Talk about adjusting to a new normal.
Whenever I come across this reading, I feel TERRIBLE for Mary. She just got betrothed to Joseph the carpenter, she's going about her business and... well that information is a game-changer, isn't it. Mary has been told (by someone she rightly suspects is no normal 'messenger' that she will have a child out of wedlock, not by her husband, that they will raise as their own.
Having children out of wedlock bu someone other than your spouse was... frowned upon in ancient Galilee. Joseph had the right to have her brought up on charges of adultery (death) or cast her aside at the very least, leaving her to raise this "Son of the Most High" on her own. In short, due to the nature of the messenger AND the message, Mary must have been terrified.
And then...
"May it be done to me according to your word."
Mary says YES. The very model of faith and discipleship. The entirety of salvation hinges on what this poor Nazarene girl chooses.
THIS is why Catholics (even dissenters like myself) believe what we do about Mary; that she is venerated above all other saints, that she is to co-redemptrix along with Christ, having her own
special role in humankind's redemption. Because Christianity doesn't happen, indeed CHRIST does not happen, with her allowing it to happen.
What folks in my lifestyle call consent!
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Lectionary: 545
Daily Mass Readings
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