No compromises, full throated and unrelenting….Our YES will ring out

Today at Holy Mass the Universal Church celebrates the Annunciation of the Lord…Mary’s YES changed the world…..”Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”…Let’s explore her YES because Mary did not put conditions around it…Her YES was complete and total…It did not compromise……I believe at the root of this YES was the fact that Mary knew who she was…She knew that she was a mere creation and that God was God….And when we know this reality - Creature / Creator - Our YES will also be complete….I say that because most people do not know who they are….Mankind chases after “images” of himself…..Creating false realities, which only lead to dead ends….Its only when we know who we truly are…Why we were created…What we were created for…And where we are meant to end up…Its only until will realize these realities that we are at peace…Each of us are wired the same way while being uniquely created….God’s law is “hardwired” into our very being…And when we reject it, we created turmoil within ourself that can only be resolved by our complete YES to God…Mary understood this at a very young age……Now it is for us to understand it…More importantly, its for us to give our complete YES

“And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”

When I would travel to Kolkata in December each year the Missionaries of Charity would celebrate a Mass where sisters would make their final vows and enter fully into religious life…Not unlike a Wedding Mass, each sister would make their vows for life….As bells would ring out in the Church, the sisters two by two would present themselves at the altar and sign a book….The bells of the Church would ring out continually over the chaos of the city as this all took place…..I always found this event and how it played out to be very symbolic - While the world in all its madness marched on, a bell rings out!….This bell represents an eternal YES to God, which contradicts the very world that tries to “tune it out”…..So what about us?…..Have we given our YES to God?…And if we have, have we placed conditions upon that YES?….Clearly we are not like Our Lady because she was born without sin…So no matter how completely we commit ourselves to God, there will always be “cracks” in our commitment…This is why we need grace…And Our Lady is here to give it to us - She takes us by the hand and presents us to her son….The more complete our YES is, the greater our impact on the world we will have….Mary was obedient to God…So was her husband St Joseph….Obedience is lacking today…Why?…Because we “think” we know better…..Somehow we “think” we know better then the creator of the universe……We do not know who we are.......A person who is obedient to God, from the simple things in daily life to the biggest of decisions will be sign to the world….This is who we all were born to be as Catholics…Our life should be a contradiction, a sign to all who encounter us, that God walked among us - That Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead - That he sacrificed his very life for the forgiveness of our sins…No words necessary - Our life must speak this reality!…….The impact of our life all comes down to how committed our YES really is….Our life will speak if our YES is complete…No compromises, full throated and unrelenting….Our YES will ring out

“Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in.” These are offered according to the law. Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”

Today we read in the Gospel about Mary’s YES…..Mary said it out loud - ”I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”…Mary knew who she was - Do we?……Do we aspire to do God’s will as Mary did?….The world we live in today desperately needs men and woman who commit to a full throated YES to God…Mary committed her life to God on his terms, not her terms…This is the kind of YES I am speaking about….And like the church bells that rang out over the chaos of the city of Kolkata when Mother Teresa’s sisters made their final vows, if we give our YES, the witness of our life will “ring out” too…..No compromises, full throated and unrelenting….Our YES will ring out