Responding as Handmaid of the Lord

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the act of surrender to the Will of God through which we experience “God is with us”.

Surrender and service

The Prophet Isaiah presents King Ahaz with a sign in the name Emmanuel or “God is with us” during difficult times for Israel.

* [7:14] Isaiah’s sign seeks to reassure Ahaz that he need not fear the invading armies of Syria and Israel in the light of God’s promise to David (2 Sm 7:12–16). The oracle follows a traditional announcement formula by which the birth and sometimes naming of a child is promised to particular individuals (Gn 16:11; Jgs 13:3). The young woman: Hebrew ‘almah designates a young woman of marriageable age without specific reference to virginity. The Septuagint translated the Hebrew term as parthenos, which normally does mean virgin, and this translation underlies Mt 1:23. Emmanuel: the name means “with us is God.” Since for the Christian the incarnation is the ultimate expression of God’s willingness to “be with us,” it is understandable that this text was interpreted to refer to the birth of Christ.1

In the Gospel from Luke, Mary declares herself the Handmaid of the Lord in response to invitation to be the mother of the Anointed One, Jesus.

* [1:34] Mary’s questioning response is a denial of sexual relations and is used by Luke to lead to the angel’s declaration about the Spirit’s role in the conception of this child (Lk 1:35). According to Luke, the virginal conception of Jesus takes place through the holy Spirit, the power of God, and therefore Jesus has a unique relationship to Yahweh: he is Son of God.2

Nancy Shirley feels that Mary understands her fears and hopes for her children and grandchildren.

My prayers to her (in addition to the Hail Mary) are often from mothers talking to mothers, seeking guidance and affirmation, searching for justification of my or my children’s actions.  I stand in awe of her life and faith wondering if she would still say yes if she knew the ending. I wonder if she realized how this baby Jesus was going to live his life and for how long.3

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus is Son of God and Son of Mary,” by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.

"We should carefully note the order of the words here, and the more firmly they are engrafted in our heart, the more evident it will be that the sum total of our redemption consists in them. For they proclaim with perfect clarity that the Lord Jesus, that is, our Savior, was both the true Son of God the Father and the true Son of a mother who was a human being. 'Behold,' he says, 'you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son' - acknowledge that this true human being assumed the true substance of flesh from the flesh of the Virgin! 'He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High' - confess too that this same Son is true God of true God, co-eternal Son forever of the eternal Father!" (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.3.22)4

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 1:26-38 notes Mary’s calling was unique… we can still draw an important lesson here: God’s biggest plans for us don’t always come with detailed instructions.

God will unveil his plan for you a little at a time, as you take the next step of faith, and the next one, and the next one. Mary learned more about her calling when she visited her cousin Elizabeth, who greeted her as “the mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43).
According to Pope Francis, “The Holy Spirit doesn’t come with a full package of certainty.” But if we ask the Spirit, he will guide us one step at a time, and give us “the certainty for that moment, the answer for that moment” (Homily, April 30, 2018).5

Sarah Broscombe, a development worker with the Society of Jesus in the Guyanese interior, believes the Incarnation calls all of us, whatever our situation, to leave aside our selfishness and dignity to engage with what is damaged around us.

For what can be ‘beneath us’, if Jesus becomes a baby? What indignity could be meted out to us that could compare with the gulf he crosses? God uses the Incarnation, his own giving up, to beautify and dignify our world. How am I being called to give up something of my privilege to be more fully incarnated in my own current setting? How is God inviting me to give myself more to the people or the situation in which he has placed me? And can I consider more deeply for whom or for what I am giving gifts?6

Friar Jude Winkler fleshes out the plan of Isaiah to name his child Emmanuel and details the dense symbols included in the Gospel text. The response of Mary shows the Incarnation as act of surrender not power. Friar Jude urges that our actions to make Christ presence model the response of Mary.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares the thoughts of James Finley who describes how meditation—another name for contemplation—is simply any practice that opens us up to Presence.

There is something about simply sitting still, quietly attentive to your breathing, that tends to evoke less agitated, less thought-driven modes of meditative awareness. When this shift . . . embodies a sincere desire for God, a new capacity to realize oneness with God begins to emerge. Resting in this awareness offers the least resistance to God. . . .
As our resistance to God’s quiet persistence diminishes, our experience of ourselves as other than Christ dissolves into a meditatively realized oneness with Christ. Little by little, or all at once, we come to that point of blessedness and freedom in which we can say, along with Saint Paul, “For me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). . .7

The Incarnation offers a challenge that  we freely choose to make ourselves as open and receptive as possible to the graced event of awakening to that meditative sense of oneness with God one with us in life itself.

References
1 (n.d.). Isaiah chapter 7 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 20, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/7

2 (n.d.). Luke 1. Retrieved December 20, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/luke1.htm

3 (n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved December 20, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

4 (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 20, 2018, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

5 (n.d.). 3rd Week of Advent - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily Meditations .... Retrieved December 20, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/

6 (2009, November 30). The challenge of the Incarnation | Thinking Faith: The online journal of .... Retrieved December 20, 2018, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20091130_1.htm

7 (n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 20, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/