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Gospel Reflection for Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Opening the Door to Salvation
A simple “let it be,” echoing the “let it be” of Creation, is enough to let Salvation enter the world. A simple young woman becomes God’s doorway to the world. We proclaim Mary as “blessed among all generations,” as the Ark of the Covenant, the gate of heaven… Yet, all she said was that Fiat… Just that? Saying Fiat meant for her pain, anguish, mystery, and the final Cross of her Son. But it also meant the immense grace of being the bearer of light, within herself and in her arms at the Presentation. Saying Fiat changed the world and history forever.
Certainly, we are not chosen for that same feat. But we are chosen for the daily feat of allowing God to become present in our world; to let there be a word of salvation and hope. For us, too, this may sometimes mean difficulty, persecution, hatred from others, and pain. But, as for Mary, it also means the grace of carrying the light. And now we are not alone, because Mary’s Fiat has already brought us the grace of God incarnate in the world. It has given us the grace of now having the Body of Christ, who became flesh in Mary and is now given to us in the Eucharist: Ave verum Corpus natum ex Maria Virgine… Even when it seems incredibly hard to confront the lies, the ugliness we see in our world, the evil of some policies (and politicians, merchants, drug traffickers, or human traffickers), we have, like Mary, the Body of Christ. The only word asked of us is Fiat… And then we are given the grace and strength to live the Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. And to proclaim it to the ends of the earth. (Which, curiously, are sometimes in our own home.) Will there be pain? Naturally; that’s inevitable. But there will be glory. It is promised. And what greater glory than to have opened a small door to God in the world!
Hail, true Body born of the Virgin Mary,
truly suffering, sacrificed on the cross for humanity,
from whose pierced side
flowed water and blood.
Be for us a foretaste in the hour of death.