The Annunciation to Mary
And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since . . . ?" - Lk 1, 34
As God calls us to a course of action, how often do we offer a slightly and completely different response: "This can't be, since . . . "? I have seen this at work in my own life and the lives around me countless times. The most egregious was my initial resistance to enter counseling, two decades ago. I knew, I thought, where that confession would lead, and I wanted no part of it, though it was unmistakable that I had to accept this responsibility.
Most of the things that God asks of us (ultimately, for us) are far more mundane things than the physical Incarnation of the eternal Son in the womb of a virgin. Mary's situation was unprecedented, and her question was not so much an "I don't believe you" or a "Yeah, right!" as a "Hmm. How is that going to work?" We approach our opportunity to trust God with far more skeptical assumption: "I don't see how that could work" or "but I have a good reason why that isn't applicable to me," so "it's okay (or even necessary) for me to do this instead." We are most stubborn about this when this is clearly not God's will as revealed through Scripture and the Church.
We forget the end of Gabriel's response to Mary: "For with God nothing will be impossible." Lk 1, 37. We fail to trust God, and especially to truly believe it possible that God will bring more good out of the right decision we wish to avoid than out of the wrong one we seek.
There is more to reflect on in this session's reading (Lk 1, 26-38), especially with regard to Mary's ultimate response, but that will be for another post.
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