← All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri
All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri
Giving God a Full ‘Yes’ Like Mary
00:18:54
What would it look like for you to give God your full “yes,” like Mary did? In this special on-location episode from the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Dr. Sri explains the rich details behind the profound event of the Annunciation. Discover how Mary’s wholehearted “yes” to God became a major turning in salvation history—and how you, too, can open your heart fully to God's will.
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
A
This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts, videos and resources to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com hi, I'm Edward Sri, and welcome to All Things Catholic, where real faith meets real life. Welcome to the special edition of All Things Catholic. I'm your host, Edward Sri on location in Nazareth at the beautiful Church of Annunciation. And this is incredible to be here. You know, there are the three most important churches in the Holy Land. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where you have Calvary and you have the tomb of Jesus. And then the Church of the Nativity, where we have the commemorating where Jesus was born. And then you have this church, the Church of the Annunciation. Now, I like to highlight how the first two churches get a lot of attention, right? Everyone wants to go to Bethlehem and see where Jesus was born. And they should. That's a beautiful thing. We're going to get to do that later this week. And then, of course, everybody wants to go to the climax of the story, the death and the resurrection of Jesus at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. But the Church of the Annunciation, the mystery of the Annunciation is sometimes not as appreciated as a Catholic. If you had to think about your favorite feast days of the church liturgical year, some of you, how many would say Christmas, A lot of people like Christmas. How many would say Easter, okay, maybe have another famous feast day, but how many would actually say March 25, the Annunciation? And yet it's a big solemnity. We celebrate it. We take a break from Lent on that day. You know, so it's a huge feast day. But sometimes we Catholics don't appreciate it. And I want us to get into the great profound mystery that we're gonna see as we're greeted by this facade, as we look at the symbolism on each of these doors, it's inviting us to see how important this central mystery is of the Annunciation. The Incarnation took place that day. The Word was made flesh on the day that Mary said yes, when the angel Gabriel came to her. And I think this is the great mystery of the descent. You know, a lot of the Christian life is also about our ascent to God. That God meets us in our lowliness and then changes us and transforms us. But I think that first point is that we are changed. And we do ascend the heights of virtue and holiness as we're transformed into Christ likeness through our Christian path. But it all begins with the descent of God, descending, entering into our lowliness, into our brokenness into our emptiness, meeting us in the valley of humility. So as we come to the Church of the Annunciation, we get to celebrate all that here. And, you know, this church is built over the excavations of a house that's believed to have been Mary's house, where the Annunciation took place. And we could get into the archeology and some of the good evidence for demonstrating that. But I want to highlight what we're greeted by here when we look at this entry into the church. Right away, if you actually pay attention and you look at the art, you look at the symbolism, you look at the words, you can't help but realize we are standing at the turning point of salvation history. All of what God has been doing from the beginning and what he does in our lives. The turning point of the history of the world took place right here in Nazareth at the Annunciation. And we're going to be greeted by stories of Adam and Eve. On the door on the left, we're going to see the stories of Adam and Eve, the fall, the curses of Adam, the curses of Eve, and the hope of the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 in which God foretold that one day a Savior would come and crush the head of the serpent. In fact, when you look at the big facade in front of us, we're going to see at the very top, we see the Blessed Virgin Mary and the statue. And then underneath that, we have depicted the angel appearing to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And in fact, underneath, in Latin, it says, then the angel of the Lord announced unto Mary, declared unto Mary the first words of the story of the annunciation in Luke 1:28. And then what else do we see? We see above the main door, we have the words verbum caro factum estate. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us here. This is where this took place. The eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, came and took on human flesh here. This is where it all began. And so we're going to get to go under that door that has that inscription reminding us of God coming and entering into our world, into Mary's womb. But there's more. What do you see above the door? You see these four figures? What are those four figures? You got the four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And so we have the four gospel writers. What else do we see? Up on the far left we have an inscription in Latin. That's the prophecy of Genesis 3:15. That tells us, and the Lord said to the serpent, he shall strike your head and you shall strike his heel. A prophecy about how one day the woman, the woman was going to have a son, an offspring, a descendant, an heir that would crush the head of the serpent, symbolizing the devil. This is the first prophecy of the Old Testament. It's called the Proto Evangelium, the first messianic prophecy. And it announced that one day God would come and send his son. There would be a royal heir of Eve who would come and defeat the devil. I remember my kids, when they would hear this prophecy, would always talk about it, especially in Advent. And my little kids would get excited when they were like maybe 2 or 3 years old, and they would see the story of this prophecy and they'd always go like this, you know, they just stomp their feet, you know that Jesus was going to come and step on the snake and destroy the devil. Well, that's the one prophecy over here. But there's another great prophecy. If you had to pick another great prophecy related to the blessed Virgin Mary and her great fiat that took place right here in Nazareth, in this very church, in the excavations we're going to see shortly, what would be that other prophecy? Yes, she's the new Eve. She's the one who has the son that will defeat the devil. But who else is she? Isaiah 7:14, another famous prophecy, that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and that son will be called Emmanuel. And so we have the other prophecy here about the virgin who will have the child, who will be God with us. That's what Emmanuel means. So do you see? There's so much symbolism here. And then as we walk through this central door, I can't wait to show you the details of it here. You're going to see so much in this central door. First of all, on the left side you're going to see stories from the patriarchs and the great heroes of the Old Testament. Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Samuel, John the Baptist. On the left hand side of the door, all those images of the great heroes of the Old Testament who were preparing the way for the coming of what was going to take place here. Nazareth at the annunciation. And then on the right hand side of that main central door, you're gonna see the images of the twelve apostles. So you have the great patriarchs and leaders and heroes and prophets of the Old Testament on one side. And then you got the great founders of the church in the New Testament era on the right side. But on the central door, what do we have? On the central door we have the images of the birth of Jesus, the story of the Nativity, the story of the visitation, the story of Jesus growing up here in Nazareth in the carpenter shop. So it's the stories of the holy family on the left side of the door. And on the right side of the door you have his public ministry, his baptism, his preaching, the Sermon on the Mount, calling the disciples, preaching on the Sea of Galilee. And then you've got his death on the cross. And so literally, as you, as you enter into this little courtyard space that we're in, and you see the great facade and, and you see the stories of the prophecies, the Gospels, the story of the Annunciation, and you see the stories of the Old Testament and the New Testament all coming together. When we pass through that door, we're literally passing through salvation history. So it's like the art here is meant to remind us of this is the profound event that took place, the most profound event in the history of the world, the turning point of the history of the world. God breaking into human history, dwelling among us. Now when we go inside this church, we're going to see the lower church is designed with a big opening in the center, a big opening in the center so that you can see above to the upper level church. And then you're going to see way up above the big dome up in the sky. And why do you have this big opening in the lower church? Why do I need to see all that's happening above? Because it's to remind us again what happened. What happened right here in Nazareth at this very spot, God came down and broke into our human world and entered the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary right here. And at the center of all of this, we're going to see the excavations. So the church is built all around the excavations of the first century house. That's believed to be where Mary received the message of the angel. And there'll be a little, you'll see a little altar there. And at the base of the altar, look down on the ground and you're going to see in Latin these words. Verbo carum factum est hic. The Word was made flesh here, here. That's the great thing. As we see coming to the Holy Land, like we don't just read about the Beatitudes, we're going to say when we get to that gospel reading and we have mass at the Beatitudes, it'll say that Jesus went up this mountain. We were just at the Church of the Transfiguration this morning. And when we read the gospel reading From Matthew chapter 17 says Jesus took Peter, James and John up this mountain. So it's the one place in the world you can change the gospel reading and put the word here. This. Well, that's the same thing right here at the Annunciation. The Word was made flesh here at this very spot. So get ready to let God come and descend into your own soul. Now that's my hope, is that God will come in on this pilgrimage, this day or our days throughout the Holy Land, and break into your life in a new way. Maybe break open some new insight, some clarity about what God is asking of you, what to do in an uncertain situation, or maybe break through some weakness or sin that's weighing you down, that's enslaving you, or break through some area that you're just feeling, just confused and overwhelmed. And God can break in and bring his life and strengthen you and help you. That's my prayer, is that your soul is like the architecture of this church, that there's this opening, this central opening in the center of your soul that allows God to come in. And that's why we're going to take time. As I always emphasize, prayer is the heartbeat of our pilgrimages. It's not all that we learn and all that we see and all that we do. We're going to learn a lot, see a lot and do a lot. But the heart of the pilgrimage is allowing God to break in, to come down and descend into our own souls. So let's be like this church. But here's the thing, last key thing I want to reflect on about what happened here at the Annunciation is that if we want God to enter into our lives, we have to remember he doesn't force Himself. He does not force his way in. God stands at the door and he knocks. He's waiting for us to say yes. He's waiting for our own fiat. So Mary here on this day gave her fiat and allowed God in. Will you be able to do the same thing? Think about what Mary went through. Just put, put yourself in her shoes for a little bit here. Just picture you're this woman of Nazareth. We talked about how she was betrothed, and that typically took place when someone was about maybe 14, 15 years old. So she's very young by modern standards. So just picture being this young 14, 15 year old girl and all of a sudden in the middle of her day, we don't know what she was doing. It's not like, you know, it says, oh, she was at the temple praying. She was. We just don't even Know, she was maybe just playing a game, maybe she was doing dishes, maybe she was cooking something. We don't know what she was doing. But just picture the middle of her ordinary day. All of a sudden an angel appears. Wow, that would be pretty amazing, right? If you're just picture you're at home and you know you're doing dishes and all of a sudden you turn around and you see an archangel. That would be pretty moving, right? If the story ended there, that an angel appeared. You know, if I just said, hello, Eileen, here on this pilgrimage, you know what? An angel appeared to Eileen last night. We'd all go, whoa, that's amazing. God was breaking in. God was entering into her life in a profound way. God was speaking to her. The story stopped. That's all we heard. That would be amazing. But the story goes further. The angel goes on and says to her, you're gonna have a baby. Whoa, that's incredible news. I mean, any moms here? Any moms, like when you first found out you were expecting, you remember that moment, you remember where you were, how you felt like. It's a pivotal moment in one's life. So for it to be the blessed Virgin Mary, young girl, all of a sudden, angel comes. And then the angel comes and says, you're gonna have a baby. Whoa, that's really big. But it gets even better. The angel goes on and says, you're not just going to have a baby, you're going to have the long awaited Messiah. The angel says, he shall be great. He will rule over the house of Jacob and of his kingdom there will be no end. Now, you may not be aware of this, but those lines I just shared with you from Luke chapter one, we know that from Luke chapter one. But Mary did she know that from Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one wasn't written yet, but she knew those words because they weren't from Luke chapter one originally. They were from 2nd Samuel chapter seven. The great covenant promises that God made to David, that David would have a son, and the son would be great, and the kingdom would be great, and the son would rule over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there would be no end. When the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to announce the coming of this child, he's not announcing just any ordinary baby or a great teacher, a great prophet. He's cutting and pasting from 2nd Samuel 7 and saying, basically, you're having this child. The fulfillment of the prophecy given to David in Second Samuel chapter seven from a thousand years ago is coming to fulfillment in you, right Now, Mary, will you say, yes, God is going to bring the Messiah now and you get to be the mother of that long awaited son of David that was prophesied to David way back a thousand years earlier. And we saw how all the Jews in the first century, they're longing for this messiah to come. They're longing for this king to come. There's all this messianic fervor and anticipation. And then one day, an angel comes to Mary right here in Nazareth and announces, mary, you're going to have this child, the Messiah. So if the story stopped there, that would be an amazing story, right? I mean, can you get much better than that? Yeah, you sure can. Because what does the angel say? He goes on to say one more thing. Oh, and by the way, your child, you're not going to have this child by natural means because you're just a betrothed woman. You're going to have a child as a virgin. You're going to conceive as a virgin. Whoa. There's never been a conception like that before. That's incredible. And then the angel goes on and tops it even more. The next thing, do you remember what he says? Oh, and by the way, your child, he's going to be the holy Son of God. Now, let's just pause for a moment. Some of us may have had kids who thought they were God, but Mary is being told that she is going to conceive of the holy Son of God himself, her creator, the one who created this universe. The creator is about to become a child in her womb. Whoa. Now that's enough to make anyone faint, I think. But what was Mary's response? What was Mary's response? In the end? She says, behold, I'm the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your will. It's a beautiful response. She gives her fiat here. And there's one word I want to zoom in on that John Paul II zoomed in on in Mary in reflecting on Mary's fiat. It's the word let it be done. To me, that idea, let it be done. It's the Greek word genoito, which means not just a passive obedience of, okay, well, I guess I have to do it. You know, like, if I tell my kids, hey, I need you to go do this chore, they might do it, but they kind of. Sometimes they do it really joyfully. Other times like, oh, I guess I got to go do it. Mary's heart is different. Mary, the word, the Greek word implies a certain joyfulness. There's A certain longing, as if on the depths of her heart, she longs to do what God wants. And as she sees that this is what God is asking of her, as if she can't help but jump and say, yes, I want to do this. It's kind of like when two young people fall in love. They just want to be together. And when the one person says, oh, do you want to go do this? They're like, oh, yeah, let's go. I just want to be with you. They don't go, oh, well, I guess I have to spend time with you today. Their heart is motivated by love. That's the obedience of Mary. That's the obedience God is asking of each of us. It's not just to go, well, I got to go do this because the church tells me to, or the Bible says so. No, Everything the church teaches and everything the Bible reveals, it corresponds to the deepest desires on our heart. And it's about us becoming more in tune with those deepest desires. So when we sense God is breaking into our lives, he's descending into the depths of our soul, and he's inviting us to a closer relationship with him in some way, inviting us to follow him in some new way, to give more, to trust more, to surrender more. We don't. We don't respond, you know, like a private in the military. Yes, sir, I got to do this. I have to be obedient. I have to submit. We respond with a heart of a lover, a heart full of love, like Mary did. Mary saw what was on God's heart and she wanted to run after it. That's what the saints do, and that's what we want to do. So we're going to take some time. We're going to get some time to pray here in this beautiful church, to allow our soul to have that central opening so that God can descend. And let's have hearts like Mary that welcome Him. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Holy, Holy Spirit. Amen.