"Mary was greatly troubled."
Luke 1:26-35, 38 (NIV):
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
The angel greets Mary by telling her that she is “highly favoured” for the “Lord is with you.” Why would that be troubling to her? A young girl, pledged but not yet married, on the wrong side of a military occupation, and it only gets stranger from there. Yes, I can imagine why she might be a little unsure.
Somewhere in the last two thousand years, has the Church lost sight of the way God became man? We became nice and respectable — when? What do we now value? How have we forgotten where we come from?
How can we remember?
Glenn has posted a couple of telling reflections that follow this thread more ably than I can.