St. Mary's Catholic Church issued the following announcement on Sept. 27

Receiving love should be the easiest thing in the world to do. Is it not a deep desire of our human heart? Yet somehow, receiving love proves exceedingly difficult! Speaking for myself, I daily no#ce layers of self protec#on and resistance to free and wholehearted recep#vity. Even when I do begin to receive, it is not usually a steady abiding. It proceeds in fits and starts, two steps forward and one step back.

Recep#vity is a theme quite dear to me  one that I ponder o'en. In a more academic fashion, I delved deeply into this topic as I researched and wrote my doctoral thesis. If you are ever needing a sleep aid, you may find it a great help! Truly it has the worst #tle ever: The Ecclesiological Reality of Recepon Considered as a Soluon to the Debate over the Ontological Priority of the Universal Church. In fact, I had to add another hundred pages just to ensure that the #tle would fit on the spine of the book. Well okay, maybe not  but it’s s#ll a terrible #tle.

Recep#vity is at the core of our iden#ty in Christ. The Church is a community of recep#on by her very nature. To be a Chris#an means being received and receiving. First and foremost, that means being taken up into the one Body of Christ  a reality that always looms over us and calls us into deeper conversion. Ephesians describes God’s eternal plan of drawing all things into one in Christ. Li2le by li2le, this Body of Christ grows to full stature. One day, he will become all in all. The life of heaven will be the life of the one Body of Christ.

Our encounter with this living and breathing Body of Christ changes everything. Think of Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:119). Jesus did not say “Saul, Saul, why are you persecu#ng my followers?” He said, “Why are you persecu#ng me?” To be a disciple of Jesus is to be received into his very flesh.

However, being a Chris#an also means ac#vely and freely coopera#ng, eagerly desiring to grow and to receive more and more of the fullness of Christ, to become who we are. Our faith in Jesus becomes ac#ve in good works, as we grow and bear fruit, building up the body in love.

Finally, to be a Chris#an means to be recep#ve of each other, just as Christ has received us (Romans 15:7). That visible communion among believers is the good fruit that emerges. Love of neighbor is a wonderful litmus test of our love of God. As the apostle John reminds us, if we do not love our fellow Chris#ans, whom we see, we cannot claim to love the God we do not see (1 John 4:20). Saint Augus#ne comments on our need to love our enemies and to love the poor in our midst. If we say we love Jesus, but do not love these li2le ones, we are effec#vely giving Jesus the embrace of peace while stomping on his feet with spiked boots. Ouch.

If we want to learn how to be truly recep#ve, we can look to the example of the Virgin Mary. She models all these virtues of recep#on. First and foremost, she is passive. There was no ques#on of being “crea#ve” in the moment of the Annuncia#on. The ini#a#ve was en#rely on God’s side, and her deepest desire was to receive. True recep#vity is perfectly passive before the divine mystery. In humility and silence and peace, we become like a mirror that reflects God’s glory.

Yet her passivity, her radical recep#vity, did not mean any shuGng down of her Godgiven facul#es. She loved him with all her heart and mind and soul and strength. And so she asks the angel, “How can this be?” Actually, the Greek literally says, “How is this?” Unlike Zechariah, Mary does not doubt God’s promise. She believes that what is spoken will be fulfilled (Luke 1:45). But true faith desires understanding. True faith desires a free and ac#ve coopera#on, matching God’s ini#a#ve step for step with a free and wholehearted response, a total “yes!”  as though she were a partner in a divine dance with the Lord. She is always a2uned to God’s ini#a#ve and responding to it. Luke tells us twice that Mary ponders God’s mysteries in her heart (Luke 2:19, 51).

Finally, Mary’s heart is wide open to communion with others  receiving and being received by the many members of the Body of Christ. She sets out in haste to visit Elizabeth and share what she has received. The scene of the Visita#on is one of joyful recogni#on of the mighty deeds of the Lord. The infant John recognizes the infant Jesus, and dances for joy. Elizabeth praises the mighty things God is doing in and through Mary  a truth which Mary affirms and celebrates. Far from false humility, she sings God’s praises, and even prophesies that all genera#ons will call her blessed. However, all praise goes to God her savior. She is merely the empty and recep#ve vessel who has received God’s Word and freely cooperated.

Original source can be found here.