Fiat

Today is March 25, the feast of the Annunciation in the Church. While not a Holy Day of obligation, the significance of this feast is immeasurable. Intentionally celebrated 9 months before Christmas, this feast commemorates the day when the angel Gabriel was sent from God to Mary to invite her to be the mother of Jesus. Church tradition teaches that from the begining of time He had intended on asking her this huge favor. He spared her from the stain of original sin, hence when the angel spoke the words of God to her she listened with a pure heart. Although she did not understand all the details, or the "hows" and the "whats" of this Virginial Pregnancy, she spoke the famous words, "Let it be done to me according to your word." The Church coins this phrase, the "Fiat", as the Latin is worded, "Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum."

Mary's "Fiat" changed the course of human history. In her total and complete freedom of choice she says "yes" to almighty God, and in that moment concieves the Christ child in her womb. In Seminary we used to joke, that if Mary had said "no" God would have asked someone else, and we'd all be praying the 'Hail Gertrude" today.

But we do not, we pray the Hail Mary because Mary said yes, she said yes to a plan that she did not understand. She looked into the depths of her soul and blindly put her faith in the Lord and said "yes". How many times are we faced with such a choice? Certainly never a choice with as heavy a consequence as this one, but certainly there are times in life when we act on blind faith. We have faith that our spouse won't cheat on us, that our friends won't betray us. In these tough times we have faith that we will not loose our jobs, when so many have. We have faith in the man we elected to the office of President, that he will as he said last night, "move this economy from recession to recovery, and ultimately to prosperity."

Alot of life is built on faith, and trust. That's why some of us put up so many walls. That's why so much of life is a risk. When we change jobs, we are taking a huge risk that the new one will work out and we arent shooting ourselves in the foot...and we have faith that it will work out. When we start to open up our heart little by little for someone who touches us deep down inside we run the risk of getting that heart broken....and we have faith that that other person feels the same way we do.

Unfortunately in life there is no forward motion without faith and trust. As the President said last night; "We'll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that, when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interest to the wider set of obligations we have towards each other, that's when we succeed, that's when we prosper, and that's what is needed right now. So let's look towards the future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination, and, most importantly, renewed confidence that a better day will come. "

You will never learn to swim, if you are too scared to jump in the water. We will never advance without taking some risks, rooted in a faith in whatever the circumstance may be...love, work, life, friends, relationships, whatever it may be. No experience in my life was more demonstrative of this then my experiences in Seminary. When times got tough my priest friends would always advise me that it was all, "In God's plan." Sometimes it felt like those words were a cop out. Ultimately however I must admit that these words were true.

So wherever we are in life, that position will not change without taking chances, and without having faith. Mary's "Fiat" changed the course of Salvation History, and put Mary in a pivotal position in the establishment of the Christian Faith, and the growth of the Church, which now stands two thousand years later. May all our "Fiats" in life be as successful, and may every one of our leaps of faith lead to nothing but lasting imprints. Most of all, let's hope that our faith in one another is not misplaced, and remember....we never know who may be putting their faith in us!