He Left Her
Today’s Gospel is the story of the Anunciation: the angel Gabriel telling Mary that she, the “favored one”, will be the mother of God. Luke doesn’t say exactly what Mary was doing when visited by Gabriel, but I have a book, the cover of which is an enchanting imagination of Mary under a pear tree with her sewing box, a glass of water and a cat nearby as the angel hovers. So when I reflect on this gospel, this is what I have in mind: Mary relaxing in the shade, not doing the dishes.
If she was the least bit “detendue”, how her reverie must have been shattered by the appearance of this winged figure. One who speaks and knows her name. Her heart must have skipped not just one, but several, beats. But he is not a mere phantasm. He brings her great news. They converse. She is perplexed and asks questions. He even passes on a little family gossip: an elderly cousin is also pregnant “for nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary did not have Google handy to look up “Gabriel”, “Son of the Most High” and “Holy Spirit”. She had to absorb, at least a little, of what was being said to her in real time, and Luke doesn’t make it sound like the angel stayed very long. Yet Mary said yes. Yes to unexpected motherhood. Yes to trust. Yes to God’s plan.
But imagine all those yeses lingering in the ether because Luke writes that the angel departs, leaving the young, pregnant girl alone – wherever she was, with her sewing kit or the dishes – and perhaps, with the first pangs of morning sickness. In the void left by rustling wings, she must have had more questions: a desire for advice or some idea of the plan going forward. But she is left with none of those things. Just a yes. In her own small voice.
Much has been written about Mary’s holiness, personal strength and unalloyed acquiescence. But it is not difficult to see her, in the wake of that visiting angel, unsure, confused and very alone. How she gathered herself in the following days – to tell her parents, to inform her betrothed without knowing how he might react, visiting Elizabeth – is where we find her real intestinal fortitude.
The angel Gabriel did his job and left Mary to hers. She is not so unlike the many women who must figure out how to make difficult situations work. Men, in the form of angels or otherwise, pass through giving information and instructions but often do not stick around, leaving the women responsible (but not always in charge) and unsupported. In Mary’s case, we know that God blessed her uniquely for this miraculous role, and in the human realm, she was lucky to have Joseph, a true partner.
We don’t know exactly how old Mary was when this happened to her, but she was likely just a girl. A girl left alone with that big news and her own thoughts. Then she said yes and grew up.