Willingness

Lately I’ve felt the need for greater relationship with Mother Mary.  I’ve made a small Mary altar by my chair (Jesus has moved across the room for now).  I have a picture of the infant Mary in the arms of Anna, her mother, and next to it a statue of Mary opening to God.   And that’s what struck me this morning, as I looked at her.  

Her downcast gaze is one we all know.  So many of us were raised on the ideal of Mary as the submissive, modest woman.  Whether we tried to be like her or spent our lives rebelling against that image, that was who she seemed to be.  But, as many other women (and men) knew, that was not the story of Mary.

When I see her standing with her hands open, her palms out, I do not see submission.  I see vulnerability and openness, willingness.  The difference between submission and openness is the difference between oppression and agency.  Mary is an active participant in what is happening in her life.  Not only could she have said, “No,” but she could have said “Yes” in a wrong tune.  She could have been grudging and resentful, a victim.  If she had, she would have raised a very different son.   Our history, our awareness of God through Jesus, might have been short-circuited by grudging parenting.

I know about saying “No” to the truth, and to possibility.  And I know about grudging submission.  Neither of them are the path of life.  Fortunately, many people teach me about saying “Yes” wholeheartedly, with palms open, standing up and ready.  They teach me to bring what I have, my gifts and my will and my wounds, and let God work in me and through me.  They teach me that vulnerability is a prerequisite for learning and growth.

Be with me, Mary.  Be with us all.  Show us how to be strong by being open.  Teach us the difference between submission and willingness.  Make us sites of creativity in a world of resignation, voices of freedom in a world of oppression.  Give us courage and joy in the struggle.  Amen.