Advent always leads me to reflect on the Virgin Mary. In Luke’s gospel she is courageous, decisive, adventurous, and thoughtfully reflective. She is not at all like the submissively obedient girl she is often made out to be in popular culture.
As Luke records it men are kept silent and for the most part it is Mary and her kinswoman Elizabeth who have voice. Joseph is never heard from and makes a few decisions that move the narrative along. Mary’s discourse with the angel Gabriel is assertive and probing. It’s her decision to travel fifty miles or more to visit Elizabeth and stay for three months. It is she and Elizabeth who declared to the reader what was happening. It is the two women who affirm that the names of their babies are John and Jesus. It is Mary who ponders all these things in her heart.
I suspect Mary was known in Nazareth as a rather headstrong young woman whose exuberance for life was a little out of step with the decorum expected of proper girls entering the age of marriage.
In Luke, Joseph is a figure lingering in the background, coming forward only when needed. It is in Matthew’s gospel that Joseph takes the lead to care for and protect the infant Jesus and his mother. Mary is silent. The difference is what had to make Luke’s narrative appear radical and possibly threatening to the patriarchal customs of the time. Perhaps it is still too radical for some which may explain why Mary is made to look meek, mild and obedient.
A final thought comes to mind when I think about Mary. In each celebration of the Eucharist Jesus has given us his body and blood in bread and wine, the holy food of new and unending life. Mary fed the Son of God with her body and blood for nine months, giving ‘him’ new life that made the incarnation of God’s Word possible. She is indeed worthy to be called blessed, the Theotokos.
Wow…what a reminder of Mary, The Theotokos!
H+