God in the Hidden Place

Happy Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord!

Today’s readings.

Today we find that God begins a world-changing event not in Jerusalem or Rome, but in Nazareth, a place small enough to be overlooked and ordinary enough to be forgotten. And in that seemingly insignificant place, through a single word of faithfulness and obedience—a yes, a fiat, from an obscure young woman—everything changes. Mary’s fiat is striking because it is given in trust without full clarity about what it will cost. She consents before she sees, and believes before she fully understands. Nazareth reveals something about the manner of God’s activity in the world, and Mary reveals something about the shape of holiness. What begins in obscurity becomes the salvation of the world, but only because someone was willing to say yes with the conviction that God’s grace would be enough to meet her in the unknown. The Christian tradition has long reminded us of this truth: God does not bypass the hidden places of life; he enters them. So too, he often begins his greatest works in hiddenness.

Today’s Practice – Prayer:

Choose one ordinary yet uncertain moment today—like an interruption at work, or sitting in your car before heading to work or heading home—and pause before it. In that moment, quietly say, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Then, in that moment, choose to accept what is in front of you rather than resist it. Let that be your fiat.