What Is Your Fiat?

Are you an anxious people-pleaser prone to overcommitting yourself? Welcome to the club! We have slogans, and for your convenience I’ve listed them here:

“Sounds great!”

“No worries!”

“Absolutely, I can do that, not a problem!”

These are your go-to responses for when someone requests a favor that is a huge inconvenience, but you would rather die than disappoint. It’s not exactly disingenuous — it’s just a little neurotic. Again, welcome to the club.

You know who doesn’t belong to this club? The Blessed Mother. For many reasons, I’m sure, but the biggest one is that she’s always completely up-front. Take her response to the Angel Gabriel: “Let it be done.”

If there are more powerful words than these, I can’t think of them now. And yet, as responses go, this certainly isn’t an enthusiastic one. There was never a human creature more willing to obey God than Mary, full of grace, so it makes it all of the more striking that her response to Gabriel is this reserved — and it makes it all the more certain that she means exactly what she says.

Let it be done.

Not: Yes, this is exactly that I asked for!

Not: Nope. This sounds awful. Count me out.

But precisely this: If God is asking, my answer is yes.

The Angel Gabriel visits us all, in a way, at some point or another, bearing news we did not expect. When we can say, in the face of that uncertainty, “Let it be done,” we are embracing our calling as disciples. We are becoming like Mary.

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.” — Luke 1:38

©LPi