Holy Trinity Winchester Podcast
Mary’s Fiat: Saying "Yes" to God
The Reality of MotherhoodI know from observation—not experience—that motherhood is difficult. When a woman conceives a child, things change in almost every conceivable way. Her body changes. She may become sick. She will suffer physical aches and extreme fatigue. Psychologically, she suffers, perhaps because of the strange sense that a new life is growing within her. And at the end of this long nine-month period, there is of course birth, and after that, joy that a child is born.But of course, the mother then has these awesome new responsibilities to reckon with: care for a baby, for an infant, for a toddler, for a child, for an adolescent—and on and on it goes. This is a deeply sacrificial process. The mother sacrifices her own physical wellbeing; in a sense, she sacrifices her youth, she sacrifices her comfort, she sacrifices her time, her energy, her strength, her life, to take care of a child that can offer nothing to her except its complete dependence, and in time, its love.I mention all of this because I want, in some way, to help us imagine what real motherhood actually looks like, and to think about the Blessed Virgin Mary’s life in this context of reality. It is very easy to spiritualise Mary’s story and to skip over the very real sense of what happened to her. She was called by God, primarily and fundamentally, to become a mother. Yes, it was in extremely strange and indeed unique circumstances, and she would be the mother of the most important person who ever lived—but she was still a mother. And crucially, when she was called by God to be a mother, she said yes to Him.Mary’s Fiat: The First Great Human YesMary’s yes to God is the first great human yes of the New Testament. The angel Gabriel said to her, “You will conceive and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus.” And of course, Mary asked the entirely reasonable question, “How can that be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” And after these words came the crucial response: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be according to thy word.”That phrase, “let it be,” is translated into the Latin in the ancient text with one word—Fiat—which means “let it be.” And friends, I ask you this morning to consider the greatness of this Fiat. Mary was told that she would remain a virgin and yet conceive. Not very much information was given apart from that. What would that have meant to her at the time for her relationship with Joseph, her betrothed? How would she live given the social stigma that would certainly attend such a bizarre occurrence? Who would this child really be? What would he do, and what would this entail? Again, not much of this was clear at the time. Mary didn’t have all the answers, but she said yes anyway—and she had to keep on saying yes throughout her life.Later on, when Jesus was presented at the temple, the old man Simeon blessed the holy family, but he prophesied that their child would be a sign that is opposed, and he told Mary specifically that a sword would pierce through her own soul also. And yet she continued to say yes. She continued to be a faithful mother and, in time, to be the disciple of her own son. And the sword did indeed pass through her soul when, at the end, she relinquished all to God as she watched Jesus—her own son—suffer and die upon the cross.Consider the greatness of Mary as she continued to say yes through all of this. Is there any greater suffering than that of parents for their children? Is there any greater grief than to watch one’s own child suffer and die? And yet this is what Mary did out of her obedience and love for God. Friends, consider her greatness, consider her Fiat, consider her yes to God.Mary as Prototype of Our DiscipleshipAnd yet the question we might ask is: What does that mean for me? How does it relate to me? I’m going to suggest two things, but these two things are really the same thing, which is that we seek communion with the Blessed Virgin Mary—with the Blessed Mother, the Mother of God.The first is that Mary was a human woman and, in a very real sense, the first disciple of Jesus. She is therefore a prototype of our discipleship. She goes first before us, and her perfect yes to God inspires us because it shows us that we too can say yes to Him even when He calls us to things that will entail great suffering and loss. Indeed, her yes shows us that there is nothing strange in suffering for God.It is crucial also to notice that Mary’s yes isn’t given out of sheer willpower alone. It is a response to God’s grace, and it is carried out in the power of God, as Mary sang in the Magnificat, which was our gospel reading today: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour… He has shown strength with His arm.” Mary doesn’t celebrate herself; she doesn’t exult in her own strength, in her own spiritual accomplishments and achievements, but she exults in the power of God. And herein lies the secret of her greatness.When we say yes to God, we are participating in the yes that Mary spoke at the beginning of the story. Her yes meant that God would enter into the world in Christ through Mary’s body and with her free and willing cooperation with the grace of God. And when we say yes to God, we enable a similar thing to happen. We make ourselves available to the purposes of God in the world, and we respond like Mary to His grace. We are saying that we will cooperate with that grace in presenting Christ in our own way to the world.Living the YesFriends, in some ways it is not so hard to say yes once to God. Mary was young when she said it that first time. I’m sure it became much harder as she grew older and as she realised more and more of what it meant. The greatness isn’t so much in saying yes; the greatness is in, by God’s grace, living it.I remember a moment in my life some years ago now, when I was unsure what to do, had significant decisions to make, and I heard a sermon about Mary and about her response to God. I knew personally at that moment that I had to take a path that would eventually lead to me becoming ordained—although I didn’t know that specifically at the time. That was a moment when I was called to say yes in a particular way, and it is a yes that I have to keep on saying. There have been many wrong turns. There have been many times when I failed, when I’ve sinned, when I’ve needed to repent and come back and renew that sense of saying yes to God. But it is something that, by God’s grace, has brought me this far—and I’m sure many people here can relate to that.And so I ask you today: What is it that God is calling you to say yes to? That thing doesn’t have to be something public, like being ordained. It doesn’t have to be spectacular; it doesn’t even have to be impressive—but it does have to be faithful. And that faithfulness, at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, is what God calls us to: being faithful to what He asks us to do.It may be that you are simply called to bear the weight of suffering, of sickness, of old age, with holiness, with patience, with prayer. It may be that you are called to do your job with integrity whilst others around you aren’t. It may be that you are called to faithfully provide for your family. It may be that you, like Mary, are called to be a wife and a mother to your children. Whatever your yes might be, friends, say it to God with all your might and by the power of His grace, as Mary did: “Let it be according to thy word.”Seeking Communion with MaryThe other thing I’d like to mention is Mary’s presence in our lives as Christians now. The doctrine of the communion of the saints tells us that the saints in heaven are still in communion with us here on earth. They aren’t gone and separated from us completely; we still have communion or connection with them. As we might ask for the prayers of the living to assist us, so we ask for the prayers of the faithful departed who are in heaven with God.Because of her closeness with Jesus, we believe that Mary is in heaven with her Son. They are reunited in glory and love, because the strength of their love cannot be broken by death. Mary has gone before us. She has reached her destination. We, all of us, are still on the way there. We therefore ask Mary to pray for us because we believe that she is in the presence of her Son, and that He hears her requests on our behalf.In the book of James in the New Testament, it says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its working.” If this is the case for a righteous person here on earth, then isn’t it also natural to seek the prayers of the very bearer of God herself—the Theotokos—who is in heaven, in the presence of Jesus?I’m aware that there are quite a lot of people here who perhaps have come from a different church background in which this sort of devotion might not have been practised, or who simply haven’t been introduced to these concepts yet. Many years ago, I would have shared a view that might be a bit sceptical about this sort of thing, and I would have had some questions about the kinds of things that I have just said in this sermon. But if you are unsure about Mary’s presence in our lives today as Christians, or if you simply haven’t come across these ideas before, I would issue a gentle challenge: try and ask Mary to pray for you. Ask her to pray for you.What I’m about to say is of course subjective, but it is also supported by the tradition and the experience of the Church. Personally, I find that when I ask for Mary’s prayers, I feel a deep sense of communion with her and a conviction that she hears me and that she is indeed in heaven praying for me. And as I say, I believe—and the Church has taught—that that is true for all Christians. That offer is there for all Christians to have communion with the Blessed Virgin Mary by asking her to pray for us. And so maybe that could be true of you also
