Advent with Luke #7 – Mary’s Calling

Mary moves me so – during Advent and at Christmas, of course, but always. No one was closer to Jesus. No one understood his utter humanity better. No one felt the weight of caring for and nurturing him given who he was… And she was there at his end, at the cross. No one grieved his death more deeply. And no one thrilled to his resurrection like she did.

How do we know about this business of the angel inviting her to be the mother of God in the flesh? Luke says he interviewed many who knew Jesus. I love to imagine he found his way, in his researches, to Ephesus, where Mary lived (maybe?) into old age. His listening to her, or to someone who knew her and her story well, has bequeathed to us the remarkable moment in Luke 1:26-38.

The angel – and not just any angel, but the most decorated of them all, Gabriel, the mighty warrior, who must have humbled himself to function now not as a mighty warrior but as a mere messenger boy – called on Mary to become the mother of God’s own son.

Notice she wasn’t praying, or seeking God’s calling, or divining what God wanted from her. She was just drawing water from the well (as tradition suggests). God (via Gabriel) asks her to become the mother of God’s son. She had good reasons why she couldn’t be the one. Moses explained to God he was a stutterer; Isaiah wasn’t holy enough; Jeremiah was too young. God calls, not based on ability, but on avail-ability. All this is God’s doing, not Mary’s or anybody else’s.

Why Mary? A nobody, from no place. But she was a ponderer, someone who could be quiet and listen. And she was deeply immersed in Scripture – although she and her family were mostly likely illiterate! Poor people in towns like Nazareth couldn’t afford books, couldn’t read – but knew Scripture well, and by heart, from memory, from hearing it in the synagogue, and from reciting memorized passages from their parents.

I love the way artists through the ages depicted Mary, when called by the angel, holding a Bible. Her reply is striking, isn’t it? “Let it be to me according to your word.” Indeed. “According to your Word.” Fulfilling the Scriptures she as an illiterate young women knew by heart, and lived by. Fulfilling all that God has spoken in the Law and Prophets – about the kind of people God asks us to be, no small thing, an immense challenge even today.

Mary had agency. The Spirit didn’t just seize her. The Spirit asked. There’s never coercion with God! She could have said No. Freely, courageously she said Yes. Her boldness, her immense faithfulness, her willingness for whatever moves me. Her life was well-arranged; everything was well in order, engagement, marriage, life with Joseph, etc. But she was open to disruption, willing for whatever. Mary moves me.

And then: her calling was unique – but was it? Is it? Mary was called to bear God in her body. Nobody else could ever rise so high, or so beautifully… And yet, as Meister Eckhart (a 14th century mystic) put it: “We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time. When the Son of God is begotten in us.”

Mary’s calling is mine, and yours: to say Yes to letting God take on flesh, to become reality, in my life, through my body, in my place and time.