The message of the angel interrupted Mary’s daily routine and life’s dreams to such an extent that ‘she was greatly troubled’. “But how can this be…”.From the moment of Mary’s response “be it done unto me, according to thy Word”, Mary life was fulfilled. This does not mean that Mary lived in blissful earthly happiness every subsequent moment. Jump ahead 12 years to her search for a missing son, or 33 years later to the moment when she held her dead son. But always, in the depth of her heart, she was at peace in God.This depth of peace, at a deeper level than all daily demands and regular routines, is also the deepest desire of every human person. This peace is our “default setting“.
There is a challenge in allowing God to enter our lives. It is not a simple or easy birth. In the moment of deepest desire for the fulness of God’s life, we also feel the pain of having to let go of our old attachments. While we know that our personal dreams, projects and likes can never deliver the depth of joy and peace we desire, their is a deceptive and superficial comfort in these familiar traps.
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”
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