It’s fitting that this year, Simbang Gabi’s fifth day of the novena, fell on Wednesday. Hump days can be hard–intellectually, we know we’re past the beginning of the novena and the week, but we’re still too far away from the end to be excited. So we all came in, most of us a little 
later than usual.
Tired or no, my day perked up considerably when I realized the celebrant was my weekday parish pastor, Father Andy Gonzalo of St. Vincent de Paul in Washington, DC. Father Andy doesn’t take himself, or much else other than God, too seriously, and he generally gives a thoughtful, engaged homily. Today was no exception. The Gospel reading was the Annunciation from Luke, in which Mary says yes to bearing the Son of God. Father Andy engaged us from the start by asking who could say the Hail Mary in Latin and then in French (points to my Haitian-born friend Patrick for doing both).
Then Father Andy got a bit reflective. “Mary had her own plans, but she accepted, he said. “… And we all have a role in the history of the world. … We are all called.”
It made me wonder about Mary. Maybe the day Gabriel appeared to her was a hump day. Maybe she had other things on her mind, like her upcoming wedding, or cleaning the house, or baking bread, or a million other things that were on her to-do list that day. But she didn’t tell Gabriel about any of those competing priorities. She didn’t ask for time to think about her answer, or consider what her best friends or neighbors would advise. She surrendered.
“The Lord wants your yes,” Father Andy said. And for today, anyway, I think He got it from me in the way I served Him and others, hump day or no.
