DATE Thursday, December 11, 2008
WRITER FREDERICK BUECHNER imagines the moment that the angel Gabriel
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee
called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said,
‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by
his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to
her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you
will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He
will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God
will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of
Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’
Luke 1: 26-33
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met Mary, pondering what the angel was thinking on that extraordinary occasion:
“She struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all,
let alone this child, but [Gabriel] had been entrusted with a message to
give her and he gave it. He told her what the Child was to be named, and
who He was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come
upon her. ‘You mustn’t be afraid, Mary,’ he said. As he said it, he only
hoped she wouldn’t notice that beneath the great, golden wings he himself
was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation hung now
on the answer of a girl.”
When I was a child, this one moment in Scripture gave me an insight into the heart
of God that I couldn’t see in all the pageantry of the Mass or hear in the teachings
of Paul or taste in the Holy wafer I consumed each day. God had chosen Mary – just
a girl and a peasant to boot! – to embody His only Son. Jesus was bone of Mary’s
bone and flesh of Mary’s flesh. She was the Mother of our Lord. And yet, I thought,
she was something like me. Maybe there was a place for me in God’s plan, too.
As an adult I came to understand that the Protestant Reformation provided a
necessary corrective to what had become the cult of Mary. But as an adult I also
came to understand more fully what Mary’s “yes” meant for humankind and to
appreciate what that “yes” had cost her as a woman and as a mother.
But as a child what mattered about Mary was that she was a just an ordinary girl
and yet God deigned to choose her for a wondrous task. And more than that – the
annunciation narrative makes it clear – Mary could have said “no.”
I thank God, then, that Mary’s answer was, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let
it be with me according to your word.” With these simple words, a mere slip of a
girl became inextricably linked to God’s plan for salvation. Mary literally embodied
the Protestant proclamation, “sola fide” (faith alone). If we revere Abraham as our
father in faith, then surely Mary must be our Mother.
PRAYER Holy God, empower us with your Spirit, so that in hearing your word
we might be enabled, like Mary, to answer, “Yes!”
Grayson Van Camp, staff and alumna
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