Have you ever felt that your job, your marriage, or your life has fallen into “the same, old same old”? Have you cried out sometime, “O God, can’t You change this?” “Why don’t You make COVID go away?”
Yet after having accepted the extreme lashing of Roman whips, Jesus kissed His cross when it was laid upon Him. At the side of the Crucified Christ, His Mother stood fast. She did not falter. She offered Him to the Father. “Let it be done.” They call us to a deeper kind of love, particularly when it is difficult. 
How do we keep our love alive, especially when it gets hard?
I recommend the book, Rethinking Mary, by Edward Sri (Ignatius Press, 2018). He offers an insight about Mary’s “Yes” that I don’t remember having seen before. We often refer to her “fiat”, “let it be done.” That is Latin, but Sri says that in the original Greek it is genoito, a verb form that expresses “a wish or longing.” It is even a bit stronger than the form of “Thy will be done” of the Our Father. Mary does not express resignation or mere acceptance, but rather joyful desire in total abandonment to God’s will.
As such, Mary’s fiat stands as a model for all of us who strive to be faithful disciples. Her fiat encourages us to view discipleship not as mere submission or acceptance of God’s will, but as joyful longing to run after God’s will in our lives, like a lover wanting to fulfill the desires of the beloved. (Rethinking Mary, Ch. 15)
Let us not think Mary naïve. Though she knew not all the details when she said YES to the Angel Gabriel and to God, she had some idea of the challenge of the mission with which she had been presented. She knew the Scriptures. She knew the prophecies of the Suffering Servant whom she was to bear in her womb.
She then “went in haste” to help her aged cousin, Elizabeth, in that joy of the Good News. Self-sacrificing love characterized her entire life, climaxing with the YES she said to God as she offered her Son in sacrifice for us on His Altar/Cross.
How was this possible? How IS this possible? Certainly, human history/Salvation History, was long until in the “fullness of time” the Angel Gabriel was sent to that town in Galilee to the virgin named Mary, the Immaculate Conception. Finally there was someone capable of returning God’s pure love with pure love. One could say, “Well, that’s just Mary. I’ll never be like that.” True: I was conceived with original sin; she was not! But the point of the Immaculate Conception is A NEW POSSIBILITY, the beginning of a NEW CREATION. You and I are her children, brothers and sisters of the Babe born in a manger Who calls us to be created anew.
“How can this be?” … “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:34-35). Here, the New Creation begins—and it will not be stopped. Through Mary, the Power has come over the Church and over you and me. IT IS TO SPREAD. The darkness will not overcome it. History shows that even persecution only makes Christian Faith stronger.
Keeping love alive is about being transformed and sanctified. It is all grace. My part starts with faith and openness to grace. I am to run with the grace I am given each day, every day, in great things and in small. Our part starts in families. The Church is a family of families. We live our part in Word, in Sacrament, in prayer and in living love. Holiness is forged in struggle and in suffering. Mary, our Mother, leads us and shows the Way.
“Whatever happens,
those who have learned
to love one another
have made their way
to the lasting world
and will not leave,
whatever happens.”
Wendell Berry, Sabbaths, 1998
Blessed Advent to you!
- Visit our new Advent page, The Power of One "Yes" to God, offering resources throughout Advent to accompany families on their journey to Bethlehem and the celebration of Christmas.