Isaiah 7:10–14; 8:10
Hebrews 10:4–10
Luke 1:26–38
Luke introduces Mary without any prehistory. There is no family origins or genealogy. She is just there. She is alone; there is no one around. We can say that she is in an in-between state, she is single and betrothed, not quite belonging to her family, not yet living with her husband. We know she is living in a small town, inconsequential historically. What good can come from Nazareth another gospel writer puts it. There is really only one thing that Luke tells us about Mary. We hear it from the angel: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!” But that one thing says everything. Mary is already favored by God; Mary is already in relationship with the God of the covenant, the God of promises, the God of the creative Word. It is clear Mary is not aware of full meaning this relationship. She is troubled by the announcement of her identity. She ponders it. She hears is loved by God, for that is what ‘full of grace means.’
God finds raw material, so to speak, to love and work with, beyond our knowing it. It is true: given Mary’s response to the angel’s word, she has been living within the framework of a God who is alive for her. Perhaps without much reflection. But there is a space within her where God wishes to build his name in human flesh. God has found that space, that womb in this girl from Nazareth.
God recognizes the good in Mary. He favors it as the place to culminate the work he began with creation. But this good and wonderful heart will not be forced. The Word comes but it is clear that humanity must receive it in order for the Word be clothed like one of us. The Word needs a response in order for it to happen. God finds the sacred space within Mary, God sees the grace and the readiness, but Mary, but we, must say, “Let it be done according to your Word.”
Annunciations happen in our lives. Someone recognizes the goodness within us. Most of us pull back, perhaps in disbelief. Someone has spoken a word to us and we allowed ourselves, like Mary, to ponder it. We stopped and let that word work in us. We let the Spirit begin the process of doing something wonderful and new. It might be that if, we did not have an annunciation, a word spoken to us, we might not be in the place where we are now. Our journey in the flesh would look different. But someone saw grace in us and called it into action. Perhaps that person was like Gabriel, only around for a short time and then departed. But they spoke and we allowed the Spirit to work in our lives.
This is a feast of Word, Spirit and grace. The Word continues to speak to us today, to land on the grace we carry and find a home in our hearts. This is because a long time ago a young girl acknowledged her identity and opened herself to the Spirit’s work of doing something new. What that new thing is the son of Mary we name Jesus—God among us.
There is this place within us—call it heart—where there is an openness. God can work, we can conceive. Mary could think of how it was impossible for the word God spoke would happen. She spoke obstacles. The angel spoke of the Holy Spirit. The angel reminded her that the impossible could be done through the Spirit’s power. We humans are good at pointing out the obstacles. But it is within those obstacles that the Spirit seeks to use the flesh. Grace has no barriers. We hold flesh and Spirit apart, impossible to touch. But God says ‘yes’ today to our flesh. I send a Son so that you too can say yes to the grace already within you. He will take your flesh, your seeming impossible, and make of it a new creation.
Let us not be afraid to name the annunciations spoken to us, annunciations that recognize the grace which was poured on us once at baptism when Word and Spirit changed our lives forever. The incarnation is still happening; the Word is still longing to make a home in our hearts. Mary gives evidence that the Word does come breaking into our lives. Mary testifies also as to what a response looks like: “May it be done to me according to your word.” Her Son will say the same before the Father. And when he does, we will know that Mary has borne God’s Son.
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB