"Let it be with me according to your word."
In the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin
engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s
name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord
is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of
greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a
son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son
of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor
David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there
will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a
virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will
be holy; he will be called Son of God. . . .
Then
Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to
your word.”
Second reading & reflection: What word or phrase catches your attention? Share or pass...
It is not that the Annunciation leads her out of doubt and into
faith; it is that her encounter with the angel leads her out of certainty and
into holy bewilderment. Out of familiar spiritual territory and into a lifetime
of pondering, wondering, questioning, and wrestling. She was much perplexed.
Or, as she puts it to Gabriel: “How can this be?”
Like Mary, I was raised with
a fairly precise and comprehensive picture of who God is and how God operates
in the world.
What an interesting shock
reality has been. Who knew that my life with God would actually be one long
goodbye? That to know God is to unknow God? To shed my neat
conceptions of the divine like so many old snakeskins and emerge into the world
bare, vulnerable, and new, again and again?
This, of course, is what Mary has
to do in the aftermath of Gabriel’s announcement. She has to consent to evolve.
To wonder. To stretch. She has to learn that faith and doubt are not
opposites—that beyond all the easy platitudes and pieties of religion, we serve
a God who dwells in mystery. If we agree to embark on a journey with this God,
we will face periods of bewilderment.
--Debie Thomas, Into the Mess
and Other Jesus Stories: Reflections on the Life of Christ, 5–6.
[This is an adapted format courtesy of Richard and Linda Hall, Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, DC]
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