She was just an ordinary girl…or was she? Was Mary just your run-of-the-mill Jewish girl or was she so remarkable, even as a child, that she’d stand out in a crowd? Tradition has it that Mary was the long-hoped for child of Ann and Joachim’s longing. Tradition also has it that she is the woman wrapped in silence. Scripture itself is hushed. Very little is said of her.
In our day there is a renewed interest in this woman who birthed the Son of God. What possible model can she be for the common man and woman struggling in a society that has largely settled for secularism? More, what possible meaning can her privileges have for us who are all too conscious of our sin-struggles?
The teaching of the Church, that this woman was spared the infection of the sin of the world at the moment of her conception, may mean more for each of us than we thought. We have a sneaking suspicion that what we say of her pertains to us as Church, and as individuals. Me? I’m about as far from being an immaculate conception as I am from being a millionaire.
Are you so sure? Merton claims there is a “spot” at the depths of the soul, a “point of light” that belongs to God alone, untouched by human sin; a place where who we are comes forth from God. This spot is long forgotten by us, and as consciousness unfolds, we become infested with the decisions of those who went before us. We come “under the influence” of the sin of others, and the infection attempts to influence our choices to add to the dis-ease. In our sin-amnesia have we lost sight of our original face? Do we only know ourselves as marred, as scarred?
This Lady is our mirror. When we look at her we see ourselves as we shall be when the Holy Spirit has its way with us, when our resistance to the will of God has melted, and we shine because we are so full of God – a good thought coming out of May and into the sun of summer…
