Now Mary Said (I)

Now Mary said: "You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said." The inner calm of Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, proceeds from her unconditional surrender to God. Her whole being concentrates on Him as Creator and Redeemer, just as she exults in the Magnificat: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; He has looked with favor on his lowly servant." That is Mary all over: in her awareness of her littleness expecting all from God with a boundless confidence. A deep, imperturbable silence flows through her, because she has given full space to God to solemnize the immense miracle of the incarnation of His Son in her virginal womb. I use the word 'solemnize' rather than 'execute' for its deeper meaning, because the word is used for espousals. In fact Mary is the bride of the Holy Spirit. She wondered, however, how this would come about, to which the angel answered: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God." The same Elizabeth calls her blessed, because: "(...) blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled."