Pope Francis Daily

Mary’s Yes!

The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is actually a Christmas feast even though it is not celebrated during the Christmas Season. The angel’s pronouncement is met with Mary’s willing consent (“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word”), and thus precipitates the Incarnation of Christ and his redemption of the world. We celebrate, today, our Lord’s incarnation in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and after nine months we will be celebrating our Lord’s birth on 25th December. Mother Mary is a school where we learned from her so many magnificent topics, absolutely vital points for our spiritual and Christian life. We learn from her-purity, we learn from her- kindness, we learn from her-sacrifice, we learn from her- loyalty, we learn from her-faithfulness, we learn from her- humility, we learn from her-long-suffering and even we learn from her- silence.

Once a woman approached our lord Jesus and said, ‘blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts that fed you’ but the lord replied and said to that woman, ‘but more so, I say to you blessed is the one who does the will of my father.’ He meant to say, “Listen woman, my mother is not blessed because she only carried me in her womb and she is not blessed because she breastfeed me but she is more so blessed because she did the will of my heavenly Father. Otherwise, if her blessings were only associated with carrying me in her womb and breastfeeding me then her blessings would have been only lived for a short time for the moment. If this is so then once she gives birth to me, the blessings are gone and the moment she stops breastfeeding me also that blessing is gone but my mother though she is blessed for carrying me, she is blessed for breastfeeding me, yet she is blessed for eternities for she has done the will of my Father in heaven.”

Mother Mary dedicated her entire life for her beloved son. Her entire life on earth was one painful journey. She never had rest, she never understood what happiness is, she never understood what comfort is, all she knew was running from one place to another, from one town to another, from one country to another, looking after her beloved son Jesus so no one can touch him, no one can hurt him, no one can kill him. She owned nothing as she lived in a little tiny cottage in Nazareth but today she owns heaven and earth because she denied herself for the sake of her beloved Son and did the will of God the Father in heaven.

Mother Mary was blessed because she said, “Yes” to the will of God the Father in heaven.  According to the Gospel of St Luke chapter one, Mother Mary prophecies and says, “from this moment onward all generations shall call me blessed,” all generations mean until the end of the world every generation that will come, the Lord will make sure that there will be certain people in that generation that will still refer to Mother Mary the blessed one for her love and her intercession. How are we going to fulfill this biblical truth now? The holy apostolic universal Church of Christ venerates Mary, the queen of heaven at the highest level, her position surpasses the angelic orders even not only the saints but the angelic orders. And today our Pope Francis is coming together with all the Bishops and Catholic faithful around the world and will consecrate Russia and Ukraine for peace to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Act of Consecration will be prayed during the “24 Hours for the Lord” Lenten penitential service in St. Peter’s Basilica, which begins at 5 PM Rome time.  

Let us join together like little children of God and follow the path of Mary, asking God to turn our fear into faith believing that our efforts contribute to the vision God has for the world that we can do great things through him when we say ‘yes’ to his plan for us.

+ In Christ, 

Father Henry Peter MSFS,

Sacred Heart Church, Bhusawal, Maharashtra, India.