Mary gives her whole body unreservedly to God’s
desire, God’s desire to come near, to be small and insignificant. For the truth
of who God is for us requires a body, a heart under which he can rest. Because of what Mary does, how she receives the
Word and responds, the body of our earthly existence is now laden with God’s
presence and transcendence.
Mary’s at-homeness with her emptiness
gives God flesh, flesh that can bleed and die for us, a heart that can be
broken open for us. Mary’s response in “obedient faith” is as powerful as that
spoken by her Son in the blood-sweat of Gethsemani,
“Not my will but yours be done, O Father;” a yes formed under Mary’s brave
heart.
Pietà, Carlo Crivelli (Italian, Venice (?), active by 1457–died 1493 Ascoli Piceno) ,1476. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Used with permission.
