Blessed Mary

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:37-38)

The oldest-known image of Mary, depicting her nursing the infant Jesus, was painted in 2nd century Rome on a wall of the Catacombs of Priscilla. 

Mary is portrayed in more paintings, icons, mosaics, and sculptures; praised in more poems and songs, than any other woman in history.   She is the one after whom more cathedrals, basilicas, churches and chapels are named.  Millions of people wear her medals and scapulars; millions more pray for her intersession.  Mary is surely the most highly venerated saint in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faith traditions; several major feast days each year are devoted to her.  Literally every second of every day for the past 2000 years, in some part of the world, some one has been praying the words, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus"...

But ironically, Mary is mentioned more in the Koran, the Moslem holy book,  than in the New Testament.  Only woman to have an entire chapter dedicated to her in the Koran, Mary’s story is recounted according to the Islamic view of Jesus as a major prophet.  She is declared, along with Jesus, to be a Sign of God; as one who guarded her chastity; an obedient one; chosen of her mother and dedicated to Allah while still in the womb.  Moslems admire her as a chosen one; a purified one; a truthful one; one exalted above all women, whose child was conceived through "a Word from God".

Who is this young Jewish girl, barely in her teens, from the tiny backwater town of Nazareth in Judea, who one day out of the blue, finds herself addressed by an angel?  Whose very proper engagement is suddenly rocked by scandal -- an out of wedlock pregnancy?  Whose quiet piety convinces her fiance’ not to reject her, which, if he had done, would have resulted in her death by stoning for adultery, but rather to stand by her and raise the child he did not father?  Who is this young woman whose acceptance of God’s plan becomes the means of humanity’s redemption?  Who is she?

Since the historical record is so sparse, in many ways, that’s an impossible question to answer.  That’s because Mary, in the final analysis, is what we we make of her, which includes both good and bad.  She can be a positive example of praiseworthy obedience or a negative example of blind obedience.  She can be a model of courage to inspire all people or a model of passivity to keep women down.  She can be the best metaphor we have for the way God enters our imperfect lives or she can be a woman on a pedestal whose purity has to be protected at all costs, even at the cost of her humanity.  Mary is and has been all these things.

What Mary represents indisputably for true believers, however, is the power of God’s love.  In today’s gospel from Luke, we hear once again the familiar story of the Annunciation, written years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  It’s a story of the explosive and definitive entrance of God into human history -- an entrance that declares Mary highly favored among women, takes away her fear and doubt and makes her God’s willing servant.  “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord,” she says, “May it be done to me according to your word.”  Clearly, Mary was ready and willing to play her unique role in the Lord’s coming as a baby on that winter’s night over 2000 years ago.

Advent is the four week liturgical season set aside each year for believers to prepare for the Lord’s coming, which now happens at any time in many ways.  It’s a good time, therefore, to gauge the state of our own willingness and readiness to receive God into our lives.  A good time to stand back and take a fresh look at ourselves.  Is there something missing?  Is there something that doesn’t belong?  Is there someone waiting for us to do the right thing at the right time, before time runs out?   During this season of stillness and preparation, Jesus urges us to be alert and watchful not only to avoid sin, but also so as not to miss the myriad opportunities for goodness that constantly come our way.

His mother is the quintessential example of receptivity to God’s call in whatever form it may present itself, most particularly, in the cries of the hungry, the frightened, the lonely, the suffering, the oppressed, the exploited.   But the miracle of Christmas, obviously, isn’t something that happens just for Mary, but for all people of all time, because, as Scripture assures us, God so loves the world that he sends his only son that all humanity may have life through him.

One day a farmer and his son were walking across a field when the son accidentally knocked the head off an anthill.  He bent down compassionately to see the ants darting about in panic and was about to put the head back on the anthill.  His father, however, said; “Son, leave them alone.  The only way you could help the ants is to become an ant yourself.”

In a sense, through the Incarnation, this is precisely what God has done, becoming one of us.  Not lifting us out of our imperfect humanity, but joining us in it; giving us a dignity that is beyond belief, a joy beyond measure.  No longer remote, but now a God who dwells among us, Emmanuel.  No longer impersonal and distant, but now a God interested in each of us individually, who calls us each by name; a God with whom we can personally and intimately relate.  In a few short days, then, once again we will celebrate in a special way the God who so loves us that that he comes to be with us and in us  -- to share our joys and sorrows-- every moment of every day.

Mary was chosen in love.  Jesus was born in love.  You and I are empowered to serve one another in love.  Trusting in God’s limitless love for us, in short, is the ultimate reason for the season. 

Today is the 4th Sunday in Advent. The Lord is coming soon.  The Lord is already here.  Are we ready?  

 Anthony J. Sciolino   

Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38. 
4th Sunday of Advent. 
December 21, 2008. (Cycle B)