It’s all about Yes. It’s about humility and being called; it’s about hearing the call and having the courage to say Yes.
In today’s gospel we read the story of the Annunciation, of an angel appearing to a young woman who is troubled and frightened by the request from God before her - and she says Yes. Humility can be so difficult, and yet we are invited to watch as Mary realizes there will be awkward questions, her family will be disgraced, and certainly she must have felt pangs of fear at the task of being mother of the Savior. And still she says, Yes.
Today in North America, we also celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the 1531, Mary appeared to Juan Diego, a humble man in Mexico, someone from the lowest class in the country. She asked him to go to the palace of the Bishop of Mexico and request that the Bishop build a church on the site where she stood. Juan Diego knew he would not have credibility with the Bishop, but he did as she asked. When he returned without having success with the Bishop, he begged Mary to pick someone else as her messenger, “someone of importance, well known, respected, and esteemed, so that they may believe in him; because I am a nobody.” Mary sent him back to the Bishop again, a task he accepted. Eventually he was believed and the church was built.
How many times in our lives are we called to do something … but are sure someone else could do it better? “Please, God, don’t ask me to stand up for this injustice. It needs someone with more stature to fight this battle.” But I am being asked to stand up for the poor. How will I respond?
“Please, Lord, don’t ask me to do this. I’m not good at being ignored or mocked and that’s what will happen if I really search my heart and listen to what you ask.” Do I really have to face that kind of humiliation?
Yes.
Jesus doesn’t ask him to follow him into honor and glory. He asked us to follow him in the humility and poverty that was his life. He asks us to stand on the side of the poor and to accept everything that goes with that. Only if we realize that our Yes brings us closer to Jesus with every humiliation, can we do it with courage and faith.
Let our Yes be for the smallest things that irritate us today. Let our Yes include a way of life that stands up for the poor and patterns our lives after Jesus. And let our Yes resonate through our lives today as the readings of Zechariah shout joyfully, “Sing and rejoice…! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord.”
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
