Solemnity of the Annunciation
St. Louis Parish
Catholic Men’s Fellowship Conference
March 25, 2023
Life-Changing Questions
Eleven years ago, I was invited to dinner at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, along with twenty-five other bishops attending a meeting of the Bishops’ Conference. At the time, I was the Bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut. As I entered, the Pope’s representative, known as the “Nuncio”, took me aside. “Bishop,” he said, “perhaps I could see you in a few minutes.” Like Mary, I wondered what his greeting meant. “What’s up?” I asked myself. I soon found myself alone with the Nuncio and he came right to the point. He had an announcement to make. It was my “annunciation moment”: “The Holy Father wishes you to be the Archbishop of Baltimore. Do you accept?” “Yes,” said I, “I’ll do whatever the Holy Father wants me to do.” That was my poor version of “Let it be done to me according to your word.” At that, the Nuncio thanked me, and like the Angel Gabriel, he vanished. In an instant, my life took an unexpected turn.
I’ll bet you have dealt with many life-changing questions and events. Maybe from a boss, your wife, or a priest in confession. Your boss in Baltimore asks you to move to California and wants a quick answer. You go in for a routine check-up and the doctor tells you that you’re seriously ill. You sense that the Lord is asking you to trust him perhaps as never before. Your wife tells you she’s pregnant or that a grandchild is on the way. In that announcement, God is asking you to embrace new life with fatherly love. Or perhaps you go to confession and the priest shows you a way to deal with a sin that has bedeviled you for years: “Will you give it a try?” he asks. Or during one of today’s talks, the Lord speaks to your hearts and asks you to change. “Will you do it?” he asks. “Will you receive my fatherly love for you?” Life giving questions and events. We all have them, but how do we handle them?
I would suggest that today, we might rename the feast of the Annunciation. Just for today let’s call it, “Mary’s Guide for Responding to Life-Changing Questions”. In Mary’s response to her unique vocation to be the Mother of God, we learn how to respond to our vocation as husbands and fathers, and how to respond to those life-changing questions and events that come our way. What does Mary teach us? Three lessons.
Lesson № 1: Be Receptive to the Father’s Love
The first lesson Mary offers us is to be receptive to the Father’s love. In other words, get ready, stay ready, keep your soul prepared, be open to God. When the Angel Gabriel visited Mary, he found her at prayer. Mary lived on every word that came from the mouth and heart of the Father. Sinless from the moment of her conception, she opened her heart to the Father’s love. For that reason, the Word of Scripture resonated in her heart. She soaked in the Father’s Word and Wisdom like parched and thirsty ground. She not only read the Scriptures, she prayed the Scriptures and in God’s grace, her life was conformed to God’s will; it reflected his fatherly love. So much so, that ancient Christian writers were fond of saying that Mary conceived the Word of God in her heart before she conceived him in her womb. The words of the Psalmist can be applied in a special way to Mary: “My heart is ready, O God, I will sing, I will chant your praises” (cf. Psalm 57:7-9).
Mary’s heart was therefore ready, receptive when the Angel announced that she was to be the Mother of the Messiah – that her life would be upended and take a turn she could not have imagined. Only because her heart was prepared, receptive, to the Father’s love, could she say – in spite of all the questions she must have had – “Let it be done to me as you say!”
If Mary–kept free by God’s grace from original and personal sin–if she needed to pray, what about us – who, despite God’s grace, have fallen into sin? Gentlemen: We need to pray every day. We need to read Scripture prayerfully. We need to listen to God and respond daily, especially when the going gets rough: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Prayer leads to conversion and conversion makes us receptive to the Father’s love. And when we receive the Father’s love, we will practice fatherly love ourselves – and I think you’d agree with me that fatherly love is in short supply these days!
Lesson № 2: Know What the Stakes Are
Mary teaches us a second lesson for responding to life-changing questions, namely, know what the stakes are for you, for your family, for your church and for the world. Being open and receptive to the Father’s love isn’t just for our own good. Our response to life-changing questions affects those around us, often more profoundly than we might imagine.
There’s a great 11th C. homily on the Annunciation by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. He imagines himself and all of us to be in the room when the Angel visits Mary and announces that she is to be the Mother of God. In his portrayal, we are not mere silent observers. No, when the Angel addresses the question of questions to Mary, Bernard has us urging Mary to answer the Angel’s question quickly – and why? Because so much hangs in the balance—nothing less than the world’s salvation. “Answer quickly,” we say to Mary, “Answer with a word, receive the Word of God.” “All of humanity,” we say to Mary, “is waiting for your answer!” No pressure there.
So, when we are confronted with a life-changing question, we must not think only of ourselves but about those who will affected by our answer, especially our spouses and family members but many others besides. What spiritual and material goods hang in the balance? Will my decision help others find the Lord or cause scandal? Will my answer further my vocation or detract from it? In a self-centered culture, a culture of individualism and isolation, we must be “men for others”, especially in the clutch situations that life throws at us.
Lesson № 3: Do God’s Will
The third and most important lesson Mary teaches is simply to do God’s will. “In his will,” wrote the immortal Dante, “is our peace”. St. John XXIII took as his motto, “obedientia et pax” – obedience and peace. Mary understood that better than anyone – “Let it be done to me according to your word,” she said to the Angel.
Obedience to God’s will is not rigid conformity to hidebound rules. At its root, the word “obedience” has to do with listening – listening to God’s Word and while listening and praying, discerning his will, and in his grace putting God’s will into practice. Isn’t this what we pray for in the Our Father: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Receptivity to the Father’s love leads not to servile obedience, but an obedience in which we embrace the truth and act in love. Instead of asking God to prove himself, like Ahaz in our first reading, we should instead seek God’s will and the grace to do his will in our daily life – in decisions big and small, in our daily interactions with family and co-workers.
Become What You Should Be
Almost 700 years ago, St. Catherine of Siena wrote this: “If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire.” Brothers, we’re called to set the world on fire by living our faith and our vocation to the hilt. If we are receptive to the Father’s love, he will send us life-changing questions and events to help us do just that. Are we ready? Do we know what the stakes are? Will we do his will?