Discerning our yes

A game I like to play with saints and holy men and women is “Could I do that?” I’ve often admired the actions of saints such as St. Oscar Romero, St. Teresa of Kolkata, and St. Pope John Paul II. I end up asking myself “Could I give up my life for my faith? Would I die for my faith? Would I dedicate my life to entering the lives of the poor and marginalized? Could I become a priest?” Yet, before I could answer those questions, there was one question that preceded all of them, “What caused the saints to live such a life?” The answer is much simpler than expected: the saints said yes to God’s will. Today’s Gospel perfectly demonstrates commitment to following God’s will. When Mary hears that she will be the mother of Jesus, she responds in humility, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to your word."
 

Mary’s response is truly incredible, especially reflected on in the frame of today’s culture. In our culture, we are bombarded by the images of pride and challenged by values of materialism, selfishness, and egotism. What makes Mary relatable to us today, however, is that she was human just like us. She was a person who had dreams and aspirations of her own, and most likely a loose idea of what she wanted in life. What makes her response so courageous was, despite all of her preconceived notions of what life might bring her and despite of any outside pressures, when God presented His plan for her she fully accepted it and said ‘yes’ in confidence.

During this Advent season, let us prepare our hearts to echo Mary’s ‘yes.’ Let us take the time to prepare our hearts in order to discern where God is leading us in our lives, and how we can see God in all that surrounds us. Moreover, let us remind ourselves that our spiritual lives are about rejecting our plans and learning to humble ourselves in order to accept God’s will. Former Jesuit Superior General, Pedro Arrupe S.J. says it best:

“Conversion is not a giving away of something that we can well afford to lose. It goes much deeper   than that. It is a putting away of something that we are: our old self with its all-too-human, all-too-worldly prejudices, convictions, attitudes, values, ways of thinking and acting, habits which have become so much a part of us that it is agony even to think of parting with them, and yet which are precisely what prevent us from rightly interpreting the signs of the times, from seeing life steadily and seeing it whole.”

Author: Joseph Harwerth, Technology Department