Mother Mary heard...

Find and lose.

--The Art Spirit

I have started to become obsessed with Mary. The Virgin Mary, Mary Mother of God. I'd never really paid much attention to Mary Mother of God before, having always related more to Mary Magdalene. (When we visited a mosque in Northern Ghana, and had our head scarves on, my friend Cristann told me, "You look like Mary." I said, "Thank you!" She specified, "Magdalene." I said, "...of course.") But, then I went to France. And they're OBSESSED with the Virgin Mary. All those churches named "Notre Dame de" , part of what is referred to as "the cult of the Virgin", this near-worship of Mary. I know, I know, it's a Catholic thing, but there's really something about the French and Mary that I'm quite curious about. French cathedrals infected me with Mary-obsession.

In church yesterday, we sang the hymn "To a Maid Engaged to Joseph", which made me think about the whole encounter between Mary and Gabriel.

The story is, Mary's a teenage virgin betrothed to Joseph, and she's visited by the angel Gabriel, who says, "CONGRATS! You're so blessed!" Mary is a bit frightened, as is understandable when you're being approached by a surprisingly complimentary heavenly being. So Gabriel says, "Don't be scared, God likes you a lot, you're gonna have a child! God's child!"

To which Mary says, "Uh.. no I'm not, I'm a virgin."

Then Gabriel's like, "This is GOD we're talking about here."

Now, it is often discussed in religious circles what a problem this is for Mary. She's engaged, she's really not supposed to be pregnant, she could very easily get stoned for this, because who's going to believe that an angel came and told her she was pregnant with God's child? This is creating a rather awkward situation. Joseph really has three options 1) marry her (unlikely) 2) dismiss her quietly, 3) have her stoned. Whether she dies or not, this is the ruin of her life as she knows it. I have to wonder if Mary's response ("Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word,") was more of a capitulating, "So be it!" than a joyous acceptance of the role she was about to play. (after all, it's not until she went to visit Elizabeth that she sings the Magnificat.)

What keeps getting me is Gabriel's salutation. "Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!"

"Hey Mary! Guess what! You're so lucky, God's going to plunge you into a really terrible situation where even on the off chance that your future husband believes you, the entire community you're around will shun you and despise you and think you're a lunatic, probably for your entire life. Also you get to raise God's son (no pressure), who's probably going to be rather difficult to discipline because he's GOD, after all. And, you know, according to the prophecies he's going to be rejected and despised by all men and suffer a terrible death which you'll probably be around for, so have fun dealing with that one."

Of course. This is so typical of God.

And yet, it is so true.

When God comes in and says, "I'm going to ruin all of your plans. I'm going to shake up everything you know and I'm going to make you confused and terrified,"... those are the moments we know that we are blessed beyond measure.

There was a hermit who was often ill. But one year he did not fall ill and he was very upset and wept saying, 'The Lord has left me, and has not visited me.'

--The Desert Fathers