“Hail, full of grace…”

That was how the Archangel Gabriel addressed Mary. And after a few exchanges of words, the very Son of God was conceived in Mary’s womb after she said that famous response: “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.” (Be it done to me according to your word.)

The archangel’s greeting to Mary should give us the idea of how we too can incarnate Christ in our life as we should, since we actually are patterned after him. We need to be in the state of grace, something that, of course, given our wounded condition will never be perfect but rather a lifelong work for us.

We should learn how to live our whole life with Christ, doing everything with him and for him. This is the ideal way to live our life. That is how we can attract and keep the grace of God and let Christ enter into our life.

Again, let’s come out with plans and strategies that would put this ideal into reality. We need to submit ourselves to some plan of life that includes the appropriate practices of piety like mental prayer, recourse to the sacraments, waging ascetical struggle that would enable us to develop virtues and to properly deal with our weaknesses and temptations, etc.

The ideal condition should be that at any given time we are conscious of the presence of God, aware of what he is telling us since he is the one who actually directs our life. His presence should fill our mind and heart with joy and peace, with confidence and clear sense of purpose, etc. We should feel the drive to do a lot of good.

In short, there has to be the sensation that every day we are progressing in becoming more and more like Christ. We get to have his mind and will, eager to reach out to others for the purpose of human redemption. For this to happen, we need to repeat Mary’s response, “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.”

If handled properly with the right attitudes, dispositions and skills, the plans and strategies we make would not become a drag that would freeze us and put us in some kind of silo, but would rather enhance our capacity to cope even with surprises and other unexpected things that life can present to us.

We have to be careful of reacting to today’s rapid developments in an instinctive way only, Pavlovian style. While we cannot avoid having to react spontaneously in that knee-jerk way to these developments, it would be wrong if we get stuck in that level. That would make us slaves, not masters, of these developments and changes. We have to stay away from the bad habit of improvising always.

We need to come up with plans and strategies to give shape and direction to all these things. That way, we would have some clear vision of our goals and means and timetables involved. That way, we would have a better grasp of how to identify and handle issues, problems and challenges. That way, we would have a good sense of priority, especially nowadays when we are faced with many competing options.

Making plans and strategies may require some time and effort, but it’s an investment that is all worthwhile. The little time and effort required can actually multiply our time and make our efforts more productive at the end of the day. It’s like the little rudder St. James talks about in his letter, that has the power to give direction to a big boat. (cfr 3,4)