Luke 1:26-38
Dear Friends, When we are growing in spirituality, a new and deeper experience of God, two factors come into play. There is a dynamic tension between the urge for comfort and the constant pull of challenge. The more mature the spirituality, the more tension and urgency to integrate these two drives in one’s search for God.
In today’s passage from Luke, 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. The call is totally comforting while the evolving awareness of what it means is a breathtaking challenge.
Here is a young teenager, on the margin of Jewish society, called be the mother of the long awaited Messiah. She has 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 generosity of her openness show her perfect balance between challenge and comfort in the presence of the divine.
When Luke has Gabriel greeting Mary, there is a clear and long echo of the Od Testament. In fact, the greeting was anchored in five different texts from the Jewish Scriptures. Taken together, they display the special role God has called Mary to fulfill.
Though she did not understand much of what was happening, her response was clear and emphatic: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38) Though her uncertainty was propound, she “pondered all these thing in her heart.” (Lk 1:50) Indeed, the comfort, in the wonder of it all, could not avoid the challenge of walking in faithful surrender from the Creche to the Cross.
Her world was shattered. Her puzzlement 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!
Everything about Mary’s experience was part of the Great Reversal that was central to Luke’s Gospel. In choosing Mary, the unwed pregnant teenager, God was proclaiming a new order. This was the beginning of the upside-down world where power was expressed in weakness. Poverty was true wealth. Service superseded comfort and indulgence and control. “The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.” (Lk 1:53)
Her faith was her comfort. God’s word was sufficient for her. 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, in fact, 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,
In today’s passage from Luke, 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. The call is totally comforting while the evolving awareness of what it means is a breathtaking challenge.
Here is a young teenager, on the margin of Jewish society, called be the mother of the long awaited Messiah. She has 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 generosity of her openness show her perfect balance between challenge and comfort in the presence of the divine.
When Luke has Gabriel greeting Mary, there is a clear and long echo of the Od Testament. In fact, the greeting was anchored in five different texts from the Jewish Scriptures. Taken together, they display the special role God has called Mary to fulfill.
Though she did not understand much of what was happening, her response was clear and emphatic: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38) Though her uncertainty was propound, she “pondered all these thing in her heart.” (Lk 1:50) Indeed, the comfort, in the wonder of it all, could not avoid the challenge of walking in faithful surrender from the Creche to the Cross.
Her world was shattered. Her puzzlement 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!
Everything about Mary’s experience was part of the Great Reversal that was central to Luke’s Gospel. In choosing Mary, the unwed pregnant teenager, God was proclaiming a new order. This was the beginning of the upside-down world where power was expressed in weakness. Poverty was true wealth. Service superseded comfort and indulgence and control. “The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.” (Lk 1:53)
Her faith was her comfort. God’s word was sufficient for her. 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, in fact, 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,
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