Mary gives her whole body unreservedly to God’s desire to come near to us, God’s most mysterious desire to be small and insignificant. The truth of who God is for us requires a body, a heart under which he can rest, a supple heart that will throw things together and let them be. Her response to the angel’s invitation was, “Be it to me, let it be done in me. May God grow there under my heart; I will be God’s own serving girl.”
Mary is generously open to the seemingly mismatched ways of God, with an attentive curiosity. “How will this be? Why me, a poor, unmarried girl from a backwater? Why?” The Mother of God shows us how to read the "why" and translate it into a "why not." Why not me? Why not now? Why not God with me, with us, here and now, here with us in these most upside-down circumstances?
Let us stay close to the Virgin who said, "Yes." For there we will be near to her who accepted the fullness of light, she who received grace without fear. Let us follow in her footsteps.
The
Annunciation, Fra Angelico, 1437-46, fresco, San Marco, Florence.
