Ann,

When you mentioned that it wasn’t a lack of humility that Mary gave her Fiat at the Annunciation, it called to mind a phrase that a Father Sean used to use (and probably still does): that humility is knowing your place and taking your place.

A core element of humility is understanding yourself as you are; in relation to God that’s almost nothing, so lowering is always appropriate. But if it’s a situation where one is uniquely qualified for an urgent job then humility is answering, “Can I do this job, and should I do it if I can?” In the case of the Blessed Mother, it is said that she had infused knowledge beyond even what the angels possessed but that her pious goal was to be the handmaiden of she who would bear the redeemer. She was well aware of the spiritual gifts God had given her; she understood in scripture many details about the mother of the Savior. Perhaps the only thing she didn’t know until the Angel appeared and humbled himself before her is that SHE was to be the mother of the Savior and not someone else. Understanding her own nature — young female, full of Grace — and her circumstances — betrothed to Saint Joseph — she knew this was a job for which she met the requirements. She also knew, perhaps more than the angels, what trials and pains were in store for her, so her Fiat wasn’t just to be a mother but accepting ALL of God’s Divine plan, a plan she might have already known in minute detail (except for realizing that she would be The Mother).

Another powerful meditation on the “know your place and take your place” aspect of humility can be seen in St. Joseph taking charge of his wife as her husband, and the Redeemer as his foster son. In the Litany of Saint Joseph we praise his humility: he knew his place and took it, even though it must have been a confusing wonder that HE was in the role of leadership in a house where the Queen of Angels was subject to him and the Creator Himself was subject to them both!

Regards,
“Supernerd”