Dear brothers and sisters,
Happy feasts and blessed Christmas to you all, so unusual and perhaps a little melancholic for some of us this year. Many people are forced to stay in self-isolation, sometimes on their own, in the company of social media, Zoom and Netflix - the three whales on whom our mental stability rests this year.
Recently, browsing through some Christmas pictures saved on the laptop, I came across the painting of Botticelli and it attracted my attention more than in the past years. Here is what it tells me today.
Never before I noticed that it represents a particular facet of the Christmas story. A moment we less often pay attention to in the usual narrative. The moment that is nonetheless very important. The moment of doubt and uncertainty that separates the annunciation of the good news from the lifechanging “yes”.
Mary’s arms are stretched, but the position of hands suggest hesitation. She has not turned fully to the divine herald. She is not in a hurry. Wide voluminous folds of the heavy fabric of her dress add monumentality to the figure, reflecting the weight of the decision.
Her face expresses deep recollection. The message has been delivered but she is not looking at the messenger, nor is she looking back to decide whether she is ready to depart from the comfortable image of the world she knows so well.
Where is her attention directed then? She is looking inside herself.
She is given time to do that and this time is hallowed by God.
What does she see? We don’t know.
Maybe there is the struggle going on between the inviting impulse of love and the fear of the unknown. Maybe she is embracing the overwhelming vision of the inexpressible sorrows that are going to come together with joy. Maybe she is in silent adoration. Maybe… you might think of your own hypothesis.
We will never know for sure.
Gabriel doesn’t know the answer neither. Almost trembling he kneels in front of the mysterious dialogue going on between her and the Holy Spirit. With baited breath he is trying to catch the slightest changes in her mimic that would preannounce the salvific “be unto me according to your word”. Not only the angelic world - all “the mortal flesh keeps silence” as well. The nature is stilled.
Despite many preachers’ attempt of interpretation, the union that lead to the incarnation remains between the Virgin and the divine person of the Holy Spirit, who shares with her the strength of the Almighty Himself.
All attempts to understand and schematize the narrative can never get close to the truth, because the truth is always greater than what we can possibly imagine.
This is the message for us today: the best is yet to come, is yet to be disclosed.
I wish that in this season we can look inside ourselves in silence and recollection to wait patiently for the grace and truth to be revealed, so that our mouth can speak what the heart is full of. (Luke VI,45)
God bless you, merry ladies and gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, for Jesus Christ our Saviour is born and no restrictions of this world can separate us from Him.
May our blessed Mother, the saints and the angels guide, protect and accompany you.
Merry Xmas!
Ksenia
