The Annunciation

My will be done!  To see the fierce tantrums in a two-year-old’s little body may amuse us. She seeks power from her powerlessness and is rehearsing necessary autonomy.  A fragile old lady from her sick bed can require the curtain to be placed just so. 

One of the most difficult murmurings ever to escape one’s lips is ‘OK. Do it your way.’ From life’s dawn to dusk we cling to exerting our personal will. A driver of healthy personhood, the will is after all, a legitimate dynamic source of our hobbies, art, literature and choices of lifestyle activity. The will to push oneself in advancing age echoes Katherine Hepburn’s observation ’Old age ain’t for wimps.’ The stubborn will to rehabilitate after illness or addiction can arouse our great admiration. We humans truly need our strength of will.

As Mary’s ‘Ecce ancilla domini’ – “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” - is one of the most touching moment in scripture, so is it one of the most powerful.  She had much to question, and she did.  She had much to fear, and she did. She had much to risk, and she did.  But how readily came her fiat!  ‘Full of grace’ meant de-clogging one’s will so that God’s action flowed unimpeded. It meant that a reflecting mirror was clear and limpid. It meant getting out of the way. It meant relaxing in confident intimacy. ‘Full of grace’ implied a beautiful balance between the vitality of her humanity and the divinity that was to embrace her. The Lord waited patiently until that moment. The subsequent glory of the Nativity echoes the high stakes involved. Much reward awaits those saints who aspire to do but the will of God, stumbling, groping, but practising daily.

Four year olds are delightful.  With arms on hips one tiny Edward said, across a room to his grandma.-‘You just think you’re boss of the world.  Well you’re not.  God is.’  Perhaps he had summed it all up?

So a balance is again what is required. A challenging adolescent needs a mature adult parent who concedes to the emerging adult. If only! Many fractured families result from the lack of awareness of the significance of Will and of wise compromise. Many a young bride finds herself warring with her mother over an absurdity like mashed potatoes. Many a triviality has sown ridiculous sad dissension. May families be blessed with members who respect the will of each! Of such is the Divine Will.

Hail Mary! Help us to be imitators of you in your humility at the Annunciation!

                                                Margaret Moore, Dominican Ex-student