Luke 1:26-38
Dear Friends, Any human being has to deal with two basic pulls when they experience the divine. These two forces are challenge and comfort. The more mature the spirituality, the more dynamic the balance of these two drives in one’s religious life.
Mary displays the depth of her openness to God. She reveals the beauty of her fundamental grasp of what it means to be human in the presence of an all loving, all powerful God.
Here is a young teenager, on the margin of Jewish society, called be the mother of the long awaited Messiah. Here is a simple, open response of, “How can this be?” (Lk 1:34) She is caught up in the central event in human history and the simplicity of her faith and the power of her openness show her perfect balance between challenge and comfort in the presence of the divine.
Her world was shattered. Her confusion had to be overwhelming. No doubt her fear was a natural response to these awesome events. She had to tell the unbelievable tale to her family and to Joseph. This was the first step in an unfolding mystery of power coming in weakness, the story of a God engulfed in poverty, the divine becoming human. These were the challenges that Mary faced.
While the greeting, “the Lord is with you” and the angel’s additional words, “Do not be afraid” are profoundly comforting, Mary needed all the support she could get. She had to face Joseph. Anytime the betrothed says she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, where does the dialogue go from there? Add the fact that the child is to be the Savior of his people and the only saving grace would have to be divine intervention. That’s what happened!
Her faith was her comfort. She believed she was to be the Mother of God. She was called to usher in the new age of the Messiah. No matter how deep her confusion, she trusted Joseph would come along on this journey of faith. He did indeed do so!
Mary and Joseph had to dig deep into the comforting and reassuring message of the angel to make the minimum sense of the reality of their poverty and uprooting. It truly challenged them to look with faith on the baby born in circumstances of such total vulnerability among the animals and with the poorest of the poor in the shepherds. Their minds were drowned in the contradictions yet their faith and openness won out.
Mary displays the depth of her openness to God. She reveals the beauty of her fundamental grasp of what it means to be human in the presence of an all loving, all powerful God.
Here is a young teenager, on the margin of Jewish society, called be the mother of the long awaited Messiah. Here is a simple, open response of, “How can this be?” (Lk 1:34) She is caught up in the central event in human history and the simplicity of her faith and the power of her openness show her perfect balance between challenge and comfort in the presence of the divine.
Her world was shattered. Her confusion had to be overwhelming. No doubt her fear was a natural response to these awesome events. She had to tell the unbelievable tale to her family and to Joseph. This was the first step in an unfolding mystery of power coming in weakness, the story of a God engulfed in poverty, the divine becoming human. These were the challenges that Mary faced.
While the greeting, “the Lord is with you” and the angel’s additional words, “Do not be afraid” are profoundly comforting, Mary needed all the support she could get. She had to face Joseph. Anytime the betrothed says she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, where does the dialogue go from there? Add the fact that the child is to be the Savior of his people and the only saving grace would have to be divine intervention. That’s what happened!
Her faith was her comfort. She believed she was to be the Mother of God. She was called to usher in the new age of the Messiah. No matter how deep her confusion, she trusted Joseph would come along on this journey of faith. He did indeed do so!
Mary and Joseph had to dig deep into the comforting and reassuring message of the angel to make the minimum sense of the reality of their poverty and uprooting. It truly challenged them to look with faith on the baby born in circumstances of such total vulnerability among the animals and with the poorest of the poor in the shepherds. Their minds were drowned in the contradictions yet their faith and openness won out.
For Mary, it was just the beginning of a long journey of confusion and bewilderment, of comfort and challenge. Only her faith and trust could comfort her in the midst of a challenge that eventually brought victory only through the death on the Cross.
When you think about, it similar to our journey!
In Christ,
Tracy O. Sullivan O. Carm
