Mary's Interruption

I was recently talking to someone who commented, almost as an aside, I always think that the Annunciation should be called the Interruption... as Mary's life was never the same again...! This, I'd add, is as true for us as it was for Mary. Whether experienced as a sudden, dramatic moment, or as a gradual infusion, God's urgent, insistent call always means an Interruption, and often a life-changing goodbye to some cherished dreams and plans.

Art, though, has generally focused on the Annunciation; the only interruption might be to Mary's sewing or housework - but often, we don't see even this. Occasionally Mary looks scared or overwhelmed; mostly, though, she is composed, untroubled, and quietly acquiescent... Whatever cataclysms Gabriel might have announced, Mary is calm and consenting, even though her life has been truly and dramatically altered beyond anything she might ever have imagined.

Which brings me to today's feast of Mater... Life in the UK has been precarious and unstable for some time: levels of anxiety and insecurity are increasing, whilst our government seems to be living through constant resignations and in-fighting, with our Prime Minister teetering on the edge of collapse. And in the midst of all this the Society celebrates this serenely still and rosy young woman caught up in God knows what thoughts.

What can she say to us today? Is she, I wonder, pre- or post-Interruption? 

Is she pre-Interruption: still on the cusp of marriage and maturity; still contemplating God's boundless love and immensity, unaware of the part she will soon play in bringing Love to life? Or is she post-Interruption: has Gabriel visited, and now left her? Is she now pregnant, filling with new life? Has her contemplation turned ever more inwards, with an awareness of the Love which has started growing deep within her... and ever more outwards, as she begins to become Jesus' admirable Mother? 

Is she serene, despite knowing her life will never be the same again... maybe because she knows it will never be the same again...? Maybe - who knows? - she has already given her world-changing, open-hearted YES to God, and allowed the power of the Most High to overshadow, fill and transform her... 

Here, surely, is the source of the strength this ordinary young girl would need for the most extraordinary of lifelong missions.

Today, in the midst of so much turmoil, violence and fear, so many shifting sands, may Jesus' admirable Mother pray for us all. And like her, may we too give our open-hearted YES to whatever God asks of us, allowing the life-changing power of the Most High to overshadow, fill and transform us...