They can’t both be true. But they are.
I participate in a Zoom group where we practice “Imaginative Prayer.”* Recently, we practiced Imaginative Prayer with the passage below, often called “The Annunciation,” when the angel came to Mary and told her she would become pregnant with the Savior, Jesus Christ. The group leader read through the passage from three different Bible translations, and this time, I was struck most by this version from a translation called “The Voice.”
I love this story and have imagined it many times. In my imagination, I see what is like a movie, beginning with an aerial shot of a little village, and slowly the camera zooms in to one little house in the village. A young girl is sweeping the porch (often, my imagination features a more “up-to-date” image than what is likely more true to Bible times). In my imagined story, the girl’s mother is standing in the doorway, watching through the screen door what happens as her daughter converses with the angel. (Some time after I had this “vision,” I found out there is a long tradition in the Catholic church about Mary’s mother, St. Anne, which I think is pretty cool.)
Every time I imagine this story of Mary being visited by an angel, I am struck by the angel’s words, “You are favored,,,” and “You have found favor with God.” Favored? I think. Being favored by God doesn’t seem like such a pleasant thing. I suppose Mary did not know this at the time, but when her son grows up, she’ll find herself standing at the foot of the cross where her son is being tortured and killed. Her cousin Elizabeth, too, whom the angel mentions, is filled with joy to learn she will become pregnant and that son, John the Baptist, is beheaded by Herod. I think of many of us at this time of life, when we have adult children living lives of their own: how often we pray about them with a myriad of troubles—mental illness, addiction, dysfunctional relationships, disease, tragic occurrences for their children (our grandchildren), and struggles of many kinds. Is being “favored of God” a good thing?
I refuse to believe that God gives us bad things or even allows them. I believe the bad things come from Satan, from the evil in the world, the stuff that Paul talks about when he says he is convinced that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38). But how does that fit in with God having a plan, with God being God?
I don’t know. Those two beliefs—evil is not from God and God has a plan—cannot, in my mind, both be true. Yet, I believe they both are. I’ve always liked the scientific finding that light is both a particle and a wave.** Those two things cannot both be true. But they are. So there, two things that cannot both be true, can both be true—are both true.
Back to the whole “favored” thing: As I wrote, it seems dubious to my tiny brain that being favored to bear a son who will eventually be tortured and killed right in front of me is what I would think of as a favor or blessing. Yet, I remember when we learned we were pregnant with our children and the ecstatic joy at their birth, the fun of watching them grow into toddlerhood and beyond. I guess one thing to note is that it’s probably a good thing we don’t know the future, but in this case, too, I would not choose not to have any of my children even if I did know the future. Maybe Mary felt the same way.
Our children have and continue to give us immense joy. We love being loved by and loving them. We get a kick out of their children—what they say and do. We enjoy participating in their lives. At the same time, we are saddened by their troubles. There is so much we cannot control or even feel like we can control. It is hard to bite our tongues and say nothing when we think we have wisdom to share, to have the words we do say misinterpreted as judgement and condemnation. Joy mixed with sadness—such is life.
Anyway, this session of imaginative prayer made me consider holding my feelings about the bad things that happen in a different way. Not just that they work together for good, as Romans 8:28 says. Somehow even more than that. Somehow, maybe, they are good. I don’t know. I feel like there is a contradiction there, a tension, that I will pray I can live in.
I would love to hear your thoughts on living in this tension.
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* Journey Center Zoom Imaginative Prayer. Imaginative Prayer or Ignatian Contemplation definition
** Light, is It a Wave or a Particle? Canon Science Lab, Canon Global, Chapter 1: The Mysteries of Light
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The Annunciation
Six months later in Nazareth, a city in the rural province of Galilee, the heavenly messenger Gabriel made another appearance. This time the messenger was sent by God to meet with a virgin named Mary, who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David himself. The messenger entered her home.
Messenger: Greetings! You are favored, and the Lord is with you! [Among all women on the earth, you have been blessed.][a]
The heavenly messenger’s words baffled Mary, and she wondered what type of greeting this was.
Messenger: Mary, don’t be afraid. You have found favor with God. Listen, you are going to become pregnant. You will have a son, and you must name Him “Savior,” or Jesus. Jesus will become the greatest among men. He will be known as the Son of the Highest God. God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David, and He will reign over the covenant family of Jacob forever.
Mary: But I have never been with a man. How can this be possible?
Messenger: The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The Most High will overshadow you. That’s why this holy child will be known, as not just your son, but also as the Son of God. It sounds impossible, but listen—you know your relative Elizabeth has been unable to bear children and is now far too old to be a mother. Yet she has become pregnant, as God willed it. Yes, in three months, she will have a son. So the impossible is possible with God.
Mary (deciding in her heart): Here I am, the Lord’s humble servant. As you have said, let it be done to me.
And the heavenly messenger was gone. —(Luke 1:26-38 - The Voice version)
Footnote:
a. 1:28 The earliest manuscripts omit this portion.