Our Blessed Mother, a strong woman with the freedom to say ‘yes’

When I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the Rosary Society Communion Breakfast in my parish, I began by asking why the Qu’ran, the holy book of Islam, pays so much attention to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mary is mentioned seventy times in the Qu’ran; she is the only woman mentioned by name; and she is described as the greatest woman who ever lived.

Answering my own question, I said that Mary was the example par excellence of a principle of Islam–submission to the will of God. The word “Islam,” in fact, means “surrender” or “submission.”

I cited the Qu’ran because I figured it would get attention, but I really wanted to focus on the passage in Luke’s Gospel that describes Mary’s encounter with the archangel Gabriel.
Luke describes that meeting in 266 words – at least, in the New American Bible version – and it takes less than a minute and a half to read his account.

Considering the elements present, it seems to me, it must have taken longer than that for the drama to reach its denouement.

Luke is talking about an angel, a supernatural being, visiting a young woman in an obscure village in ancient Palestine, telling her that she, although a virgin, is going to conceive and bear a son. This, Gabriel tells her, is to be the work of the Holy Spirit, and the child that will result will inherit the throne of David and rule forever.

And Luke or his translators would have us believe that Mary’s response to this news—inside of two minutes – was, first, “How can this be?” and then, in effect, “OK, whatever you say?”

I don’t think so.

More likely, Mary reacted first with shock, perhaps some incredulity, and took time to, first, believe, and then, accept what Gabriel had told her.

She probably thought about what people would say about her unexplained pregnancy and what she and her son were getting into if he was going to present himself as the “son of the most high.”

To imagine otherwise would be a disservice to Mary.

Her greatness consists in the fact that, faced with these astounding announcements, she chose to submit to the will of God.

To imagine that Mary made that choice without contemplation and prayer, perhaps even without interior struggle, is to make her into a marionette—a prop in the unfolding of God’s plan.
A question that often comes up with respect to Mary’s answer to Gabriel is, “Could she have said no”?

After all, the Church teaches that Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb without original sin. She was, as we say in the prayer, “full of grace.” As Pope Francis has put it, there was no room in her for sin.

But that doesn’t mean that Mary could not sin, as though she had no free will.

It means that she would not sin and did not sin – not before the angel’s visit and not after.

No, Mary was no robot being manipulated by God for his own purposes. She was free – free not only to say no, but free also to say yes.

She was a strong woman who knew her own mind, a mind in love with God and on fire with the Holy Spirit.

She was strong and free, and because of her strength and her freedom to say yes, she is the mother of our savior, the mother of the Church, the mother of us all, and the greatest woman who ever lived.

Charles Paolino is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Metuchen, retired from active ministry at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Whitehouse Station. He is managing editor of RENEW International, a Catholic association providing faith-sharing resources and leadership training for small Christian communities.