It was the great English intellectual Gilbert K. Chesterton who once said, ‘The unquestioned faith is dead.’ During Advent, the Church puts before us guideposts and wisdom figures to help us on our journey to the eyes that will truly see ‘Emmanuel’ (God with us), hear his cry in the lost and lonely ones, and the heart to respond in compassion. Mary, that young maiden of Nazareth, is one such powerful guide.

Mary questions, ‘How can this come about since I am a virgin?’ Mary is confused and perhaps afraid of the enormity of what is happening to her and within her. Did she clearly understand the mysterious workings of God through her? Probably not, but she trusted. She trusted in the inner urgings of love. Her fragile faith was sufficient to trust the word of the angel. She trusted the authenticity of her journey that had led her to this moment of being gifted ‘with God’s favour’.

Then Mary gifts the whole Universe with her ‘fiat’ – her ‘Yes!’ Yes, to accepting what she does not fully understand. Yes, to a fragile life growing within her. Yes, to a journey that will have much pain mixed with much joy. Yes, to a belief that she, like us, is God’s instrument. Yes, to being and becoming her truest self, made in the image of a totally and unconditionally loving God.

This Advent may our fragile faith grow a little each day despite our questions, our doubts, our weakness and our feet of clay. This Advent may we, like Mary, trust the working of God’s Spirit within us. This Advent, may we gift the world that we encounter, in small and in big ways – with our love centred yes!

by Br Damien Price cfc