By DONALD DeMARCO
The world continues to underappreciate Mary’s fiat (“Let it be done unto me according to Thy Word”). The error persists on a wide-scale level that choice is self-justifying and is not validated or invalidated by what is chosen. Combined with that error is the mistaken notion that Mary’s assent was not made with either sufficient knowledge or adequate personal freedom. These are most unfortunate errors and undermine the personal avenue through which Christ chose to come into the world.
Bishop Fulton Sheen, recognizing the unique freedom of Mary’s assent, avers that “she uttered words which are the greatest pledge of liberty and the greatest charter of freedom the world has ever heard.”
Psychiatrist Karl Stern agrees that “the stillness in the nod of assent was equaled in freedom only by the original freedom of the creative act.”
“Be it done unto me” is the expression of freedom that is the human complement of the freedom of God’s creative act: “Let there be light.” God created the world out of His own untrammeled freedom. Mary’s yes overturned Eve’s no. According to Scripture, Eve was influenced by the serpent and consequently, it was her freedom that was compromised.
God’s fiat, “Let there be light,” allowed the world to come into being. Mary’s fiat allowed Christ to be brought into the world. One is the fulfillment of the other. God chose to bring His only-begotten Son into the world through the freedom of a woman. This gives woman an exalted place, though one not shared by all individual women. “Blessed art thou among women” indicates the unique stature of Mary. There are many women who celebrate freedom while ignoring the wisdom to choose rightly.
The unique role of Mary and her unrivaled importance in human history is very difficult for the secular world to accept. It seems that the secular world wants to create its own heroines and disdains any involvement from on high. Therefore, Mary is often reduced to a curious myth, something infinitely removed from what she really is. In this sense, Mary is simply too good to be believed.
Deborah G. Felder put together a book entitled, The Most Influential Women of All Time: A Ranking Past and Present (Carol Publishing Group: 1995). The voting was done by feminists who were involved in women’s studies programs. The choices were heavily slanted to American women, feminists, and women (including young girls) involved in civil rights activities. The women selected for the book and ranking has little objective value. But it does say a great deal about how feminists view women.
Eleanor Roosevelt was chosen as the most influential woman of all time, followed by Marie Curie, Margaret Sanger, Margaret Mead, Jane Addams, Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Harriet Tubman. It strains the imagination to believe that Harriet Tubman could have had a greater influence on human history than Mary the Mother of God. The fame of the first two is largely associated with their spouses, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and scientist Pierre Curie. Would their luster have diminished if their fame were associated with a son, as in the case of Mary? There are no apparitions associated with any of these women. Eleanor Roosevelt’s influence is barely detectable today. It has pretty much vanished from the scene. Surely St.
Teresa of Avila, St. Joan of Arc, and St. Catherine of Siena have had more influential on history and the world at large than any of those top ten.
In another list, ranking the 62 most influential “Women Who Changed the World,” which excludes Mary the Mother of God entirely, Eleanor Roosevelt ranks 32nd. The ranking of the widow of FDR is more volatile than that of the stock market. Sappho and Cleopatra claim the top two spots. It is only too clear that the ranking is heavily influenced by politics and secular bias.
God gives us the power to choose so that we can choose what is good. Choice itself is not a terminal value. In choosing what is good, we benefit in two ways: 1) by doing something on our own that has merit. God wants us to share in His goodness by choosing it; 2) by being personally enriched by the good that we choose. God also wants us to fulfill our destiny. Choice is like a baseball ticket that does not have value in itself but allows us to see the game which does have value. What good is a song if you don’t sing it? What good is a bell if you don’t ring it?
Mary’s choice to accept Christ, bring Him into the world, care for Him, and minister to His apostles and continue to care for all His children, is a freedom of choice that, more than any other act of human freedom, not only changed the world but changed it for the better.
Moreover, Mary continues to be with us. She has not disappeared from history. Surely, she is the most influential and the most important woman in history. Mary’s choice not only changed the world dramatically, but continues to change it. She is truly unique and incomparable among women. It is sad that so many women fail to understand this.
Finally, there would be no Christmas without Mary’s fiat. She is present in the manger at the birth of her Son, but this presence is the direct consequence of her saying “yes” at the Annunciation. And this “yes” makes it manifestly clear at the Nativity, that this “yes” is a “yes” to life. We can measure the sincerity of her choice by the fidelity she expressed in honoring all of its consequences.
(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University and adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College. He is a regular columnist for the St. Austin Review. His latest book, Apostles of the Culture of Life, is posted on amazon.com.)
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