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During what might be my 378th attempt to devote myself to praying the Rosary every day, I’m reading a book that contains meditations on each Mystery of the Rosary.
It’s no surprise that the first chapter is on the First Joyful Mystery — the Annunciation.
Here we find the Blessed Virgin Mary saying “yes” to the Archangel Gabriel to be the mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Words in the chapter go on to describe how Mary’s “yes” literally transformed the world.
Her “yes” meant the redeemer was about to arrive into the world in the form of a man and save us all.
A few seconds of “yes” turned out to be pretty powerful, for herself and everyone.
Do we know?
This got me to thinking about how powerful our “yes”es can be, and how much weight and responsibility that they really carry.
Contrary to what an incredibly annoying Christmas song ponders, I do believe Mary did know exactly what she was saying “yes” to, but do we?
When we are faced with “yes or no” questions in our lives, do we know the impact of the one syllable of our choice that we are about to utter?
As Jesus is quoted as saying in Matthew’s Gospel, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one. (Matthew 5:37, NABRE).”
It’s all laid out for us right there. Be honest with your words and actions and mean them.
While reflecting on the word “yes,” I’m pondering what is the staying power of that word.
When Mary said “yes” to being the Mother of God, it was an eternal commitment.
Do our instances of saying “yes” carry the same weight?
A husband and wife saying “I do” to each other is a lifetime commitment.
A priest or Religious saying yes to their calls is another lifetime commitment.
What about smaller “yes”es.
Saying “yes” to help a friend move during the weekend.
Saying “yes” give someone a ride to work.”
These are usually easy to keep the integrity of the “yes” to, unless something else comes up . . .
What about some more medium-style “yes”es?
Saying “yes” to a new job you might not like, but it’s a job.
Saying “yes” to being there for someone when he or she needs you.
Are these things we can sometimes back out on?
Why is that?
Didn’t we say “yes” to them?
Or, are we allowed to change our “yes”es to “no”s when things get challenging?
Meaning what we say
I know life happens, and this year is certainly an example of that.
But, we can use all the times we changed a “yes” to a “no” in our lives as chances to reflect.
Before we say “yes” to anything, we should pause and really understand the meaning of what we’re saying.
We can also give others the time and space to answer “yes” or “no” to our questions.
We can also have faith that God will be with us through all the “yes”es in our lives, especially those that are for Him and/or those that just might transform the world.
I imagine by now you’re probably tired of seeing the word “yes”.
But I do hope you’ll think about the Y-word and what it means.
And finally, if it’s for the best, if it’s the safest choice, and you’re being called to this particular response, it is OK to say “no”.