“Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” What can this incredible announcement mean? The reply of the angel is that Mary has been favoured and will be with child. And here, in the presence of this angel, Mary must make a choice. As a virgin she will conceive a child, and this child will be the Ruler of the kingdom of God. How will she respond? The church has always loved these words: "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said."
"Then the angel left her," we read. What the angel recognized is that there was no more to be said. She had responded fully and completely to the call of God. In so doing, she was a vehicle of God's saving work and a perfect model or image of what it means to respond to that call. With her "yes," Mary embodies two realities: the grace of God and the appropriate response to that grace. While we affirm the priority of God's grace, her consent is not incidental. Mary shows us that true discipleship requires a response.
Her road was different from ours. But as we celebrate the Incarnation through Mary's womb, let us consider what God may be saying to us. May we have a renewed appreciation of God's grace to us. And may we also have the courage to act, to choose to respond with our own "yes" to the call of God.
