, because she did not. A timeless God sees each moment of cosmic history simultaneously, so Eve said “no” just as Mary said “yes” from the Divine perspective. Each decision was honored: one chose immediate pleasure that led to death, the other a sword that would pierce her heart that led to life. The best news of all is that Mary’s “yes” allowed her mother Eve to choose life a second time when their Son harrowed the place of the dead.

Mary  freely said “yes” to God, heard the Word of God, and did not just obey, but rejoiced in her God. Her consent made her the Mother of God and she was happy. Of course she knew the pain, Mary did know, because consent carries knowledge, but unlike Mother Eve, she chose wisely. Eve faced a tree and chose to learn good and evil by doing wrong. Mary was different. She chose present pain for eternal joy. Mary stood before a Tree and gained the knowledge of good and evil when she heard her Divine Son choose good in the face of the ruling class evil. Everyone gets to choose and live with the consequences of that choice. We must give free choice to others, a truth I wish with all my soul I had understood sooner.

Saying “yes” is not enough. Mary heard the world of the Lord and persisted. Her great song of triumph, the joy of bearing the Son of God, is a challenge to the powerful, rich, and famous. This Jewish woman said “yes” and then:

51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.

Mary knew what her “yes” meant: an upending of the broken order. Eve bet on what was pleasant today, courting the world, the flesh, and the devil. Mary chose God always for justice. Yet even this great insight, the core of the Gospel, the knowledge that made true consent possible was just the start of her work.

She kept hearing the word of God and saying “yes.”

Mary brought her baby to term, raised him, perhaps doing so as a widow, and then launched Him into ministry at the Wedding of Cana. Like John the Baptist, she decreased as He increased, recognizing that all who said “yes” to the Divine Son of God were his mothers, brothers, and sisters.  Most did not persist as she did. Mother Mary stood at the cross when most of the disciples ran, denied, and betrayed their friend.  Mary was in the Upper Room at Pentecost and when the tongues of fire fell, she was there.

All generations call her happy, blessed.