Trust and Obey

‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’
LK.1:38

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Solemnity

Mary is visited by the Angel Gabriel and her role in God's plan to save all of creation is revealed to her. She is afraid and mystified yet in the end she trusts and says yes.

This feast day has a special meaning for me, primarily because it reminds me of my wedding day. We were married in the Church of the the Immaculate Conception. As a then non-Catholic, the church's puzzelling name represented the whole strangeness of the Catholic Church, boardering on weird.

Mary's immaculate conception spent a number of years on my "Catholic Shelf" as something strange but something that must be fundamentally true. It's now an article of faith I happily accept. It makes sense of Mary's fiat, her yes.

Which gets back to me, here, today. The expression "trust and obey" must have its source here. The carnal desire in me to know everything before I commit held me back nine years before I entered the Church. It wasn't until I understood that my puny brain can never know the full mystery of God that I stepped into that mystery and fell in love with it. The peace found in the mystery of God is maybe what Mary found after her yes.

This peace is available for me today.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.