In this final Sunday before Christmas,
we read and celebrate the Annunciation, and Mary’s acceptance of her role in
salvation history. Unlike Eve who
disobeyed God and sought to assert her own will, Mary humbly accepts the will
of God with complete confidence in His plan for her life. She did this without hesitation, knowing full
well that she would face reproach from her family, neighbors, and
husband-to-be. Despite all this, she had
the utmost faith and hope in the word of God.
Her reply to the angel Gabriel was, “Let it be done to me according
to your word.” (Luke 1:37)
When I taught adults entering the
Catholic Church (RCIA), I always looked forward to the lesson on Mary, and I
ended the session by playing Paul McCartney’s “Let it Be.” For me, the lyrics speak to the great wisdom
of Mary. “When I find myself in times of
trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, “Let it be… Let it be…” Not only are these three words repeated over
and over like a mantra, the album itself was titled “Let it be.” Have a listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsQsOjaVUuA
Mary lived in a time of
oppression by pagan Rome and her people were exploited even by their Jewish
overlord Herod, whose obsession with power was tyrannical. In the midst of all this, Mary welcomed the
Word of God into her heart, and her body became the vessel of the Incarnation. Being human, Mary must have been terrified,
not only by the appearance of the angel, but at prospect of her future as an
unwed mother. When Gabriel appeared to her,
his first words were, “Hail, full of grace!
The Lord is with you,” (the words we repeat when we pray the Hail
Mary). Then he said, “Do not be
afraid, for the Lord has found favor with you.”
Mary was FULL of grace, with no trace of sin, as witnessed by
Gabriel. This is the basis of our belief
in her Immaculate Conception, born free of the scourge of Original Sin,
brought on by Adam and Eve’s disobedience.
Free of sin, Mary was the perfect receptacle to receive God Himself upon
His entry into the world, hence one of the titles given to her is “Ark of the
New Covenant.” She is also referred to
as the “New Eve” in that she is the mother of Christ who makes us all a new
creation. There are many titles accorded
to Mary over two millennia of Catholic history.
One of my favorites is “Queen of Peace.”
She is indeed our queen because she is the mother of our King, and she
stands as the example of how we can experience peace, in the midst of a broken
world, simply by accepting Christ into our hearts and even into our bodies, in
the form of the Eucharist.
This past week I’ve been
thinking about chaos theory. In a
nutshell, this is a multidisciplinary field of study, grounded in applied
mathematics. You may have heard of the butterfly
effect, which is just one offshoot of chaos theory. Scientists in biology, astronomy, economics,
and sociology have come to realize that as things constantly change, there are
distinct patterns that emerge, called fractals by the mathematicians. However, outcomes are not predictable because
when any kind of system becomes stressed to the point of self-destruction,
something new and unexpected almost always emerges. This has been found to be true in the case of
meteorology, economics, and human history when societies cave in on themselves. Evolutionary biologists know for example that
when a species is about to go extinct, there is often an unexpected spurt of
evolution that results in a new species.
This is quite different from Darwin’s belief in a slow, gradual
evolutionary process. One way to
summarize chaos theory is that “necessity is the mother of invention.” Just when it seems things couldn’t get any
worse and a system is about to implode, something new and better emerges.
We’ve seen this recur
repeatedly in civilizational history, as recently as the 20th
century when Communism in Russia imploded and the USSR split up, bringing an
end to the cold war. In fact last month
was the 25th anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall, on
almost the exact same date as the 50th anniversary of the close of
the Second Vatican Council. You might
think this a mere coincidence, but it was the Vatican Council that produced a
call to faith in action. The principle
document of the Council was Lumen Gentium which defined the
Church as the People of God, born with God-given rights and freedom. When St. John Paul II visited Communist Poland
early in his pontificate, he emboldened Polish Catholics by the millions to
cast off the oppression of Communism and in doing so, set in motion the
beginning of the end of the Iron Curtain.
I interpret this as an
example of chaos theory. The USSR had
over-reached and was oppressing the rights of most of Eastern Europe. Their economy was failing, their attempts to
destroy all forms of religion had only created more angst among their people,
and their citizens came to realize that a small number of Communist Party
members were oppressing millions of people.
Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, the Pope, with
support from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, brought about a peaceful
revolution that resulted in new found freedom and democracy for millions of
people.
Things seem to be going
from bad to worse in our own country. The
president and many in congress have abandoned the Judeo-Christian morality that
undergirds our society. They have also
begun to ignore our Constitution which was established to protect against the
tyranny of any one branch of government asserting unilateral authority. Congress and the president have not only
racked up an almost insurmountable mountain of debt, they have also incurred
hundreds of trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities with no plan for how
to fix any of this. In short, our system
of government is approaching chaos. There is any number of ways we can react to
this: with disdain and anger; with
disgust and contempt; with resignation to the gradual decline of our once-great
society; or paradoxically, with hope.
I submit that something
akin to chaos theory will bring about a change in the direction of our
country. Perhaps it will be an awakening
by the masses to the tragic consequences of the progressive agenda, or maybe
the emergence of another leader like Ronald Reagan who will restore our
national pride and self-respect. It
might be the rise of new technology that makes us energy-independent, or
conquers disease and puts our economy and national budget back on a more solid
footing. Or it could be some combination
of all three.
Like Mary, we must
choose how to go forward. If we accept
and embrace the Word of God and receive Him into our hearts and bodies,
we are sure to find peace of soul, despite what’s going on around us. Being saved from our own sinfulness is to find
favor with God, and experience peace beyond understanding. Or
like Eve, we can attempt to control things ourselves, which is what created the
mess the world’s in now. The choice is
yours: “Let it be…” Or “Let me.”
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