What if … everything we are experiencing now is exactly the moment for which we were created, like Mary?
For the Feast of the Annunciation, Sister Agnes Lanfermann greets us across the world with this short reflection. She writes:
"Stories are the heartbeat of cultures as well as of religions. They carry the wisdom of generations and convey lessons about faith and trust, resilience and hope and the human and divine.
The story of annunciation is one of the important stories for our Society, since it is the Gospel of our Society’s Feast, Mary, Cause of our Joy! We are invited to embody the story, year after year anew, the moment of annunciation, and to explore its viewpoints, values and vision as our own.
The Gospel of the Annunciation fascinated Anna Dengel from the very beginning. She always found new aspects of the evolving understanding of this mystery which could help to mould and shape the Society, its life and mission.
The greeting of the angel brings Mary disorientation and unfreedom because Mary is caught up in her own fear and confusion, seeking a way out of “being highly favoured”. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary!”
With these words, the angel touches the ground of her soul in addressing her fears. "Don’t be afraid" is easy to say, but difficult to let grow. What if, we let go of all fears that protect us from all new and unknown threatening things that turn our familiar structures and understandings of our life and the Society and our whole world upside down? What if, we let go of all fears that protect us from everything which does not make sense to us according to our experiences and knowledge, especially in situations of uncertainty and chaos?
The angel knows about the important role of fears and repeats the first message: you have found favour with God. This is the basis of not being afraid. God’s abiding presence dispels the need to be afraid. God promises to be personally involved in His people’s lives which is an unbroken assurance of divine care.
Let it be in order to let go
Deepening this assurance will help Mary to be more present to her fears which enables her, at the same time, to come in touch with an inner knowledge that she learned about God and His favouring.
This gives Mary a new possibility to experiment with, and widen, her old patterns. What if she is favoured? We, too, will learn how to deal with our fears if we allow ourselves to believe more in being favoured by God, trusting God’s power, working in us and through us.
What if … everything we are experiencing now is exactly the moment for which we were created?
The angel continues and pours out promises that are even more unbelievable. The promise of giving birth to new life and to a mystery that this child would be the Son of the Highest are more life-threatening - as well as belief-threatening - for Mary than ever before.
The angel is drawing Mary deeper into this new space of God’s dreams and vision that she does not yet know. Mary stands her ground and asks: “How will this be?”
The angel brings Mary deeper into her being and part of the divine future, where she herself has no control over what will happen or how new life will grow in her. No thinking nor planning will help her to gain any insight or overview. It is all the work of the Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
How to trust these words and have faith in them? For Mary, it is the moment to wake up, to bend the beam of attention back on to herself and her inner depth. Here, she needs to wait so long until her perspective changes and she sees the situation from the viewpoint of possibility and an emerging potential of new life, provided by God.
The angel brings an example for God’s extraordinary way of being involved in human lives, Elizabeth. “Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
Now Mary’s horizon widens from looking at herself to considering also other people - like Elizabeth, who experienced that the impossible of today is possible tomorrow. Widening the circle, being together with others on the journey, experiencing that new life in extraordinary ways is growing and helps to prepare a good space for Mary to respond from the bottom of her soul.
Again, what if … everything we are experiencing now is exactly the moment for which we were created?
In Mary grows the commitment to live from the emerging future that is promised by the angel and finds its roots in an inner knowing of truth - beyond all debates and justification. Mary is willing to act from her highest future potential. She is willing to bring to life the future of God’s salvation in Jesus for all and everything.
Mary understood that God’s plan depends on her willingness to respond and to bring it into being and make it a new reality. She commits herself to be part of God’s plan of salvation. “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your Word to me be fulfilled!”
Each day is an 'annunciation'
“Each day is an 'annunciation' - an invitation from the same Great Love that invited Mary to be a Christ-bearer. Now it is our turn. Will we also answer, 'Yes'? (Sr Joyce Rupp OSM)"
Happy Feast-day!
Agnes Lanfermann MMS, Society Coordinator