The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
When plans unexpectedly change, and there’s nothing you can do to control the situation, how do you react? How do you respond to the sudden “detours” that life presents?
Obedience to the present moment, acknowledging it as a gift from God and the holiest moment you could ever encounter, requires an incredible amount of humility, an emptying of self, and a posture that is receptive to grace. This is precisely the disposition of Mary during the Annunciation, the announcement by the angel Gabriel that Mary would become the Mother of the Messiah. The Annunciation is more than an interruption or a “change of plans” for Mary. Rather it is the decision point that will allow Mary’s vocation to unfold. It is Mary’s moment to permit the plan of God — everything that God had envisioned for her life: fulfillment, peace, and joy — to be accomplished. It is the way by which she — and the entire human race — will be saved.
Mary’s initial “yes” at the Annunciation will bring about the Son of God within her womb and crown the grace that God has prepared within Mary from the moment of her Immaculate Conception. But Jesus’ own conception, life, death, and resurrection will call forth her continual assent to the silence of change, to the blank calendar of plans now unknown, and, at times, to the illusion of disappointment and failure. Mary’s life is not meant to be scripted and planned, and her “yes” is not made with an instruction book in hand. Rather it is made from within the dark chasm in between the pressing reality of genuine risks and uncertainties and the sure knowledge of the fidelity of Almighty God. It is from this chasm and this place of emptiness — where the future cannot be known or understood with absolute clarity — that Mary chooses to believe in the steadfastness and immeasurable love of God. Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will. It is within the dark emptiness of this chasm of receptivity that the Word is made flesh.
The unexpected and inconvenient crosses that we encounter challenge us to surrender control and be receptive to the Spirit of God alive in the present moment. They beckon us to see the power of the Cross unfold the very life of our vocation. From places unknown, unplanned, and unimagined, he summons us to trust, like Mary, in the reality that we have been prepared for this moment and given the promise of grace that will save us.
Fr. Dennis Strach, C.S.C., is the Associate Director of Vocations for the Congregation of Holy Cross in the United States and serves as the Priest-in-Residence in Knott Hall at the University of Notre Dame. You can come say hi to him on Instagram.