READING 1
Luke 1:34-38
And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” And 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 called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
READING 2
From Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant by Father Ignace de la Potterie, SJ
Mary’s response: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word” is, following the Latin translation, often called Mary’s “fiat.” Nevertheless, we have to take note that the Latin corresponds to two Greek expressions which manifest distinct nuances.
We know about the “fiat” of the Annunciation, but there is also the “fiat voluntas tua” of the Our Father (Mt 6:10), and that of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane (Mt 26:42) with its verb in the passive imperative “génêthêtô.” For the “fiat” of Mary at the Annunciation Luke employs the optative “genoïto” without a subject which is used postively only in this unique place in the New Testament. In Greek, the optative, expresses “a joyous desire to,” never a resignation or a constraining submission before something burdensome and painful. The resonance of Mary’s “fiat” at the moment of the Annunciation is not that of the “fiat voluntas tua” of Jesus in Gethsemane, nor that of a formula corresponding to the Our Father. Here there is a remarkable detail, which has only been noticed in recent years, and which even today is frequently lost from sight. The “fiat” of Mary is not just a simple acceptance and even less, a resignation. It is rather a joyous desire to collaborate with what God foresees for her. It is the joy of total abandonment to the good will of God. Thus the joy of this ending responds to the invitation to joy at the beginning.
REFLECTION
Mary’s yes was not resistance, nor even resignation, nor mere acceptance, but a joyous desire, a free and eager embrace of God’s will. Even when she asked “How will I know this…?” it was with no shadow of a doubt that God could do it, but simply clarifying how it would work. She wanted to know how she should properly cooperate so as to let it happen to her. Why was her Yes eager, but the Fiat that Jesus taught us by His prayer (the Our Father) and His example (Gethsemane) was only acceptance? Jesus was teaching us to accept God’s will in the midst of circumstances that were tainted by evil. We cannot give an eager Yes in those circumstances. But Mary was accepted the Incarnation. Her eager Yes was for God to manifest Himself in her life in an Incarnate way. This is the eager Yes we can give as well. When it is something purely good where God wants to manifest Himself more fully in us, we can give our eager Yes. This will invite God to be greater in our lives and may require us to become littler.
Are there any areas in your life where you have given a reluctant Yes to God that can become a little more eager Yes? Is there an opportunity to (re)commit to your vocation with a genoïto like Mary’s? Are there ways God is seeking to be greater in your life and is inviting you to become littler? Mary can help us give our genoïto to all the good God wants to do in us.
O Holy Mary by John Henry Newman
Sub tuum praesidium
Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary or
Litany of Loreto or
at least one decade of the Rosary or
Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary
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