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She Said Yes

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In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26-38)

Poets, artists, and writers down the years have pondered the significance of this event and tried to give it voice and form, each offering the pane of a prism that allows us to glimpse yet another dimension of this love story. Mid-Advent as we now are, the invitation is to ours enter into the reflections they provide.

Here are two poems that open the scene before us, one where Gabriel stands hushed and waiting...

VIRGIN

- by Luci Shaw

As if until that moment
nothing real
had happened since Creation
As if outside the world were empty
so that she and he were all
there was—he the mover, she moved upon
As if her submission were the most
dynamic of all works; as if
no one had ever said Yes like that
As if that day the sun had no place
in all the universe to pour its gold
but her small room.

THE ANNUNCIATION

- by J. Michael Sparough, SJ

…To the question that will define history,
Holding its breath for your answer,
All heaven pauses.
“LET IT BE DONE TO ME…”
Here it begins,
In such utter simplicity,
In quiet strength, at the appointed hour,
With the rippled rungs of time at your feet,
And the broad lines of history at your back.
At the balance of His grace in your will,
Eve reborn, humanity to be redeemed
Through a child, from a virgin
Whose name is Mary

These two poems attempt to capture that sublime moment when God’s great hope came in the form of an angel’s proposal to a young girl. In humanity’s finest hour, her simple “Yes,” a second Genesis is spun into being. That God should wait upon her assent, that she had it within her to comply—what mirrors these hold to the great mystery of Incarnation, to our role in God’s design.

Mary’s yes, at the intersection of heaven and earth, is not just a moment in time; it transcends time and empowers the future, a future of which we are a part. “The one thing she did and does, is the one thing we all have to do, to bear Christ into the world.”

Advent is our time to ponder such things, to become aware of the then and now dimension to Christ’s coming. “Advent is absolutely essential to our contemplation. If we have truly given our humanity to be changed into Christ, it is essential to us that we not distort this time of growth. It is a time of darkness, of faith…We must believe that he is growing in our lives; we must believe it so firmly that we cannot help relating everything, literally everything, to this almost incredible reality that makes every moment of our day and night a prayer.”

“May Christ be born in you.” This is our Advent greeting to one another. Christmas tells us that God has every intention of showing up in our lives. Christmas is not relegated to the distant past; it is a present reality. And the beginning of that is our “yes,” like Mary’s. In Advent, we say yes to God’s invitation to invade our very being and lives. We say yes to becoming Christ-bearers to a needy world today.

Like Mary, we are not asked to perform heroics, hasten off to a nunnery, or enjoy privilege. She continued to live the simple life of a carpenter’s wife in a small village during a dark and dangerous time. “She began at once, as she stood up before the angel and uttered her fiat, to live all our lives, and Christ in her was subject to the unknown, to the hazards of life in the world, as He is in us.”

In this is great hope for us as well. For “there is one cure for fear—trust in God. That is why the beginning of Christ being formed in us consists in echoing Our Lady’s fiat. It is a surrender, a handing over of everything to God.” May Advent be a time for you of entertaining angels unaware, of saying yes to God’s great desire to share your life, of pondering the wonder of Christ’s coming, of surrendering fear, of embracing hope. May Christ be born in you.

To Ponder...

What "yes" is God inviting from me?

How is God waiting upon my "yes?"

All quotes taken from REED OF GOD by Caryll Houselander, 1944.

This article first appeared Dec 1 in the newsletter from RETREAT, REFLECT, RENEW

Responses From Readers...

  • Loved your offering today and will be forwarding it on. I always get chills when I read your reflections. - Betsey‘
  • ’Artist Once Known” - what a beautiful insight into the ‘invisible’ place women have had over the centuries. I know that being a ’woman/wife’ in the past hasn’t ever carried much weight in the world, the tremendous blessings that come from the offerings of the gentle women caring for family and the world. Thank you for this beautiful reflection on the eve of a celebration of work done behind the scenes--Thanksgiving. - Alice
  • "Were you thinking of me today? I went to Crystal Bridges and saw the exhibit, "Knowing the West.: What a stunning example it is of both the creativity of women and their way in which they are not remembered." - Lois
  • Thank you (and Crystal Bridges) for this new designation. I will remember to use that in the classes I teach. It is so much more respectful of the artist and the community that engendered the work. It is also a painful reminder of how the works of women in general and of indigenous women in particular, have not been valued or remembered. - Emily

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