Annunciation and Anawim

"A Little Litany" by G. K. Chesterton

When God turned back eternity and was young,
Ancient of Days, grown little for your mirth,
As under the low arch the land is bright.
Peered through you, gate of heaven - and saw the earth.

Or shutting out His shining skies awhile
Built you about Him for a house of gold
To see in pictured walls his storied world
Return upon him as a tale is told.

Or found his mirror there; the only glass
That would not break with that unbearable light
Till in a corner of the high dark house
God looked on God, as ghosts meet in the night.

Star of his morning; that unfallen star
In the strange starry overturn of space
When earth and sky changed places for an hour
And heaven looked upwards in a human face.

Or young on your strong knees and lifted up
Wisdom cried out, whose voice is in the street
And more than twilight of twiformed cherubim
Made of his throne indeed a mercy seat.

Or risen from play at your pale raiment's hem
God, grown adventurous from all time's repose
Of your tall body climbed the ivory tower
And kissed upon your lips a mystic rose.

Reading of Pope John Paul's nearing death today, it saddened me to think that, when he does leave this world, the media (and many bloggers) shall forget his enormous contributions, preferring instead to cast him as a misogynist who opposes contraception, the ordination of women, and abortion. (I am strongly 'with him' on that last - not on the first two matters - but think it silly that, again and again, these topics are dragged out as if everything were in the hands of one man... who was whimsically throwing around his authority...) I recall, during the days when I had reason to read the Catholic News Service, that John Paul, who seemed strong enough to carry a cathedral on his back and surely was not one for sentimentality, referred to the Mother of Jesus nearly every day. I heard today that he hoped to live until the feast of the Annunciation is observed on Monday next.

Undoubtedly, I shall think of a few reflections on the Annunciation, yet, for the moment, I am reminded of how Raymond E. Brown gave Mary's "exaltation of the lowly" quite a lovely treatment. Fr Brown wrote of the Anawim of the first century - those who embraced an ascetic vocation, based on simple, humble trust in God. My own readers may brace themselves for a fuller exposition of that idea later...

Who more than Mary had to face much she could not understand? Or more of being misunderstood herself? With the feast's being transferred this year, a liturgical nut like myself is reminded of how Mary had the horrid solitude of Calvary - but also came to much understanding of her Son's full identity only in the light of the resurrection. The awe Mary must have felt at Gabriel's greeting undoubtedly paled next to that of the post-resurrection understanding.