The heavens were waiting for Yes

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today celebrates the Immaculate Conception of Mary with texts which are linked in many deep ways to the eternal role of Mary’s “Yes” in the calling of followers of Jesus to be Christ bearers. The commentary of Friar Jude Winkler is rich with many references to the deep scriptural basis for the dogma of the freedom of Mary from original sin. The enmity created between God and human, man and woman and human and nature by the free decision of Adam and Eve to reject God always underlines the essential characteristic of free choice for people in relationship with God. The Creator designs the creature to be free to reject the source of its own life. In this light, the “Yes” of Mary stands as the moment where the heavens were in suspense to know her response. This stands, at the same time with the understanding expressed by Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians that we are pre-destined by God to be able to accept all the grace and fullness of relationship with Him which is His eternal plan. Friar Jude notes the use of the Greek perfect tense in the translation of the greeting of Gabriel to Mary, in the Gospel from Luke, to indicate that the action of God in her life is ongoing, from the beginning, and includes in Catholic dogma, her exclusion from sin as preparation for the overshadowing of the Spirit which will bring her to the world as the New Ark of the Covenant. The free will of Mary, like ours and that of Adam and Eve is to accept or reject the invitation from God to bear Christ. The Church is Marion before it is Petrine or Pauline. The experience of leadership and powerful preaching of the main men of the early Church is preceded by and made possible by the profound “Yes” of the special virgin who continues to crush evil as Mother of the Church.