Salvation: Endgame

The Monday Mystery Part 1: The Annunciation

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus
(Luke 1:30-31)

Welcome to the first entry of Mystery Mondays. Each week I will write a reflection on a mystery (i.e. an episode in the life of Jesus or Mary) from the Rosary. My hope for this series is to provide fuel and inspiration for your own meditations. When you finish reading each reflection, I encourage you to do a ‘test run’ of the mystery by praying a decade of the Rosary (i.e. one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and one Glory Be) while meditating on the mystery.

The final battle scene of Avengers Endgame might be the greatest moment in the history of film. Granted, on its own, and especially without prior familiarity with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s nothing special. While it’s certainly a better than average summer blockbuster set-piece, I probably wouldn’t remember it today if Endgame were a stand alone movie. But Endgame wasn’t just one movie. It was the grand finale of a story we’d followed for ten years; the ultimate challenge for twenty two movies worth of stories and characters we’d come to know and love. Our society hadn’t, and might never again experience a narrative payoff on this scale from Hollywood.

Whenever I think back on the time I caught Endgame in theaters, I always remember the two kids sitting next to me. Seeing them jumping up and down, beside themselves in excitement over a two second clip of Black Panther entering the fray made me realize the scene’s significance. Black Panther made a billion dollars, was nominated for Best Picture, and may have been the defining cultural event of the year it came out. And yet here the hero of that story was merely a footnote. For anyone who hadn’t seen Black Panther, they’d just see some random ninja in a cat suit. In the seminary I go to, it’s considered a formation issue to jump up and down in excitement over such things.

But these kids didn’t see some random ninja in a cat suit. They saw their hero; a man who had captivated their imaginations for what might have been the most exciting two hours of their lives. And they probably saw him in Avengers: Infinity War as well. Now they got to see him in action again, this time playing an exciting role in a battle that made his signature battle look like a pillow fight. Simply put, those who missed Black Panther and the other Marvel movies didn’t see the same movie as these kids. They might have watched the same spectacular images and heard the same blaring soundtrack. But the full richness of the moment is reserved for those who had already extensively invested themselves in the MCU.

Those unfamiliar with the Old Testament miss out in a similar way when they meditate on the Annunciation. To be sure, the narrative is compelling on its own; a young girl is endowed with exalted status and given a monumental task in a sudden supernatural apparition. She’s thrust into the unknown, and must trust in divine providence. And she must do so even as she embarks on a path that defies all societal expectations and preconceived ideas about how the physical world operates. That’s enough to fill a gallery with paintings, and a library with poetry. But without the wider context, it’s still on par with any number of stories from history and mythology. As a stand alone story, you might be engaged, but you wouldn’t jump up and down in excitement wanting to shout “This is it! This is it! It’s finally happening!”

We won’t approach the Annunciation with that level of excitement until we’ve had some sense of the scale of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is one of the most epic and ambitious collections of stories ever compiled; an unfathomable ocean of insight into human experience and divine encounter. I’d also add that it’s a surprisingly entertaining one given its reputation. Even books that are notoriously unfriendly to readers like Leviticus become engrossing with a little instruction on how they unfold God’s loving plan to restore humanity. Other books don’t require much background knowledge at all to be gripping reads. As I mentioned in my last piece, I think the book of Judges reads like a screenplay co-written by Mel Gibson and Quinten Tarantino. I doubt even HBO would dare screen such grisly brutality and sordid seediness.

While the Old Testament unflinchingly lays bare the depths of human depravity, it also celebrates the heights of love and joy. If you’ve ever fallen in love and thought seriously about that experience, the Song of Songs has enough to ponder for a lifetime. And if you’ve ever needed mercy, the arc of the Old Testament provides great hope. While the Old Testament is filled with sudden, dramatic incidents of God’s wrath, it really is a story of God’s incredible patience and mercy. For thousands of years, and for countless generations, in spite of what seems like a never ending stream of face-plant after increasingly unforgivable face-plant by the Israelite people, God never abandons them. In the face of every indication that even his chosen people are irretrievably corrupt, God never gives up on humanity. In the midst of their messiness, God raises great heroes, and accomplishes stunning works of redemption. Piece by piece, and in spite of setback after setback, God gradually lays a foundation for the coming of our savior.

The next time you meditate on the Annunciation, try to do so while keeping in mind the fact that countless incredible stories over the entire history of the cosmos, and indeed the salvation of the human race culminate in this moment. All of the blood and guts, adventures and romance, miracles and tragedies, rescues and calamities - all of the epic battles and brilliant meditations and heart stirring lyricism- all of the rise and falls of empires over all of the thousands of years of the Old Testament have come down to this girl sitting alone in her room. In his stirring homily on the topic, an excerpt of which is read every year on December 20th in the Office of Readings, St. Bernard pleads with Mary:

The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us. The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life. Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

Thanks be to God, Mary answered this plea. And in doing so, she accomplished physically what all of us are called to do spiritually through our words and actions and prayers: she brought Jesus and his work of salvation into the world. In a commonly used concluding prayer for the Rosary, there’s a line which reads:

Grant we beseech thee, that by meditating upon these mysteries of the most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord.

Of all they mysteries, this one is arguably the first and most important one to imitate, because it is the gateway to everything that all the other mysteries contain and promise. As you do your test run, remember the amazing stories of Sacred Scripture, remember that they are real, and remember that Mary serves as an example for your response to God’s incredible gift of grace.