Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 20, 2019
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
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.
Mary’s great fiat: it was the “yes” that changed the course of human history. Whenever I hear this gospel, I imagine all of heaven bending an ear down to earth, waiting with bated breath to hear the young virgin’s response. The Father’s plan to redeem fallen mankind from Adam and Eve’s primordial disobedience hung upon the answer of a humble maiden, who was left free to choose her path. For Mary to say yes to this startling stranger was to throw herself into an uncertain and dangerous future, and yet our mother — with fear, uncertainty, and freedom — gave her response: Thy will be done.
God grants us the same freedom today. The Lord calls, and we must choose to either turn away from God’s voice or make our own fiats, however humble. Our yes-es may not have the same universe-altering consequences as Mary’s, but we are often called to make them in times of uncertainty and fear, in the face of a world that will not understand, or perhaps even condemn us.
Like our mother, we do not have every step of the journey laid out before us to help us choose whether to answer God’s call. She could not see the acute sorrow of the cross or the joyous triumph of the resurrection in that moment.
I have learned that God shows us only the step before us, and we are called to trust that God’s love is boundless. God wills our greatest good. May we have the strength of our mother to give our fiats in every moment, even when our obedience leads us to the cross. May our yes-es, our free and beautiful fiats, set the world afire with the light of Christ’s love this Christmas season. Mary, virgin most faithful, pray for us!
Prayer
Eternal God, Author of Life, through the “Yes” of our Blessed Mother, the yoke of sin and death was broken and the gates of salvation were opened to the human race. We pray in thanksgiving for Mary’s trust in, and obedience to, your holy will. As we approach the blessed season of Christmas, may we echo her words “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” We ask this in the name of Christ the Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Dominic was born in eleventh century Spain to a poor family. He grew up doing the work of his father—shepherding—and he came to love the solitude and silence. He left the family and joined a monastery nearby, and grew in holiness and stature. He was eventually elected abbot.
He came into a dispute with the king, and was removed from the monastery. He traveled to a different monastery in another part of Spain, Silos, and was appointed abbot there. The monastery in Silos was in disrepair and its community life was in sad shape—Dominic restored the physical and spiritual foundations of life there and made it one of the most famous monasteries in Spain.
Miracles were attributed to Dominic in his work—it was said that there was not an illness that could not be cured through his intercession. There is even a story that has been passed down that a group of 300 Christians who were enslaved in north Africa were set free when they prayed in his name.
Dominic died in 1073. Nearly 100 years later he appeared to Blessed Joan of Aza, a woman who was making a pilgrimage to his shrine. In this vision, he promised Joan that she would have a son—soon after, she did, and named her son after the saint who appeared to her. This Dominic is famous for restoring the Church through the establishment of a religious order that continues today: the Order of Preachers.
St. Dominic of Silos is patron saint of prisoners, pregnant women, and shepherds.
St. Dominic of Silos, you appeared to the mother of the great St. Dominic to foretell her son’s birth, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Dominic of Silos is in the public domain. Last accessed November 1, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
