Imagine that we can pick our parents before we are born. Re-incarnationists believe that we do and we chose as parents those who would teach us the lesson(s) we want to learn in life. God, when it was time for the Incarnation, chose a simple and lowly maiden to be His mother. One would have expected God to chose a prominently pedigreed woman to bear Him as a son. Mary was barely out of her teens. She lived in the hinterlands. She was probably everything one did not expect to be the Mother of the Redeemer. And yet God chose her and every generation has called her blessed since then. In the Catholic tradition, Marian devotion has always been a defining characteristic, down the ages, across different peoples and cultures.
The story of Mary is an essential element in our Salvation History. It tells us and shows us in a very dramatic manner that nothing is impossible with God. Mary’s looked in askance at the angel and said: “How can this be when I am a virgin?” The angel replied: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” And when she gave her “Fiat!”, the greatest story began and has since then been unfolding up to our times. How can the salvation of the world begin with the “Fiat!” of a simple country girl? But then, how can life come out of inanimate rocks and stones? Or for that matter, how can even something come out nothing or out of the chaos? It did, when with His Word, He coaxed light out of darkness with His: “Fiat lux!”
The wonders that God wrought in Mary’s life, He works in my life too. And that is for me an even deeper mystery than God becoming man. I did not ask to be, but I am. And for that, I am beyond speechless in humble gratitude. It would have been enough that I have been blessed with the gift of life; but God gave me more – I was born into a beautiful and loving family. The love and care of my family would have been enough; but God God gave me even more – I have been blessed with friends who have been worthy traveling companions in life. The company and community of my friends and family would have been enough to last me a lifetime; but God has given me yet again more – I have been even more greatly blessed by Anabelle coming into my life to bring it colors and sounds I have never imagined possible. And the blessings have not stopped and just keep on coming: three wonderful sons that would warm the cockles of any father’s heart, meaningful work to serve and do good to others, lovely and loving ladies for my sons, and now angelic (and sometimes impish) grandchildren to walk with me my final miles.
In the face of such grace and blessings, I simply surrender myself totally to the Divine will that made this universe and who, with His Spirit, overshadows all of us and oversees the daily unfolding of events in our lives. With Mary, I silently murmur in my heart: “Be it done unto me according to your word.”
The angel said to her, ‘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 holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26-32,34-38