Annunciation (2)

Another quotation for today’s feast of the Annunciation. Sarah Boss has explored traditional Mariology from a feminist point of view, and asks if Mary’s humble assent to the angel is a form of acquiescence to domination. She concludes:

Is Mary’s fiat (“Let it be done to me according to your word”) the response of a slave who accedes to her master’s wishes regardless of her own preference? A case can be made for saying that the dominant tradition of interpretation of the Annunciation story gives little ground for such a reading. It seems more in keeping with the general tenor of Mary's cult through the ages (if not in the twentieth century) that Gabriel’s news of the Virgin’s impending motherhood should be viewed as a message which fulfils Mary’s deepest longings. That is to say, she does not have to “knuckle under” and do as she is told, because it is her own desire which is about to be realized. She is to be the bearer of her own Saviour, who is also the Redeemer of the world...

Mary’s will coincides with God’s will not because she has been coerced into accepting his lordship, but because the life and will of God are at the foundation of life and well-being of all God’s creatures, and Mary has recognized that...

The fecundity of God’s activity is thus not imposed on Mary, but springs up within and as a part of her, so that her desire, her conception, her gestation and childbearing are radically her own at the same time as being divine. Mary is, as it were, an icon of freedom from domination, who not only inspires in the devotee the hope for a world transformed, but already embodies that transformation in her own life.

Quote: Sarah Jane Boss, Empress and Handmaid: On Nature and Gender in the Cult of the Virgin Mary, London: Cassell, 2000, 217–219.
Ill.: Hari Santosa, The Annunciation, Asian Christian Art Association.