Advent Reflection: 4th Week
We all know the annunciation narrative of the Gospel of Luke quite well. From Advent to feasts of the Blessed Virgin, we read this world-changing story over and again throughout the year. However, the last time I heard it, it came alive for me in a new way. I hope it will do the same for each of us, every time we hear this Gospel proclaimed.
Emotions are a deep part of who we are, and the last time I heard this Gospel, I was struck particularly by the emotions of the Blessed Virgin that I think might have surrounded the experience of the Annunciation. The Angel Gabriel announces to Mary: “Do not be afraid.” We usually suspect fear to be a negative feeling––one to be avoided. Yet, as we also know, Fear of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Spirit given to us through our Baptism. I believe that Mary’s fear was a holy one, a Spirit-filled one. I can imagine that tears streamed from her eyes as she heard the beautiful words of the angel, and she may very well have been weeping as she asked the question “How can this be?” Could she breathe, could she think straight in the moment? Where did she find the words? Intense experiences––something like the appearance of an angel and the announcement of a virgin birth by which God himself would come into the world––are often described as covering the gamut of emotions. How often have we heard something like: “It was all emotions wrapped up into one!” Can you imagine the emotions this holy young woman must have felt? It all must have happened so fast for Mary. I think it must have begun with fear, at the appearance of the angel and the unbelievable message he brought. Then, I imagine joy overtook her. Perhaps even righteous anger at the thought of so many millennia of sin and death and suffering finally coming to an end. Would she have been sad as well, knowing that such a child would also inevitably bring heartache to her? Surely this all would have been too much to ‘process’ in the moment.
Despite Gabriel’s proclamation of the birth of Christ as if it were to come true no matter what, Mary recognizes the essential role of her own decision in God’s redemptive work of bringing the Savior into the world: “May it be done.” She summons the courage, certainly (I suspect), through tears of joy and fear. And how is it that she could do this? Mary’s ‘Yes’ is the most momentous of decisions ever made in history, let alone her own life. And yet I imagine it was done in the midst of intense human emotions. In a way, the words of the angel, “For nothing will be impossible for God,” are the crescendo, the climax, of the whole experience. For a young woman, a people, a human race who has awaited the action of God in the midst of suffering––poverty, oppression and war on account of Roman occupation, the continuing downfall of the nation of Israel throughout the centuries, the sorrow of personal and communal sin––finally… the angel’s words mean to say: “What you have awaited, what you have longed for and hoped would come about… it is all true, and is happening in your midst. It will happen through you.” Mary, it is right that you should fear, that you should weep, that you should rejoice at the words of the angel. May we do so as well.
