Reclaiming

I wonder whether Mary felt any ownership or right at her calling. She, after all, had the highest of ministries, but it would seem almost incongruous to suggest that she ever said, "this is mine."

I am tired of hearing "this is my right" when it comes to God's calling. Nothing is our right, everything is a gift. This does not excuse exclusion but it does demand a different posture from our system. Answering God's call can never be about bulking ourselves up, especially in priestly ministry. Answering God's call is done from a position of humility and gratitude not one of mine, mine, mine.

This greed and demand for status is severely undermining our Church and our credibility. Do not hear me wrong, I am not talking about the whole sexuality issue especially, I am talking about the wider issue of who we are in the sight of God - servant or demanding employee who expects both reward and legal redress. I do not remember the latter featuring in the Gospels.

When Mary said yes, she said yes to all of it. She said yes to the social exclusion and the sorrow, she said yes to the questions and the slurs. Her right was to say no, not to demand that her calling look that way she thought it might be nice.

The hard part of this is allowing that the permanence of our status might not be so permanent after all. When Gd gave manna in the wilderness it went foul if the people greedily tried to store it up - is this our method - day to day living reliant on Grace?

This is not the same as dumb compliance - but when we call for justice, let's call for a universal justice on principal and not a half-baked emotional call for a now and then kind of thing which turns no hearts to the good but alienates people.

The devil is laughing. From a gentle yes to everything we have turned our notion of calling into a consumer frenzied, legalistic nightmare. "Be it unto me, according to thy word" - is this really so revolutionary?