Lenten Meditation #2 on Leviticus
This is the second of four Lenten meditations on Leviticus. The first is posted here.
“Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee”
This year the Annunciation falls near mid-Lent. In other years it may fall later in Lent or early in Eastertide. The conjunction between this Feast and the cycle of Lent and Easter, of the Passion and the Resurrection of Christ, however, is most significant. All of the Marian festivals are tagged to the Feasts of Christ; there is an inescapable and profound connection between Mary and Jesus. Her Annunciation marks the beginning in time of Christ’s Incarnation; the Angel’s announcement and her ‘yes’ to God mark the moment of Christ’s conception in her womb; the union of God and Man accomplished through her comes to fruition nine months hence, at Christmas in the Christian imaginary.
The story is intriguing. The Angel’s words, at once wonderful, are also troubling. The communication between God and our humanity is not one of equals. There is the profound sense of the difference, of the incomparable otherness of God, yet, at the same time as an awareness of utter dependence, there is an amazing reciprocity. Mary turns both into the highest expression of human dignity. There is a reasoning engagement, a form of holy questioning, that arises from her immediate response to Gabriel’s words. “She was troubled at this saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.” This leads to an angelic interpretation. “Fear not, Mary;” Gabriel says, “for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name JESUS” (the capitalization is crucial), and, in an allusion to Isaiah 9.6 and other prophetic passages that hint at the reign of a Messiah, “he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest … and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Mary’s response is to ask Gabriel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” He explains that this is not simply a human matter but of God’s doings through her. “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest shall overshadow thee,” images that recall the opening verses about creation in Genesis, and thus to the theme of redemption, a new creation, and a renewed relation to God. “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” The words are suggestive; “that holy thing” is Jesus, born of Mary, who has “found favour with God,” literally, grace. The neuter gender term – holy thing (αγιον) – belongs to the sense of difference, the idea of an action which cannot be simply reduced to human processes, further explicated by the example of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, conceiving a son in her old age when she was already considered barren, hence, beyond the age of child-bearing. The account echoes the story of the promised son, Isaac, born to Abraham and Sarah in her old age; “for,” as Gabriel says “with God nothing shall be impossible.”
This back and forth between Mary and Gabriel highlights the idea of an active engagement between God and our humanity wonderfully expressed in Mary’s fiat mihi: “behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy Word,” words which define Christian faith precisely in terms of an active openness to God. Mary embodies the truth of our humanity considered in and of itself as pure and whole. Why? How?
