If your interpretation of Selective Election is correct1, the answer is fairly clear per the scriptural passage where Mary says yes (Luke 1:38 -- be it done to me according to thy will) ). Mary had the option to say no, but didn't. The other premise seems to preclude choice so that the option of "yes" or "no" never arises. The Catechism describes the call to faith as an invitation by God. An invitation can be accepted, or declined.
- For what it's worth, Mary's "yes" gets a lot of emphasis in our
parish and in our diocese. It's the topic of various homilies and
other pastoral encouragement to the laity to align our will with
that of God's. As our pastor has put it "you are presented with
opportunities every day to 'say yes.'"
The yes or no choice for Catholics is related to repentance, which
represents a turning toward God, or a return to God depending on
how you refine the sense of that term -- repentance-- as it comes to
us from the original Hebrew and Greek terms.
The Catechism opens with the call to a relationship with God, through Christ, by God's invitation rather than His fiat.
I. The life of man - to know and love God
1 God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer
goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.
For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to
man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his
strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin,
into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the
fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour.
In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy
Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.
2 So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent
forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the
gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am
with you always, to the close of the age."4 Strengthened by this
mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while the
Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that
attended it."5
3 Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely
responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good
News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the
apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All
Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to
generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal
sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.6
Father James Martin's commentary (he's a Jesuit scholar) is an example of this common theme, Mary's "yes" ...
But the decision is always up to us. We are free to say yes or no to
God.
With her yes, Mary partners herself with the Almighty and is empowered
to bring Christ into the world. This world-changing yes is what St.
Bernard speaks of in one of his sermons on Mary:
- Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
With our own yes to God's voice in our lives we are also asked to
nurture the word of God within us and bring Christ into the
world—certainly not in the same way that Mary was, but in our own
situations, and in our own ways. Using our own talents and graces we
are called to bring Christ into the lives of others.
1 Based on this summary by Rev Bryn MacPhpail, I think that "limited atonement" may be what you mean by Selective Election
The only interpretation of "limited atonement" that is faithful to
Calvin's beliefs is that God does not will everyone to be saved. This
is not to say, however, that the means to salvation (Christ's expiation
of sin resulting in propitiation) is not accessible to all. The
command to proclaim the gospel to every person would be cruel and
hypocritical if Christ did not die for all sinners. Against those who
make a travesty of Calvin's doctrine, he writes that "there is ready
pardon for all sinners, provided they turn back to seek it" (Inst. III,
24, 16). The problem is that "no one seeks God", therefore Christ's
sacrifice for all only becomes effectual in those God has elected from
all eternity. {snip} Since "no one seeks God" Calvin asserts that "only those whom He has illumed do this"(Inst. III, 24, 17), and that God "does not indiscriminately adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he denies to others"(Inst. III, 21, 1).
