In my homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent, I reflected upon how we prepare for the important events in our life. Parents prepare for the birth of their children, our second graders prepare for the sacraments of reconciliation and first eucharist, our eighth graders prepare for the sacrament of confirmation. Our teenage parishioners prepare to obtain their driver’s license, they prepare for college, for their jobs. Preparing to become a priest requires nine years of seminary preparation. The most important things in life require great preparation.
We see this truth reflected most gloriously in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For today we celebrate the way God prepared Mary to become the mother of our savior. In preparing Mary to be the Mother of Jesus, God did not wait for her to graduate high school; he did not wait for her to learn to read and write; he didn’t wait for her to learn to speak or walk. God prepared Mary from the very moment she became a human being, the very moment of her conception, the very moment she became a baby in her mother’s womb.
From the very moment Mary existed, she was filled with a special grace from God never before given to any other member of the human race: the grace of being immaculately conceived, the grace of being clean of all sin. Could God do it? Of course! He’s God! The Archangel Gabriel in the Gospel today said it perfectly: “nothing is impossible for God”.
Mary's greatness doesn't come from her intelligence, good looks, charm, bubbly personality - it doesn't come from her natural qualities. Her greatness, her true beauty, comes from being filled with the grace of God and surrendering to God’s plan for her life.
And that’s true for us as well. What matters most in life is allowing God to fill us with grace and cooperating with that grace. Just like Mary, God has a plan for each of us. But it is up to us, like Mary to respond generously to God’s plan, to trust in God, to learn from the events of our life, to become the people God made us to be.
What does God want from us? The same thing he wanted from Mary: Sinlessness, selflessness, and cooperation with his grace. In the epistle, Saint Paul wrote, “God chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish”. God chose Mary, and God choses us, but it is up to us to respond generously to God.
And so we pray today that Mary’s yes and radical surrender to God may resound in our life, may the sinless immaculate ever-virgin Mary assist us in turning away from the selfishness and self-centeredness and fear and material attachment which keep us from great holiness, may she help us discover God’s will in our life and help us respond to God with wholehearted surrender, obedience, and trust, and prepare well for all God has in store for us, for His Glory and the salvation of souls.
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