4th Sunday of Advent, Year B

"I am the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say."

Lectionary Readings for 4th Sunday of Advent, Year B
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/4th-advent-b.html

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, one of the saints who had a great devotion to Mary, had this for his spiritual intuition: "God depended on a virgin for the salvation of the world" [paraphrased quote]. Mary had found so much favor in God's eyes that God depended on her fiat, her "yes", so that His Son, the Saviour of the world, may be incarnated in her. Although God depended on Mary, this does not make Mary on the level of the divine. It only means that there is a greater context for this dependence of God on her. And this context is that it was all part of the plan of God. God created her sinless [the Immaculate Conception] so that when the time comes when she will be asked by God, she will, by the gift of free will, will say "yes" to God. This is how God depended on Mary. It was because Mary had the gift of free will that God depended on her. And this gift of free will is also given to all of us who are created in the image and likeness of God.

Now, we who are called to be humble and to obedient like Mary are also called to follow her obedience to God's will. We too have been given the gift of free will to say "yes" everyday to the calls for service, to a call for greater generosity or charity, to the call for more self-surrender or more courage and gallantry, or to any other call to practice in greater and more intensity the Christian virtues. In the course of our Christian life, there will eventually and inevitably come a time when we will need to say "yes" to greater responsibilities. Usually, through the routines of what we are doing now, God is preparing us for something even greater than what we are doing. Like Mary, when the time comes for the Lord to ask us to do something great for Him, let us not be afraid, but have the faith and courage of Mary to say "yes" to the Lord and do His will. This certainly is not a matter of just saying "yes" suddenly but involves a lot of personal discernment with regard to our present life situation and seeing how it can fit with the plans or orders of those who have authority over us - those want us to accept bigger tasks and responsibilities. Eventually, let us realize that our "yes" is a "yes" to God through the established authorities He has instituted in the world.