Gospel of Luke, chapter 1:38

The summons to Mary, was no different from the summons to Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. They all found themselves surprised by the call of God; they all found themselves annoyed, not so much at their own unworthiness for such a high calling, for that would came later, but annoyed at the more practical level of inconvenience. Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Mary, especially Mary, all had other things to do, important, urgent things, the fulfillment of their own destinies, the carrying forth of their lives, choices, options, and challenges. Mary joins the line of unwilling and troubled prophets for whom God’s call is an unsolicited interruption of her routine: “She was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be” (Luke 1:29).

We waste our time in seeking out the special hidden, secret qualities that commend God’s choices to him; to be God means never having to explain why. It is the exercise of the power, what the theologians call the sovereignty of God, that allows God to choose what is lowly, ordinary, and of no apparent account to be used for his purposes. It is our God who makes out of nothing, something; who takes nowhere and makes it somewhere; who takes nobody and makes him somebody, and it is this power of transformation that made prophets of the ordinary men of Israel. It is this power of transformation that made apostles and martyrs of the ordinary followers of Jesus; it is this power of God that makes things that are, out of things that are not; and it is this power of God, moving in ways unknown yet not unseen, that confers upon the simple woman of Nazareth the grace sufficient to her new task as the Mother of a new creation. God does not choose for grace, but when God chooses, grace surely follows. Thus, when the angel greeted Mary, he greeted her not simply as who she was but rather as one whom she herself did not yet fully recognize: the favored me, the chosen one, she who was full of grace. The salutation is one not simply, of recognition: “Mary,” but anticipation as well, “full of grace.”

Mary is for us the means of the Incarnation, not an accident of history but the human expression of God’s willing choice of our race. So this woman, this gifted one, this bearer of God’s grace, belongs not alone to medieval adoration, not simply to the Roman Catholic Church or to the eastern orthodox church. We dare not confine her to a passive role in the annual Christmas display, for in her call from God and her response to that call, she becomes the Mother not only of Jesus but of our vocation, and of our calling as well. She shows us that it is possible for us to be gifted ones with her, the bearers of Christ in our world, and that in us as in her, God’s will is made manifest. Such an opportunity and so great a gift we dare not deny. She deserves her titles, her monuments, and her place not because of what we do with her and because of what she does for us, but because of what God has done in her for us.

Hail, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Peter J. Gomes

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