Something about Mary
I had a small revelation about Mary at the Annunciation during this year’s 8-day Spiritual Exercises. Maybe because we’re used to emphasizing her tender age when she became pregnant with Jesus, not to mention her innocence, I had always seen Mary as basically naïve. I had understood her inner movements around the Annunciation and Visitation more or less like this: first (when the angel shows up) she’s scared, then (when he explains what’s happening) she asks an obvious question, then she accepts, then she goes and serves (her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant in old age).
In contemplating the Incarnation on my retreat, though, I discovered a different Mary, one much more akin to the young women in my neighborhood. Her fear and surprise at the angel’s greeting can also be read as a discerning suspicion – she doesn’t respond to his sweet talk until she is certain that the intentions are good. And even after closing the deal, she seeks confirmation – note that Mary sings the victorious Magnificat only after seeing that her cousin Elizabeth is indeed pregnant, as the angelic messenger had told her. This Mary is just as innocent – indeed, Immaculate – and as good as she was before in my imagination, but now she is not at all naive. Rather, this young woman is an expert in “Second Week” discernment, who cooperates with the Holy Spirit insofar as she is sure that she’s dealing with that spirit and not some impostor.
This takes away none of her humility, availability, or commitment – on the contrary, it only strengthens it. Surely, this is the Mary who later taught her son to be “as simple as a dove, but as clever as a serpent.” This is the Mary who “kept these things in her heart,” prudently keeping her mouth shut much of the time. Perhaps the image that best captures this attitude is Our Lady of the Way (NS della Strada), i.e., Our Lady of the Street – an image in which both Mary and the baby Jesus, with poker faces, seem to be staring at the viewer, waiting to see what the viewer will do or say before changing their expression or responding.
Is it mere coincidence that this image became so central in the life of St. Ignatius, that master of discernment who teaches us to be suspicious of the evil spirit disguised as the angel of light? (Incidentally, it’s certainly no coincidence that this facet of Our Lady of the Way was brought to my attention by a Jesuit friend who is very much a New Yorker.) Seeing Mary as a street-smart – and still absolutely innocent and tremendously loving – young woman “brings her home” for me, and makes her much more interesting. I can see her reflected more easily now, for example, in the young women in our parish’s youth group. And this Mary, I think, has a lot to teach us.
