Echoing through creation

I was thinking about how some events echo through creation. In the Genesis creation narrative, we have God’s fiat to bring about creation and light. From chaos to order.

“Dixitque Deus: Fiat lux. Et facta est lux”—“And God said: Let there be light. And there was light.”

The day four narrative of the first chapter of Geneses, we have works of distinction and adornment.

One event I was reflecting on that continues to echo, or more accurately radiate, throughout creation, is the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This was first accidentally detected on May 20, 1964 by two American radio astronomers in New Jersey. They won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this, along with a Soviet scientist. The detection of CMB provided significant evidence for the Fr. George Lemaître’s “Primordial Atom” theory, better known as the “Big Bang” theory. Fred Hoyle was wrong about the steady-state model, but boy could he come up with a catchy disparaging name for a competing theory.

The specific event I was reflecting on while at Adoration today was another fiat and one that still echoes throughout creation and discovered well before 1964. The initialism is not something like CMB this time, but BVM. Mary’s fiat is much more impactful for every single one of us.

“Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum”—“Let it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

“Annunciation of San Giovanni Valdarno” Fra Angelico

“But Jesus’ conception itself requires an act of faith that infinitely transcends that of Abraham (and especially that of Sarah, who laughed in her unbelief). The Word of God who wills to take flesh in Mary needs a receptive Yes that is spoken with the whole person, spirit and body, with absolutely no (even unconscious) restrictions, that offers the entirety of human nature as a locus for the Incarnation. Receiving and letting in need not be passive; in relation to God, they are, when done in faith, always supreme activity. If Mary’s Yes had contained even the shadow of a demurral, of a “so far and no farther”, a stain would have clung to her faith and the child could not have taken possession of the whole of human nature. The freedom of Mary’s Yes from all hesitation comes perhaps most clearly to light where she also says Yes to her marriage with Joseph and leaves it to God to reconcile it with her new task.” (Hans Urs von Balthasar)¹

This was such a complete yes, it is hard to compare it to anything in our experience. The purity of my “yesses” is blended with wheat and tares. Try to say “All generations will call me blessed” uncontaminated with pride and without laughing at the thought. Mary could. Yet, our own fiat to God and final perseverance also leads to the beatific vision. Where truly all in that state are called blessed by all generations.

1. “Mary: The Church at the Source”, Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Ignatius Press.