Let your will be done

 It seems awfully strange to be in the middle of Lent and yet celebrating the Annunciation a joyful event in the midst of the recognition of our sinfulness. However, as we consider this anomaly, we need to recognise that it is a good example for us to consider in terms of our own lives and our own position in light of Mary's fate filled words of obedience. For in essence these are the words that should fill our hearts at a time, such as Lent, as the journey towards the cross and the appearance of new life is a journey of total obedience that has been learnt through the trials of history, again and again by individuals. Looking back through time we can see the moments when the Christian faith produces timeless knowledge that sprouts from the minds of the influential mystics and theological giants of the ages.

Are we prepared for the obedience of Mary?

Ahaz to a certain extent learns the lesson of obedience in a somewhat awkward exchange with God (Is 7:10-13). Like us, Ahaz has determined for himself how to respond to God believing that what he thinks is for the best. God asks him to ask for a sign but he stubbornly believes that he does not require a sign and should not pester God in is this moment. Unlike other passages within the scriptures, which I am sure Ahaz was perhaps thinking of, this is not a test but a command and in refusing the command God gives the vision and speaks of the coming sign. A sign is to be seen as something that points the way forward and we so often misconstrue the sign for the end point and divert our energy towards the sign and not towards the end point to which it points. The author of Hebrews is perhaps, in an oblique manner pointing to the same thing in terms of signs and signification when speaking about sacrifice (10.4-10).

The sacrifice that God wants is a sacrifice within our own hearts. The sacrifice or making sacred required to be enacted on a regular occasion is in reality something that is of significance because it points towards God's presence. It is a visible and a visceral sign that points to God's presence within the participating community. It brings to life that aspect of the Holy embodied in God's presence as we make things sacred. Yet, if we are to dwell on the act of sacrifice in this manner we obscure the real sacrifice that we do not wish to make for ourselves and that is the sacrifice of our own selves. An act of faith in the ultimate other. We cannot bear the thought of the loss that comes with such a sacrifice as it means or rather, we think it means, a total loss of self. The possibility of such a loss is too much for us to bear within our hearts and minds. Yet, this sacrifice is our surrender to God of ourselves which we proclaim at the end of each Eucharistic service. Those words said in such a routine manner that they have in reality become meaningless to ourselves until we are confronted with the response that Mary gives.

We have engrained within our very being the notion of self, for those of us from a Western European heritage or those that have been caught within the educative processes of such a heritage. We have lost the ability of surrender and are unable to conceive for ourselves what such a sacrifice and stepping out in faith means. We have become the Israelites who failed to enter the Promised Land. The cultural background that is present in Mary's response is a background that gives to God obedience to God's presence and a recognition of the community to which we belong that is also in God. We have grown accustomed to the understanding that we are solely responsible for ourselves and ourselves alone. In this case obedience is no longer a discipline that we aspire to as it can lead to so many problematics within our lives. Even as children in the modern world the understanding of obedience is limited and rebelled against. Yet, for those that are called by God into a ministry of any sort the underlying discipline in that call is obedience to God's word and not to our own desires. This is of course even more so for those called into ordained ministry. So as we continue to walk towards the cross at Easter, entering into the final weeks of the journey, we need to take up our cross which is our lack of understanding and wilful neglect of our obedience to God, so that we can understand that greater purpose that is present in such obedience.