25 March, 2025, Solemnity of the Annunciation: Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1: 26-38
For centuries we have ransacked the scriptures for theological content, often at the cost of the narrative flow and a deeper theological and spiritual message. I propose that we would impoverish our reading of this Gospel without considering what goes before: the annunciation to Zachariah of the birth of John the Baptist.
Zachariah is well schooled in the rituals and teachings of the Covenant; he knows a lot about God and the values and customs of Jewish life, family and cult. Perhaps such knowledge gave him a sense of control and order over his life. But faced with the good news that in their old age his wife will bear him their longed-for heir, he says that this is impossible. He says this even to the messenger from God.
Has his lack of control over creation blinded him to God’s creative power in nature? Has his knowledge alienated him from nature’s prodigal potential—and responsiveness to the Creator? Has he replaced a living relationship with God with something like a financial transaction in an economy of scarcity? That is to say, if I fulfill my religious obligations, what guarantees that God will repay me with earthly blessings?
Mary’s response to the same angel is very different. Perhaps because her life, even her ritual life, is structured by the rhythms of her body, she can believe that God is active through her. She asks to know how the birth of her promised son will be accomplished, but she never doubts the prospect. Her relation to God is one of abundant free gift-giving. As God gives to her, so she can generously dispose herself to God’s fulfillment through her for the entire world. What mother charges her family and friends admission to see or even hold her baby?
Mary’s exchange, her “commerce” with God is as maternal as with her child. As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, When the mother nurses her child, the boundary of the individual self becomes permeable and the common good is the only one that matters…The currency of this economy is the flow of gratitude, the flow of love, literally in support of life.*
Is there anything that can prevent me or you from living in that same way?
*Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, 2024, p 38-39