Saying Yes to God's Plan - Weekday Homily Video

How do we react when we feel God leading us somewhere or to toward someone, including closer to Him?

Sometimes, it’s easy and it all makes sense; we were just waiting for God to confirm what we thought we should do. At other times, we’re like Ahaz, to whom God offers something good—a chance to receive a sign that will strengthen faith in Him—and we just can’t believe it, so we’re hesitant to act.

But counter to Ahaz is Mary, who is our role model. Like Ahaz, Mary receives a greeting from God, in her case, through an angel. Of course this is startling and difficult to comprehend, even though the message that she is full of grace and that the Lord was with her is positive in nature.

We see in Mary’s reaction a way to dialogue, pray, and discern God’s messages to us. At times, these messages or insights can cause us to be troubled, or, at the very least, to ponder, to try to process like Mary what God means. This is the first step, being willing to ponder. The next is to listen further to God as Mary did, allowing Him to reveal more of His plan for us.

This doesn’t mean that the unfolding of God’s plan will happen according to our wishes; there have been plenty of times when I have asked God to give me the full story of how things will turn out only to get the first chapter of the book—sometimes only a few pages.

Favored by God

Mary received quite a lot after the angel told her not to be afraid … for God had found favor with her. God has found favor with us, too, each in our own way. In the case of Mary, in an extraordinary way, as she was to become the Mother of God.

I suspect that whenever God has asked any of us to do something out of the ordinary, we’ve asked a parallel to Mary’s question to God. She asked, “How can this be?” We might ask, “Lord, how can you expect me to do what you are asking? It just doesn’t seem possible.”

God Cares for Us

God answers questions like Mary’s and ours many times by reminding us of what He has done in the lives of our family and friends and for us. In the case of Mary, it was the great gift of her relative, Elizabeth, conceiving a child in old age.

In these final days before we celebrate the birth of our Lord, it is good to take some time to remember how God has blessed our loved ones and us with His grace when it was most needed. Because when we remember, it is then that we can grow in faith to believe that with God, nothing is impossible, not necessarily in the way we would draw it up but in God’s perfect way.

In the end, Mary said “yes” to God, not because she could fully understand, but because she believed and trusted in God’s providence and love for her.

May we be more and more like our Blessed Mother: open, listening, reflecting, and talking with God. Whenever we feel overwhelmed or uncertain, we can always turn to our Blessed Mother and ask her to help us through her prayers to trust and be able to say “Yes” to God each and every day.

• Today’s Readings

• Father David's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (and the Rosary at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page. 

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