In one of my favorite episodes of the television show Seinfeld, the character Elaine decides to break up with her boyfriend because he fails to use an exclamation point in a written note to her. One of Elaine’s friends had called while Elaine was out to say that she had her baby, and Elaine’s boyfriend jotted down a note, along with other things he needed to relate to her. With typical, quirky Seinfeld humor, Elaine obsesses with this failure of her boyfriend to see an exclamation point in a piece of good news. Elaine is an editor after all, and in her opinion, someone having a baby is more than worthy of an exclamation point. Now, whether it’s worth ending a relationship is another matter altogether, but that’s for you to decide.
If you think about it, an exclamation point is a curious punctuation mark. We can tell a lot about a person’s character or emotional state by how many exclamation points they use when communicating. An ordinary, dry sentence can be enlivened by just one exclamation point. Someone who uses far too many of them might be seen as hyperactive or overly dramatic. Or maybe they just seem like they care.
Exclamation points are not rampant within the pages of holy Scripture, but they are there. And every single one of them is editorial. They don’t exist in the ancient Biblical languages. You may have noticed that one exclamation point sneaks its way into tonight’s Gospel reading, at least in the translation we heard. The angel Gabriel’s words to Mary are exclamation-point-worthy in the eyes of the translator. That is fair enough. But after reviewing some other translations, I found that not all the translations include an exclamation point after Gabriel’s words. And yet, there is one translation that has a grand total of four exclamation points. Not only is Gabriel’s initial address to Mary considered worthy of heightened emotion. So, too, is his later announcement that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age. This must be so surprising that it warrants an exclamation point.
Gabriel’s astounding words to Mary encapsulate the astonishing theme of this entire story, and they are worthy of an exclamation point as well. “For nothing will be impossible with God!” How can we not say those words with enthusiasm and excitement of voice? How can those words not deserve an exclamation point, even if one is editorial? How can those words not take our breath away?
The Blessed Virgin Mary’s response to the unexpected visit of Gabriel carries no exclamation point in any translation I encountered. But we could certainly imagine one there, too. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word!”
It’s understated, but of all the characters in Scripture, Mary undoubtedly understands the power of Gabriel’s words. Nothing is impossible with God! Mary certainly must be shocked, confused, even mildly afraid, but her incredible words and actions from thenceforth reveal that she knows the power of an exclamation point. Her question to Gabriel, “how can this be, since I am a virgin?” is a question of awe. It, too, is worthy of an editorial exclamation point.
How, indeed, can an unmarried virgin conceive a son? Why, indeed, is she, an extremely young peasant girl, chosen to be the Mother of God? How, indeed, can God be so humble as to be born as a human being, nurtured and nourished within a human womb?
Over the years, the Church has struggled to make sense of the exclamation point of the virgin birth. Rightly, the Church has insisted on believing in Mary’s virginity because it truly shows that God can do what is impossible to mere mortals. And that is the point; that is the exclamation point, we might say. But in some ways, the Church has undermined the spectacular response of Mary by making her virginity a purity test or a sign of extraordinary holiness. Mary is holy, but she is holy because of how she responds when visited by the angel Gabriel. Mary responds with humble, self-emptying, stunning words, demonstrating that she knows that Gabriel’s words are worthy of an exclamation point. She knows and trusts that God can do the impossible. Her job is not to understand, but to believe and then to live as if it’s true.
The truth is that God’s people in the centuries preceding Mary’s life frequently lived as if the impossible was not possible. They lived in a world of anxious exclamation points, of cries for help, but with amnesia of all the exclamation points of God’s saving involvement in their lives. True, they may have been delivered from Egypt into freedom, but the exclamation point of this even lost its fervor as soon as hunger and thirst appeared in the wilderness. True, misfortune happened to the people of Israel—assaults from neighboring enemies and exile into a lonely land—but, nevertheless, there was always an exclamation point of God’s care and provision. God consistently stuck with the people of Israel, to provide and nourish and bring them back ultimately into the Promised Land. In the throes of despair and forsakenness, mustn’t this have been an exclamation point?
And with Mary’s unconditional yes to God’s involvement in her own life, the seemingly impossible promise of God never to abandon the ancestors of David and to love them and care for them unconditionally is realized and fulfilled. Mary’s yes is an exclamation point of hope and of firm belief that with God, nothing is impossible. Nothing.
In our own day of social media emojis and superficial words, exclamation points have perhaps become meaningless. Or exclamation points are used only to heighten anxiety. Every news headline is an exclamation point that can make us despair over the state of the world or, at least, make us lose any hope that goodness can prevail.
But in times of spiritual malaise, when the Church needs to be restored in her faith in God’s possibilities, Mary’s yes to God, in her full humanity and full humility, is a resounding gesture of hope. With God, anything is possible. Anything! The God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will always raise us to new life. This God constantly creates out of nothing and remakes the world to be a surprising exclamation point of goodness and wholeness. This God brings forth fruit out of barrenness and life out of death. And because Mary knew this, we should know it, too. May her witness be an inspiration to us as we navigate apathy and anxiety. May her words become ours, too, with an exclamation point of unwavering belief that we, like Mary, can be the servants of the Lord. Let it be to us according to the word of the one, true living God, for whom there is no end to possibilities. And that is worthy of an exclamation point!
Sermon by Father Kyle Babin
The Feast of the Annunciation
March 25, 2026