FIAT: Not just an Italian Automobile Manufacturer.

Fiat: (fee-aht) Latin; let it be done. 

Happy Feast of the Annunciation, everybody! Praise be Jesus Christ! Today is the day on which the Annunciation is traditionally celebrated since March 25 is 9 months before December 25, pretty cool eh?


On this day the angel Gabriel appeared to a teen aged girl named Mary and told her something that would change her life, as well as the course of history from that moment forward. So, I don't know about you guys, but when I find out that somebody I know is expecting, I flip out. I can't wait to see their pregnancy pictures and I knit them baby hats and I get so excited! Well, today I'm extra excited, because this is the day that Mary found out she was going to have a baby, and he would be the son of God.
(It's kind of a really big deal.)


As if finding out the savior of the world is on his way isn't enough for one day, I'm going to slam even more Marian goodness your way. Mary is some woman, let me tell you. Like...she's awesome. Engaged to Joseph, with many plans I'm sure, this wasn't exactly the ideal time for a baby, let alone a baby that Joseph would know with upmost certainty wasn't his. She would definitely lose her marital arrangement. The community as well, whether they thought the child was Joseph's or not, would most likely stone Mary to death for becoming pregnant out of wedlock, and she would greatly dishonor her betrothed as well as her family. What a good situation to be in.

But what did Mary do? She didn't ask what would become of her plans, her relationship, her family, nor her very life. She says;

Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to your word. 

She said YES!!! And not just yes, but a beautiful, classy, faith-filled fiat! How much more lovely she is as compared to I, who maybe, maybe, and I repeat - maybe, would have had the courage to whimper out a small and pathetic, "Okay...If you say so". It can even be hard to mutter that small and measly OK in the face of what is known, such as what is expected of us in our responsibilities and what is asked of those who walk in the footsteps of Christ. How much more difficult is it to give that wholehearted YES to that what is yet unknown? What faith and humility our mother did show on this day! 

What happened next? Luke's Gospel tells us that immediately "the angel departed from her" (38). No "Congratulations!",  no pat on the back, no "She said yes! Oh boy, Oh boy! She said YES!". Nope. She was given that little promise from God, and she trusted him in faith, as horribly inconvenient as it may have been.

The fruit of Mary's fiat? The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Worth it? You know it was. Then, now, and forever.