Feast of the Annunciation

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032519.cfm
Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10
Luke 1:26-38 

Last Monday was the Feast of the Annunciation. This particular gospel reading, Luke 1: 26-38, deals with the announcement by the Angel Gabriel to Mary that she has been chosen to bear the Messiah. This talk will be about Mary. Now we should be clear that the Catholic Church honors our Blessed Mother Mary. Scott Hahn explains it quite well in his book “Rome Sweet Home” by citing two basic biblical principles. 

“Christ, as a man, fulfilled God’s law perfectly, including the commandment to honor His father and mother. The Hebrew word for honor, kaboda, literally means to glorify. So, Christ didn’t just honor His heavenly Father; He also honored His earthly mother, Mary, by bestowing His own divine glory on her. The second principle is even easier: the imitation of Christ. So, we simply imitate Christ not by just honoring our own mothers, but also honoring whomever He honors and with the same honor that He bestows.” 

Often we hear some people say that Mary performs miracles. For example, we sometimes hear that Mary converted most of South America through the miracle of her image on Juan Diego’s tilma at Guadalupe. Actually Mary appeared to Juan Diego through the will of her spouse, the Holy Spirit of God. The conversions that occurred to the people as well as the missionaries were through the graces that flowed through our Blessed Mother from her spouse. 

Years ago I read an article by a Protestant theologian in Time magazine. She stated that there are many extensive Protestant books written about Mary Magdalen, someone we know very little about, and virtually nothing about Mary, someone we know much more about.

Mary was envisioned by God from the beginning and was first alluded to in Genesis 3:15. Eve had been lured into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil by the serpent. She then enticed Adam to join in consuming the fruit. As a result, Genesis 3:15 states: 

I [God] will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and  hers;
They will strike at your head,
While you strike at their heel.

From this comes the common depiction of Mary standing on the snakes head. Although most of the Old Testament refers to the life of Christ, there are some that tie into Mary and her role in salvation history. Those will be covered in the discussion on the narrative of the Annunciation.

Mary, as conceived in the mind of God, had to be perfect and, so, had to have certain attributes that that would make her suitable to bear the incarnation of God Himself. Here I have to guess at what some of those attributes might be. In my mind she would have to be beautiful inside and out, be born and live without the stain of sin, have immense faith in God, be willing to follow the will of God without question, be able to sustain immense suffering, and, finally, become the mother of all humanity (the new Eve).

Luke starts the Annunciation narrative with a bit of an introduction to Mary’s current situation. She is a virgin betrothed to Joseph of the house of David. This is an important reference to Isaiah 7:14 “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Also, the reference to the house of David indicates that the prophecy that the Messiah will come from the house of David will be fulfilled. There are several Old Testament passages regarding this. One is Isaiah 11:1. Then the Angel Gabriel addresses Mary as “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”  

Notice the choice of the word Hail. This word is used as a salute or an acknowledgement of greatness such as Hail Caesar, or “Hail to the Chief,” our presidential anthem. I do not mean that Mary is a president but, simply, how the term is normally used. This is in contrast to when an angel appeared to Peter when he was in prison. In Acts 3:12-19 the angel tells Peter “Get up…Get dressed.” Peter is a great saint, our first pontiff in a continuous line for the past two thousand years. So, I do not intend to put Peter down, but to illustrate the gravity of the salutation given to Mary. The angel followed this with “full of grace,” indicating that Mary was without the stain of sin. In all of humanity, she was the second woman created without original sin. Eve, the first woman failed by committing sin, but Mary never failed. Even Mary wondered what sort of greeting this might be. 

The angel goes on to tell her “Do not be afraid.” Are you kidding me?  I would have been petrified. He goes on to tell her that she has found favor with God and that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son and she shall call Him Jesus. She is only in her mid-teens. Can you imagine what might have gone through her mind?   

How could she explain this to Joseph, what would others think, and she could be stoned to death as an adulteress. Then the angel goes on to say, “He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.” Mary asks in all humility “How can this be since I have no relations with man?”  

The angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her  and the child will be called holy, Son of God. He goes on to tell her that her relative Elizabeth is in her sixth month despite her old age and had been called barren showing that nothing is impossible for God. With all this overwhelming information she simply replies, “I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”  Then the angel departed. What could have been going through her mind?  Now, all the possible bad outcomes of her decision have become real possibilities. Still she accepted this situation without question and gave herself over to the will of God. Would I have had her courage?  Would I have submitted myself to the will of God so easily?  Should we consider Mary’s courage when we are faced with difficult choices? 

After this Mary leaves and goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth and stays to assist her through the birth of John. Tradition holds that Joseph went with Mary from Nazareth to Jerusalem, roughly 100 miles and then returned to Nazareth. In those days the trip was an arduous undertaking, usually done in a caravan along a mountainous trail. After John’s birth Joseph returns to Jerusalem to accompany Mary home. That alone should have qualified Joseph for sainthood.

Luke’s gospel continues with the visitation of Mary with Elizabeth. It is almost a continuous story. For brevity I will do it in more of a summary form. 

• Mary goes to the hill country of Judea
• Elizabeth cries “Why is it granted me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
• Elizabeth proclaims Mary to be blessed among women.
• John the Baptist leaps within Elizabeth’s womb.
• Mary stays with Elizabeth in Judea for 3 months.
• Mary eventually presents Jesus to God in the temple in Jerusalem. The first perfect offering to God the Father.

Now, we step back in time and look at David as he goes to retrieve the arc as written in Samuel 2. 

• David goes to Judea to retrieve the Arc. The Philistines had captured the ark but had a run of bad luck and decided the ark was the cause of their trouble.
• David wonders “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?”
• David leaves the ark in Judea for 3 months at the house of Abinedad.
• The house that kept the ark in the interim is called blessed.
• David returns to retrieve the arc and dances and leaps for joy.
• The ark is eventually brought back to Jerusalem where God’s glory is revealed in the temple.
• The similarities here are no coincidence. Luke would have been well aware of the parallels as he was writing the details of the visitation down.

Besides all of the actions paralleling David’s retrieval of the ark and Mary’s visit to Elizabeth we should look at the contents of the arc. It contained the word of God on the stone tablets, the manna from heaven, and the priestly rod of Aaron. Mary was carrying Jesus who is the living word of God, the true bread from Heaven and the true High Priest. So now Mary by reference is established as the new Ark of the Covenant as well as the new Eve.

How did Luke know all the intricate details of the annunciation, visitation with Elizabeth, Zacharias’ canticle after the birth of John, and the birth of Jesus. One thought is that it was divinely inspired. The other is that Mary told Luke. It was probably a combination of both. However, all the details had to have come from Mary.

So, the simple yes of a humble teenager began implementation of God’s plan for the salvation of all mankind. When we honor the Mother, we honor the Son, her spouse the Holy Spirit, and her Father in Heaven. How do we go about honoring the Mother of God without worshipping her?  By doing as she said at the wedding feast at Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.”

Some activities which she has suggested over the centuries are:

• Attend mass frequently and receive the Eucharist
• Read Holy Scripture
• Frequent confession
• Fasting
• Pray, especially the rosary. 

Notice that all of these activities are to bring us closer to God and specifically her son. Our immediate thought is that the rosary is a Marian devotion. It is that, but it is primarily a meditation on the life of her Son, Jesus.

The feast of the Annunciation celebrates the incredible woman chosen from all humanity to be the mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.