Lent Day 1: Unfair Annunciations in Luke 1

As a Lenten discipline, I am reading one chapter of the Bible a day, and then writing a brief daily reflection which I will be posting here. Conveniently, the Gospel of Luke and Corinthians 1 add up to precisely 40 chapters, so I shall plan on reflecting first on the Gospel of Luke and then on 1 Corinthians. (It actually works out the same if after Luke, I go to the Gospel of Mark or to Romans. There is much to be said with any of these three paths, and while I currently plan on sticking to 1 Corinthians, I’ll simply go as the Spirit wills me after completing Luke.) I make the caveat these are just the product of single day reflections, and I am still in school, so please forgive content that might not be as well thought out or even possibly erroneous.

Luke 1 tells the story of the Annunciation. Everyone knows the story, in which the Archangel Gabriel gives us the opening lines to the Hail Mary with his greeting in 1:28. A much less talked about part of the story is Gabriel’s appearance to Zachariah in the Temple sanctuary to announce the conception of John the Baptist in his elderly wife—who so happens to be Mary’s sister. In response to Gabriel’s statement that to Zechariah “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, you prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him john. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. . . .” (1:13-14).

Imagine yourself in Zechariah’s shoes, being told that your elderly wife . Not only is it physically impossible—it’s dangerous. Pregnancy was dangerous enough at the time without being old while doing it. Much like we would if told we had just won the lottery simply by wishing for it (after all, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is), Zechariah’s first reaction was doubt. “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” (1:18). However much we might have done the same thing, Gabriel wasn’t impressed. In return for looking a gift horse in the mouth, he is struck mute until the birth of his son, because he “did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” (1:19). Even his wife wasn’t impressed. When Mary visits her, Elizabeth greets her with the words, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled”—in case her husbands sixth month of muteness had made him forget his initial doubt. (1:45)

First off, this seems unfair. Sure, Mary famously says, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (1:38). However, her first reaction was remarkably similar to Zechariah’s: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”(1:34). She expresses the same doubt, and instead of being punished with muteness, Gabriel replies not only that “the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” but gives further proof—her sister Elizabeth has conceived a son. If it’s possible for her, certainly it’s possible for Mary! Only then, after this assurance, does Mary acquiesce to be the Lord’s handmaid.

So how can we reconcile this discrepancy, where doubt in one case is punished, and in the next is understood? Same input: different outputs. On one level, we have to face the reality is that God is not fair, in our human understanding of it. God is just, and does not show “partiality” (Acts 10:34-35), but He’s not fair, in the sense of modern day American sensibilities. He does not always match up the same output for a given input.

He’s not fair, but he does consider context. Consider the result of punishing Zechariah with muteness. “When he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary.” (1:22). Alternatively, what would have happened if Mary were struck mute? Not only is it unlikely Jesus would have been born (unlike Zechariah, whose previous prayer was being granted, it does not appear that Mary had never prayed to be mother of the Messiah), but imagine a pregnant fiancée trying to convince her future husband that the reason she was pregnant was not that she cheated on him, but that she will be “overcome with the power of the Most High.” Now imagine her trying to communicate to him why she was pregnant, mute. If your fiancée came home mute and pregnant, your first reaction wouldn’t be that you were witnessing a miracle—it’d probably be that your fiancée had been raped. By the time she could correct him effectively, it would have been 9 months. What if he told other people of that suspicion? What if he couldn’t shake off something so traumatic that he had believed for 9 months. What if he was convinced he knew who had “done it,” and tried to pin rape on an innocent? This is not cloud of doubt God would want surrounding the birth of His son.

So God is not fair, but He does have a plan. It would not have been in that plan to have His son’s birth surrounded with sorrow rather than joy. Zechariah, on the other hand. So when we see something that doesn’t seem fair, think to yourself, what is the context? What is God’s plan? It just might be the case that God cares about more than just matching up output to input.

An Open Letter to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Dear Srs. Deacon, Farrell, and Zinn:

I am writing to express my solidarity with the LCWR during this time while it is in dialogue with the Church in this aftermath of the doctrinal Assessment.  I was praying for you during your meeting these last few days, and was pleased to read of your intent to engage the Church in dialogue over its objections to some of the theological views of your Sisters the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith found in its doctrinal assessment released this past April.

I was very active these past four years in my campus ministry as a student at Duke University, and I plan on continuing when I begin law school at the end of the month.  Unsurprisingly on a University campus, I encountered many Catholics who had many questions and struggles with the Catholic faith, which the current official explanations were insufficient to allay.  I myself struggle with numerous Church doctrines, and have taken all means I have seen possible to inform my conscience.  (Indeed, after I complete my J.D., I am seriously considering applying for a theology degree.).  Yet, the ecclesiastical hierarchy seems increasingly hard of hearing with respect to any sensus fidelium (Lumen Gentium 12), and the ability of our primary “teachers of the faith…and pastors”—our  Bishops—and their ability to “seek out men and both request and promote dialogue with them“ nearly impossible with so many other demands on their time (Christus Dominus 2, 11).

You and your Sisters are an inspiration for us Catholics in whom God has planted an invitation to engage with our faith at a deeper level.  As Sister Pellegrino of the Sisters of St. Joseph said at your conference, your use of dialogue can “model something different for our culture, for our politic, and for the Mystical Body of Christ.”  We are indeed one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  However, our call to oneness must always be understood in the context of our catholic universality, and the authority of apostolic succession must be understood that holiness is granted to the whole Church—all “the holy people of God”—not merely those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Mary, who was no priest, had perhaps the most direct revelation of God’s Word of any man or woman who has ever lived.  Yet she needed no permission by either the religious authorities of her time or by Joseph for her to say yes to God’s call, or for her obedience to God’s authority in heaven to result in a worldwide renewal of faith.   I pray for Mary’s intercession on your case—that the Star of Wisdom and Comfort of the Afflicted may stand by you and strengthen you for what must be a trying time.

Thank you for all you do, and please know that I am continually praying for the success of your effort.

In Christ,

Shane