Mary's yes to life.

Earlier this year a court in Venice, Italy ordered a gynaecologist to pay for the food and maintenance of a child until he comes of age because his birth was due to a mishap in his mother's sterilization procedure. This case, involving the curious notion of "wrongful birth," illustrates three distinct choices against the life of the same human being, and, at the same time, the rejection of three distinct expressions of motherhood. Initially, sterilization was used to prevent his conception. When that procedure failed, the woman's doctor recommended an abortion to end his life. Finally, when the child was born, his mother sued her doctor because she did not think she was obligated to pay for raising him. The Venice Tribunal ordered the doctor to pay just over $98,000 US for the child's upkeep. In our time, the notion of "freedom of choice" is, more often than not, associated with a rejection of life.

Sterilization, abortion, and wrongful birth have become accepted in the secular world as legal and legitimate choices. The prevailing view is that a woman is not free unless she is free to oppose and even assault the very life that emanates from her own flesh.

This popular notion of "reproductive freedom" has become utterly dissociated from both good and love. Freedom becomes self-justifying. It reigns freely above the horizons of goodness and love. Yet freedom without the wings of goodness and love is a flightless bird. Mary the Mother of God takes on additional importance in today's wayward world. She represents both the unequivocal affirmation of life as well as a truly human expression of freedom that is not severed from loving what is good. She is, indeed, our Model of Life, in its conception, development, and birth.

Annunciation: March 25

The Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Nativity are moments when Mary illustrates her threefold acceptance of life as well as her threefold duties as a mother. She conceives life, freely, through her fiat; she rejoices in the developing child in her womb when she visits her cousin, Elizabeth; and she exults in the birth of her child on Christmas. In a parallel sense, she conceives the Word of God, cultivates it, and brings it out into the world to share with others. She invites us to do the same, that is, to hear, cultivate, and express the Word of God. She, as Mother of God, urges all of us to be mothers of the Word. Mary is holy. Therefore she is whole. This is to say that her freedom and her love are integral. In her, freedom and love are one. She is not fragmented or splintered. When the angel Gabriel made evident to Mary God's plan that she conceive Christ, "she uttered words," to borrow those of Bishop Fulton Sheen, "which are the greatest pledge of liberty and the greatest charter of freedom the wor ld has ever heard: "Be it done unto me according to thy word." Similarly, psychiatrist Karl Stern has said of Mary that "the stillness in the nod of assent was equalled in freedom only by the original freedom of the creative act." "Thy Will be done" is the human fiat that complements the fiat of creation.

The highest freedom, epoch-making freedom, is not unfettered freedom. It is freedom that is directed by love to that which is good. It is freedom that serves life in the context of love. No one ever conceived a child more freely than did Mary. A woman may yearn for a child. But she must wait upon nature and her unpredictable processes. Only Mary could conceive a child through an act of freedom. Her fiat, alone, was instantly met with her conception of Christ. By uniting her will with the Divine Will, she became the Mother of God. Mary's "yes" overturns Eve' s "no." In one sense, it is easier to say "no" to love because of the weighty and worrisome responsibilities it brings in its train. Yet "no" leaves one unfulfilled.

The separation that "no" implies can never unite us with what we need. We must sooner or later say "yes" to something. Mary's yes to become the Mother of God is an extraordinary act of freedom, but one that is supported by faith, humility, courage, fidelity, and love. Mary's freedom springs from a rich and grace-filled personality. It is a freedom that is the flower of her virtue and the fulfilment of God's pledge to mankind. We express our gratitude to Mary for freely permitting our Saviour to come into the world by our own countless "thy Will be done" that we recite daily in the Lord's Prayer. These modest fiats lead to their own little incarnations. To say yes to God is to live by faith, hope, and charity.

By accepting Mary as our mother and spiritual role model, we re-enact in our own particular way, the mysteries of the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. In this way we conceive, cultivate, and give birth to the living God, either by word, or through our actions, or with our life.

Dr. Donald DeMarco is professor of philosophy, Holy Apostles College and Seminary. He retired from St. Jerome's College, Waterloo in 2002 and contributes to many Catholic magazines.

Editor's suggestion for March 25

March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, is not a holy day of obligation, and partly for this reason, does not have as much attention paid to it. Yet, the feast is of increasing significance in our own day because of the abortion onslaught.

At the Annunciation, Christ became a child in the womb of Mary, his mother. Over the years individual Catholics have wondered why the Church does not make greater use of this day in the liturgy. If it were called "The Day of the Unborn Child" it would not only be more appreciated, but would also help to raise the awareness of the evil of abortion.

Four years ago, the Catholic hierarchy in Argentina convinced the government to proclaim March 25 as "the day of the unborn child." Three other Latin American countries have since followed suit.

It is not likely that the present federal government will be interested in doing this in Canada, but this should not prevent the Catholic bishops from proceeding with the idea and giving it some liturgical significance. Please write your own bishop and send a copy to the CCCB (General Secretary, March 25 Day of the Unborn Child, 2500 Don Reid Rd., Ottawa, ON, K1H 2J2).