Warning: disruption ahead

In his painting entitled “Annunciation”, Irish artist Adam Pomeroy imagines Mary as a contemporary young Irish woman. What do you notice?

I was first struck by the portrait’s simplicity. So often it seems like Mary is so decorated that she ends up looking twice her age & way more wealthy than she actually was. With less ornamental attire and embellished scenery, it was easier to focus on Mary’s seemingly stunned expression.

She seems unable to process what is happening to her. She is totally taken off guard. Rightly so.

This is one of the stories in the gospel of Luke that prepares us to meet Jesus. Luke begins his account by telling us about not just one, but two impossible pregnancies and the reactions of the parents who receive their unexpected news. It’s like Luke is laying the groundwork for a story where disruption is not the exception, but the rule. He’s trying to warn us: if we aren’t prepared, we’ just might miss it.

It’s been a year of disruptions, and sometimes I have felt like Mary looks in this portrait: dazed, confused & unable to move. But, it’s here, in the chaos and uncertainty, in the tension & the unsettledness, in our unknowing & our longing that we are invited into a story.

It’s a story in which disruptions are not only normal, but they have the power to birth something new.

I get the sense from Mary’s expression that she knew there was no going back to her life as she knew it. Her body, her relationships, her life would never be the same. And yet somehow she found the courage to move from “how can this be?” to “let it be”. And I wonder what that shift would look like for us.

I wonder what it would look like to loosen our grip on life as we knew it and to make ourselves more available for the dawning of something new - something more life-giving, something more loving and just and generous, something that will bring heaven to earth.