Our Yes, Wrapped in Mary's

 

I saw so clearly that this present "womb" is not just a figure of speech. This week our Mother, the Church, immerses us in the Feast of the Annunciation. Mary's "yes" not only offers Jesus her womb; to her we are all Jesus, so she simultaneously offers it to us. Jesus' plea from the Cross, "Behold your Mother" (Jn.19:27), carries His yearning that we know the riches He knew in that "womb more spacious than the heavens," as the ancient Liturgy of St. Basil proclaims. There Mary gave the Second Person of the Trinity flesh and blood, eyes, ears, lungs, limbs, a beating heart, so that He could become one with us--"marry" us. There she gives us, whom "He is not ashamed to call...brothers" (Heb.2:11), the bridal chamber to "marry" him--to allow Him to deify us, to "lavish the divine nature upon us" (2Pet.1:4).

 

 

The magnificent Eastern symbol of the mandorla illustrates this meeting place of the divine and the human. There we find two circles, one representing heaven, the other earth, intersecting in such a way that an almond shape is formed at the place of their overlapping. Once this image is in our minds, it seems to pop everywhere from Sacred Art! Notice, for instance, Our Lady of Guadalupe's almond frame: her womb under the black sash is actually situated within this "womb." "Come right here," Mary's whole being invites. "My womb is your home, too. My Son became a human being here, so that in Him, you could become who He is. He entered into your human condition fully in this place. The security He experienced here allowed Him to endure all He suffered so that not one iota of your human misery would be foreign to Him. 'Son though He was, he learned obedience through His suffering' (Heb.5:8).  Your path is the same. Everything--everything--you experience in your present life is creating my Son's likeness in you if you will let it. Run to my womb--let it be your secure home as your "divine nature" is honed through the very particular circumstances of your life, with all their joy and anguish."

 

 

When I look at a depiction of the "Pieta" and see the agony on Mary's face as she takes her broken, utterly disfigured Son to herself, I think that everything in her maternal heart wants to press Him right into her womb, her deepest center, where all is safe, tender, infinitely sweet. She knows that Easter is coming. They must have talked about it. But the horror is so intense in this moment that she can be no place but right there. Exactly as she is with us on our Good Fridays. A sword pierces her heart for us as she absorbs our "I do" at the marriage bed of the Cross--those places where all our blood seems to drain out, where we are emptied completely, and there find our intimate union with our Bridegroom. She presses us to herself, enfolding us in her womb, longing to console us. Simultaneously, having experienced the radiance of her Son's Easter after his ghastly torture, she knows, with confidence and joy, "more than we could ask for or imagine" (Eph.3:20)) is coming for all her "Jesuses."  She sees so clearly, as only a mother can, as only His Mother can, how He will transform every specific agony we experience in this life into its corresponding, specific ecstasy.  And she enfolds us within her womb in the meantime, encouraging us, giving safety and sweetness to our Crosses.

 

"I go to prepare a place for you" (Jn.14:3), promised our Bridegroom. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, that our little-picture Lents may become big-picture Lents. Your "Yes" on the Feast of the Annunciation was integral to the whole life of your Son, from womb to risen life. It is integral to our life here in the Lenten womb of our earthly existence, with all its Calvarys, and to our Easter to come.  As you sheltered Emmanuel in your womb, shelter us in this preparatory womb, where the Holy Spirit overshadows us as you and He produce Jesus in us.  "Totus tuus," dear Mary.  We join our "yes" to yours. Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus, and all your beloved Jesuses.