Fiat

My self-control this morning was admirable. A group of employees of a church had been debating a question which was directed to me for resolution. Was the Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" a reference to the old custom of tapping a deceased pope's forehead to ascertain that he had died?

With today's being the Feast of the Annunciation, there are easily fifty related themes on which I could dwell. Though I prefer the approach which Irenaeus, rather than Augustine, took towards original sin, the Franciscan in me cannot help but recall a position which my own Order held, and which has a certain charm. Franciscans, whether they understood Augustine or not (more likely the latter), did tend to promote the Immaculate Conception during the Middle Ages, much to the chagrin of Thomas Aquinas. Well, developing that favourite devotion most creatively, some Franciscans spoke of how , with Mary's being preserved from the impairment of reason and will which had existed since the unfortunate expelling from Eden, her 'fiat' was unique, amongst all save Christ, in that it was free of any selfishness.

That treatment is poetic, of course, but poetry is a favourite mode of expression for me. Luke would place a canticle of humble trust in God, and of exaltation in God's fulfilment of covenant, on Mary's lips in his account of the annunciation.

What on earth is total conformity to the will of God? Rhetorical question, of course - I doubt any one of us could have the answer. It goes beyond morality, most certainly, and most of us have quite enough struggle with that alone. Yet I would imagine it has much to do with such absorption in praise and worship that selfishness is quite alien. The great mystics reached a point where the only desire they had left was for God - and then had to deal with the frustration and darkness of such total love for the Transcendent One.

In the light of the Incarnation and Resurrection, Mary would know that, in her otherwise probably very ordinary life, she had been the tabernacle for the Incarnate Lord. May the grace of God transform all of us into His image and likeness. (Oh, how Augustinian of me!) ;)