Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, remembering the day when Mary gave her great "Fiat"-- her assent that she would become the mother of Jesus. She tells the angel Gabriel: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." (Lk 1: 26- 38) What if Mary had declined the arrangement which Gabriel proposed? What if she had said: "No thank you. I am already bethrothed to Joseph and if I get pregnant in the way you are describing, it is going to be a big mess. What will Joseph say? I might get accused of adultery, even stoned to death. No, I'll take a pass. Find some other young girl who isn't already in a relationship. That will work better." Of course, Mary doesn't say that. But she could have. Like all of us she had free will and didn't have to follow the plan God had for her, as described by Gabriel. Did God have a Plan B for the eventuality that Mary would decline to be the mother of Jesus? Nope, because God knew what Mary was going to do, even before Mary was given the choice. God always knows what we are going to do, even before we do. If we think about it, this situation raises the fundamental issue of predestination versus free will. God gives us a choice, but knows in advance what choice we are going to make. So is our choice really "free"? Could we really do something other than what God has foreseen? The answer is that, yes, God knows what we are going to do, but lets us make the choice. He loves us even though He knows those times that we will choose not to follow His will. He loves us so much that He does not trample upon our freedom, hoping as He does that we will make the right choices but knowing in advance what we will do. All things are possible with God, Gabriel says, and we have to take that at face value. God can somehow love us unconditionally, and see what path we should follow to be truly happy, and want us to follow that path, and know those times when we will stray from the path, and still let us do the straying. God can resist the urge to do what we as a parent would do when one of our children is straying from the path-- take them by the hand and walk them in the right direction. As parents we don't, and shouldn't, let our kids wander into trouble. But God has to let us do that-- wander into trouble-- because He wants us to be fully human in our relationship with Him, not just witless robots. So we have choices. Mary could have choosen to say "no" to Gabriel. But she didn't. And her choice made all the difference.