A Reflection for Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent
Find today’s readings here.
“How can this be?”
This is the moment of the great “Yes!”—the “yes” that has been pondered and painted and written about for centuries. I was raised in churches that had relatively little relationship with Mary, having become Catholic as an adult. Yet each Advent, her fiat, presented as complete subservience to God, was held up as the primary example of how to live a life of faith. I knew a Mary whose head was always bowed in humble and meek submission, but it was years before I ever noticed the other lines in the story: the ones where Mary is troubled, the ones where she bravely engages an archangel to ask, “How can this be?”
In truth, Luke’s Mary is a strong and spirited woman who knows her own mind. She is unafraid to question God’s messenger; clearly, her relationship with God is already intimate and deep. We see Mary knows and trusts God’s love enough to not let fear overtake her. Surely, they have a history of conversation and communion.
I like to think God loves a “how” question.
The very nature of Mary’s questioning also reveals the closeness of her relationship with God—she asks Gabriel not “why?” but “how?” For us, it is so often easy to get stuck in the “why”: Why this? Why now? Why me? And in times of darkness in our own lives or in our world, this line of questioning can overwhelm and paralyze us. Wouldn’t it be something if we could imitate Mary in our own relationship with God and move our focus more quickly to the “how” of what God asks of us? “God, how can I be your light in this sometimes dark world? How are you and I and others going to move through this challenge together? How do we navigate this darkness, loneliness or loss together? How are you going to help me accomplish your will? How can this be?”
I like to think God loves a “how” question. “How?” acknowledges God’s fidelity and God’s power to overcome. “How?” means we have a relationship with Christ such that we are in conversation and working together. “How?” is full of faith! “How?” is full of hope!
In his prison writings, Alfred Delp, S.J., speaks of worship and prayer as acts of “trust and love.” What a beautifully articulated awareness of how we build our relationship with our Creator, regardless of what life delivers. Worship and prayer are the means by which we move beyond the “why?” and get to the “how?” For once we are enfolded in relationship with Christ, abounding in love and trust, then we can use the full force of our gifts and strengths in cooperation with the Divine. Then we, like Mary, can collaborate with grace in bringing Christ into our world.
