A well-known painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art has always drawn me into its movement. It’s a portrait by the artist Henry Ossawa Tanner and it is his version of the Annunciation to Mary. (I have a small reproduction set right before me.)

The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Striking is the pulsing way the artist captures the interplay between the darkness off to the right and the light spilling in from the left.

It’s this young woman, Mary, sitting on her bed in a darkened corner of her bedroom and wrapped in a grey blanket. She looks half dazed as the glowing light softly fills the chamber. In that darkness, you can see her startled face just as it begins to soften and absorb the brightness coming at her.

The painting images the mood of this gospel scene from Luke. A young person, not really sure of what is happening, is opening herself to the approach of the angel who is giving off that glow. And most telling, in that luster this woman is opening herself to the possibilities of what had just seemed impossible.

It’s best to let the scene speak for itself. That is, the moment when the light (of God) tenderly pushes through Mary’s fear and doubt and reveals what and who is coming toward her.
This is the Annunciation, the Word of God announcing itself to the pliant heart of this believer who’s absorbing the Good News of what is being proclaimed.