The Mind of Saint Mary
Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily
Passage Luke 1:26-38
What are you thinking about right now?
What have you been thinking about for the past few days?
What has consumed your mind over the last month?
These are questions that we do not often reflect on. What consumes our thoughts? What is going on inside us?
On the 29th of each Coptic month, the church presents the reading of the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary. There is a lot going on in this passage. One thing revealed is what runs through the mind of St Mary. We can tell what’s on her mind by her reaction and response to the Archangel.
We see St Mary and the angel Gabriel comes in and he greets her.
In some icons of the Annunciation, we see the angel up high, looking down on St Mary and telling her the news. In this particular icon, the angel is lower and has his arms folded in respect for the Virgin.
This is how I imagine it would have taken place – not above, but below, in great respect for the Mother of God, bowing before her with arms folded, and saying, “Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
He calls her, “highly favoured” and the most blessed among all women! Imagine his posture while greeting her.
This greeting troubles her and she wonders what manner of greeting this could be. Why is she troubled? Is she not used to apparitions? Was she not used to seeing angels?
If an angel appeared to me, I would be troubled! I’m not used to that. But for Mary, an apparition would not shock her. She lived her whole life in the Temple, probably seeing apparitions regularly.
Why on this particular apparition was she troubled? This is the first insight we get into the thoughts of St Mary. For she was not troubled by the apparition, but by the manner of the greeting.
We might get troubled at the manner of greeting if someone was to disrespect us. If I was say, Doctor Joseph, and a patient walked in saying, “Hey Joey,” that would trouble me. I am a doctor, Doctor Joseph. That greeting is troubling in its disrespect. Or if I’m Fr Mark and someone calls out, “Hey Marky,” that would be troubling. But for St Mary, it was the opposite. She was troubled for the honour of the greeting of being highly favoured, and the angel bowed before her.
The first insight into her thoughts was how she saw herself. A simple slave girl in the Temple, in complete humility. She was bothered because she didn’t see herself the way the angel saw her.
How do we know she thought this? Was it a mere inference on the part of the reader? We know because St Mary must have told the author, St Luke, how she felt at that moment. We know that Luke spent time with Mary and she herself told him. He drew her first icon. This was probably St Mary’s account of the Annunciation and our first insight into the inner workings of her mind.
Then the angel presents the proposition of the conception of Christ from her; “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary’s next question gives more insight into her thoughts; “How can this be, since I [c]do not know a man?”
This question reveals to us Mary’s decision of life long consecration and virginity. If St Mary had plans to get married, she would not have asked this question. She would have assumed that when she married, she would have this child. On the contrary, she had no plans to marry and could not conceive. How could it be when she had consecrated her virginity to the Lord?
Her vow of virginity and service was on her mind. Finally her last word was, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” She submits in obedience to the request of the Lord. Her humility and obedience runs through her mind.
What consumes our minds? Elder Thaddeus was an Orthodox monk who wrote the book, “Our Thoughts Determine our Lives.” In his book he says, “Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts and can have neither peace nor tranquillity.”
Your thoughts will determine your life. What you think will determine how you live. That is why it is extremely important to stop and reflect on what is consuming my mind. Today and lately. A big portion of that must be spiritual. Peaceful. Meekness. Kindness. This determines how I live my life. If I find that my thoughts are consumed by worldly concerns, lusts, anger, hatred, I need to shake them off.
A few analogies from the fathers- consider any thought that comes is like an aeroplane. You see aeroplanes that fly around the airport then they come to land. Only allow the good thoughts to land. Thoughts will always fly around, never let them land and stay.
Or imagine your thoughts are like birds. Don’t let the bad ones nest on your head and lay eggs and reproduce and grow. If a fly lands on your face, naturally you flick it away, but you never let it sit there. You don’t let it sit on your face, and lay germs. In an instant, you get rid of it. The same applies to our thoughts, we need to develop an instinct that compels us to flick the bad thoughts away. For any lust, I flick it away. Any hate, I flick it away immediately. If I overthink of money, I flick it away and refocus my thoughts.
St Mary is the model of thoughts and feelings that were totally consumed by God. I pray that each of us shifts our thoughts away from evil and sin and closer to the Kingdom, for our thoughts determine our lives, and potentially our eternity.