The Power of Yes

" The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them, in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them." --[ Luke 2: 16-21.]


We live in an extremely negative world -- have you noticed?

Negative makes the nightly news, the video stream, the online headlines. What is positive lately rates barely a mention.

We live in a very binary world -- have you noticed? It is black/white; either/or; yes/ no.

When I was growing up, immigrants such as Italian, Irish, French, Hispanics, were bad. People like us-- English and here for generations-- were good.

Education was good. The trades -- plumbers, electricians, construction workers -- were bad.

Being wealthy --able to pay vast sums for your kids' education, traveling to exotic locations, eating gourmet food, wearing expensive clothes -- was good. Being poor was bad.

As I was being raised by my family, I was told what was bad about me -- I was told to never wear certain colors; I was told where NOT to go to school (only THIS side of town); what not to study; where not to live (only THIS side of the river); how to behave ( suppressed emotions); who to be friends with and whom to avoid.

Apparently, my sum total of inborn impulses was wrong, wrong, wrong.

I was told that there was no God. I was responsible for everything that happened to me. There could be no mistakes, no accidents, no twists of fate. Every blip of my day was my fault, a disaster of my own making. This was a dangerous recipe for anxiety and depression. We cannot make ourselves Gods, masters of the Universe. We are not that powerful. . .

When I became Catholic, I came to confront Mary. SHE was the embodiment of the Power of Yes. Mary-- a peasant girl, probably no more than 14 years old, probably illiterate --- said, 'YES". The world has never been the same since.

Mary said, "Yes", to God. You would have thought that this was the beginning of a Princess sort of life. After all, she had been chosen by God.

But, far from it. When Jesus was 12, he disappeared one day. His parents found Him after three days of searching, at the temple in Jerusalem. When Mary said to Him, " Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you",  Jesus said, "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Jesus was thronged by crowds in His ministry. His disciples professed their undying fealty, yet didn't seem to completely understand understand Him when Jesus was alive and preaching. Jesus died a horrible death, and was hung up like a common criminal.  You would think in our modern terms, that He was an utter failure.

But, He was a Divine Success.

Mary was a woman without sin. Yet she suffered terribly as she "lost" her son to His ministry, when He was so young; and she watched Him become surrounded by enemies, suffer and die on the cross.

As I gain maturity as a Christian, I am starting to see that Life is  a to more complicated than back and white.

Is the LBGT community all "bad"? Have they all utterly turned in their Sin away from God? I see many in that community who ARE believers and who want to approach the table of Mercy.

Are all women who have had an abortion irredeemably wicked, forever? I know of women in this circumstance who cannot erase the overwhelming guilt and shame over what they have done. They wish they could take their action back; because, asleep and awake, they are haunted by the specter of it.

Are ALL priests infallible, and without sin? Or, are some all too feeble in their humanity?

The Power of Yes never guarantees a perfect Journey.  If we are to truly open our hearts to God, in the way Mary did, we have to give up the illusion of control over our own lives.

The Power of Yes is the power of Faith.  We go where God asks us to go. We trust that, even if the road is perilous, God will lead us, and He will have our backs.

Our journeys may be messy, exhilarating, inspiring, depressing, long, boring and frustrating. But, if we say 'Yes' to God, we are never alone.

[Related postings: "The God of the Possible", 12/18/16].

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