22*

Sunday 22 December

The Annunciation

By Caroline Brownlie

Luke 1.26-33

“I think it will do us no harm to remember, that in becoming human, Jesus bowed his neck beneath the sweet yoke of a family heredity and early environment. Humanly speaking, he would have learned this from his mother” C.S.Lewis.

Does any prospective mother know what she is letting herself in for?  Was it any different for Mary when she said “Be it to me according to your word”?  We have probably thought much more about the biological impossibilities (according to our own small horizons) of this coming event, than about what sort of a mother she actually was going to be, and what it was in her entirely human life that she would want to pass on to her first son?  What sort of qualities was he going to need for the future ahead of him, the death we know ended his human sojourn here before His new Day dawned ‘on the first day of the week’.

I was once privileged to sit at the feet of a psychiatrist/theologian from whom I learned the classic needs of a child from the moment of conception and onwards.  Acceptance, Sustenance and Status, leading to the adult Achievement that those make possible. 

So Mary’s ‘fiat’, her Yes, had to hold those potential gifts, showing us what an exceptional woman she already was, at 15 or 16 and what we owe to the grandparents of Jesus, Joachim and Anna.

In our fallible humanity, Acceptance of a child is rarely, if ever, unconditional, by definition; but from the mouth of Jesus, from his 12th year and onwards as witnessed in the Gospels, he already knew the unconditional love of His heavenly Fatheran d we know fairly certainly, that Mary had no access to formula milk, so as the carol attests,  ‘a breastful of milk and a mangerful of hay’, was the first Sustenance he received, it’s ongoing expression in her always loving gaze, from which Jesus, with Joseph’s help, discovered his own inalienable human Status.   

When we look back on Jesus’ Achievements, active and contemplative ministry among the disciples, then a gathering opposition from his own people, is it surprising that Mary’s Yes had to encompass his first 30 years, with its ongoing acceptance, sustenance and adult status; all the time  preparing him for his suffering and death, the culmination of his Father’s mission for him?

“A sword will pierce your own heart also” she had been told in the early days of acceding to the angel’s commission; the steadfast place of Mary as her Son was dying, is hardwired into our spiritual and cultural consciousness and shows us as nothing else could the extent of the Yes she had given in her youth and the Grace given to her to fulfil it.  The growth of my faith includes the trust that the upbringing she gave her Child gives her an understanding of my own flawed family experience and I thank God for her, the eternally Best Mum.

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Luke 1.26-33

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.’