“But He said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:28)

Growing up in the Bible-Belt, I always heard these words of Christ used against our Blessed Mother. Thankfully, in college I was introduced to the idea that this verse is actually highlighting just how blessed Our Lady really is. Her glory is not just on the level of her physical maternity, but rather her wholehearted reception of God’s Word and her consistent daily dying to self to live in accord with it. Her receptivity to God’s Word and saying yes to His (unexpected and unconventional) plan for her life is her virtue, her crown. I love Springs’ phrase, “We focus on Christ, not conception.” I feel like it fits perfectly with Jesus’ words above. The point is not her biological motherhood, but her radical love for God and her willingness to conform her life to His Will. She was open to the Father’s Will – to the Life of the Spirit.

The Tradition of the Church Fathers is that Mary conceived by her ear – her receptive “yes” to the words of the Archangel Gabriel caused the Holy Spirit to overshadow her. (cf. St. Ephraim the Syrian) By hearing the Word of God and giving her fiat, Mary conceived Christ. This is the fulfillment of our feminine nature – receiving the Life of the Spirit and striving to bear the fruit He wants for us. While we obviously will not be the physical mother of Jesus, deep fruitfulness is open to us. We, like Mary, are called to immerse ourselves in God’s Word and strive to ever more fully conform ourselves to Jesus – to make space for Him in our hearts and homes, and bear Him to others. 

With the National March for Life coming up later this month, we may find the topic of “openness to life” especially in the air as Catholics, and I think this is an important perspective to bring to the conversation. 

Yes, on a non-negotiable, fundamental level, we, as married couples in the Church, are called to be open to the gift of new life that can result from our total gift of self to our spouse. That said, being open to life encompasses so much more than joyfully welcoming any biological children the Lord may give. Being “open to life” should mean being open to Life Himself, to God and all the opportunities, challenges, opportunities for self-gift, and joys that He desires to grant us in this life.

As human beings, we can have a tendency to be narrow-minded and attempt to box in God. We often try to limit, whether out of fear, insufficient trust, or lack of imagination, what God can really accomplish in our lives. For both those on the path of infertility and those with healthy fertility, “openness to life” can be reduced to the bare mandate not to contracept. 

But God is not a god of reductionistic “no’s”! He desires abundance and fullness for us, if we are open to Him! “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly!” (John 10:10). Do we believe this life is for us, even in a season of infertility? Are we open to this Life? Are we open to the Holy Spirit and His gifts of unexpected fruitfulness?

We know that God’s “all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed,” (Wisdom 18:15) and that He wants to make His home in each of our hearts (cf. Revelation 3:20). Further, the Prophet Isaiah tells us that God’s Word always bears fruit. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11) We can have every confidence that God’s Word is with us, is for us, and will produce fruit in us. Just like Mary, we are invited to be blessed by hearing the Word of God and acting on it.

While we’re not guaranteed that we will bear the fruit of biological children (or even the gift of adopted children)  we are promised fruitfulness and life in the realm of the Spirit. Are we “open to life”?

Katie Summers and her husband Matthew were married on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2019 and live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She enjoys early morning Holy Hours, coffee dates with Matthew, and good conversations.