Spirituality of the Readings
Listening With the Heart
In the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, Are St Luke and the Church showing us the externals of the Advent narrative? No. They are giving the inside of it.
“May it be done unto me according to your word,” Mary says. Why? Her “inside story” is dramatically significant to the whole human race, and her words issue from the center of who she is.
Sometimes we do not notice that there is also a parallel account to Mary’s Annunciation in Luke (Lk 1:18-25), and it is hinted at by the angel to Mary.
Thus, Gabriel makes two Annunciations, one just after the other. Each is about a child to be born. Interestingly, as things stood, neither one was feasible. Mary had no husband and she had never Elizabeth was barren, so she could not have a child.
But after this second Annunciation, Zechariah is struck deaf and mute, while Mary, initially fearful, accepts peacefully. Compare the two:
1. Zechariah: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
2. Mary: “Tell me how this can be, since I have no relations with a man?”
Ponder these.
1. Zechariah’s reply, while realistic, is insulting. He is saying to the angel, “give me some reason to believe what you are saying. Just hearing you say it is not enough.”
This kind of doubt should never have occurred to Zechariah. God’s voice had already spoken God’s love into his heart throughout his whole life (like David’s in the First Reading).His trust in God’s promise should have been the deepest meaning of his existence. In this sense, Zechariah did not receive the words of the angel (and so was deaf to it and became literally deaf), and therefore unable to speak it to his wife, Elizabeth (and therefore literally mute).
Mary on the other hand simply asked clarification. She seemed to know already that “nothing is impossible to God.” —"Just tell me how this is going to happen so I can gladly do it.”
Looking at both annunciations gives us an insight, too often hidden. It helps us immensely to understand Mary’s “inside story”: how she listened with her heart.
How much do you and I listen to the voice of God's promise within our hearts, which is written in our hearts too, if we let it be.
Do our own words just spout out of us without reference to that unwavering love deep within? If so, we may be like Zechariah: hard of hearing when it comes to the beauties and needs of those around us‚ speechless when a word of love would make all the difference.
Let us ask humbly on this last day of Advent for the grace to listen and to hear. The one who promised will not fail. Watch tomorrow!
John Foley, SJ
**From Saint Louis University