Antonello da Messina, Virgin Annunciate, 1476, Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, Sicily, a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, 2005
MISSION PRELUDE
In just one short week, our missionaries will be once again descending on New York City, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral next Monday, and then at Old St. Pat’s in SoHo for the balance of Holy Week. Our theme for this year’s mission is “Answer the Call,” and it is a rich one. Lots of component parts and challenges for missionaries and missions alike. But first and foremost, “Answer the Call” is an appeal to missionaries to respond to the call of the Holy Spirit, which many of us hear at this time of year, to help Jesus bring back to Him the souls he suffered his passion and death for. As it is, this year’s Lenten calendar incorporated just this past weekend the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, featuring Luke’s amazing gospel of Mary’s fiat before the Lord. Mary’s answer of the call.
My favorite image of the Annunciation is one that some art historians refer to as “The Catholic Mona Lisa”, painted nearly the same year as Da Vinci’s better-known masterpiece. The painting is called The Virgin Annunciate by Antonello de Messina. I offer you this excerpt from Pilgrimage to the Museum as a reflection on our theme, “Answer the Call.” Mary’s was the ultimate answer, and my prayer is she will inspire many of us to show up next week for the Holy Week Missions….
‘The Perfect Yes’
“There is so much going on in this simple painting of a single simple girl that every time I’ve studied it, I seemed to see more.
As we enter the scene, we see a young woman alone — in the dark. There is no architectural setting around her. The area behind her is simply black darkness. A quiet pervades the scene.
We assume this is Mary, perhaps in the solitude of her private chamber. Before her lies an open Torah; it seems she has been studying it here in her room. She is at prayer, preparing her heart. Had Mary not been prepared, if her heart was not already open through study and meditation on God’s Word, would she have recognized the voice of the angel? Would my heart be prepared enough to see an angel from God if he entered my room?
Speaking of the angel, where is he? We know he’s there — the sudden wind from his entrance on the scene is blowing the pages of the book. But we can’t see him. In this almost revolutionary gesture (there is no Annunciation scene that I know of that does not include the image of the angel), Antonello has created for us the ambiguity of this whole situation as Mary experienced it. “Is the angel really there, or am I imagining him?”
Then we see Mary clasping her shawl together with her left hand, protecting her modesty. After all, she is a young, beautiful Jewish virgin and has probably never been alone in her room with a stranger, much less someone with wings. Her first human instinct is to protect her purity. Would that have been mine?
The angel begins to speak his message. Alarming, at best. But Mary doesn’t shut him up. Instead, she focuses on him and on what he’s saying. She holds out her right hand, considering, discerning. We almost see her belief in the veracity of this strange message rising as her right hand begins to curl to accept the word. Do I listen enough in prayer to God? Do I give Him a chance to tell me what He wants? Or do I interrupt with my own ideas and move on?
Then I see those lips. Pursed. Firm. Concerned, yet determined. Mary has been asked to take on a spiritual job that, at best, seems well above her pay grade. At worst, it’s likely to lead to a quick stoning and death for having gotten herself pregnant before consummating her marriage to Joseph. Yet she believes. She takes on the mission.
She says yes.
And then the eyes. These are not the far-off eyes of a youth who’s heading out to “live her dream” to “do her thing.” There is focus. Determination. Love. Obedience. Perseverance.
This is a mission with long odds for success. A small girl, alone, taking on a mission of great danger and risk. Her betrothed husband may potentially disown her, scandalized. The village would then likely try to stone her. The King will want the child killed, for sure. And if he doesn’t get the boy, the Romans will. The only escape hatch is a dangerous five-hundred-mile trip across an arid, lawless desert wasteland. Mission impossible.
But look at that face again.
I’m putting my money on the girl.”[1]
Next week we will be taking on our own little Mission Impossible– calling back to the Lord souls that have slid away from him, pulled into a culture that grows increasingly secular by the day. And as our Blessed Mother knew 2,023 years ago, and reminds us today, “Nothing will be impossible for God.” (Lk 1: 37) So come to the missions next week. The Lord is calling.
A missionary
March 27, 2023
[1] Auth, Stephen. Pilgrimage to the Museum. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2023.
