The Annunciation

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation. Did Mary really know what she was getting into when she said, “Yes” to the angel?  If she was flesh and blood human, the answer would be absolutely not! Do any of us have a clue as to what we are in for when a pregnancy begins? Of course not, otherwise we would have remained celibate. In the life of every parent, there are times the thought of “perhaps, I should have showed a little more restraint that night I was feeling particularly randy” comes into mind … especially as children reach the age of adolescence. However, God has had a hand in co-creating our children with us. It is spiritual a ménage a trois, so to speak, in which God plays as much a hand in the raising of the children as do the parents. In the end, are not children the greatest legacy of a parent? It is in my case. So it was this 14 yr old girl that said “yes” to the angel. Not knowing what was ahead for her and the child with which she was pregnant; armed only with a deep fast trust in the God she loved, and the God who loved her back, she said, “yes” and let the dice roll as we all do. May all of us who are parents be one with this very flesh and blood Mary as we continue our parenthood. For like the child of Mary, each and every child of ours bears the imprint and face of her son.

In honor of this feast, is this beautiful poem, THE ANNUNCIATION, written by Denise Levertov

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lecturn, a book; always
the tall lily.

Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions
courage
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent. God waited.

She was free
to accept or refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

Aren't there annunciations
of one sort or another in most lives?
Some unwillingly undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.

More often those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.

God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes..

She had been a child who played, ate, spelt
like any other child - but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
she did not quail,
only asked

a simple, "How can this be?"
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel's reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power -
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.

Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love -

but who was God.