Mary and the Incarnation of the Word

Introduction*What is the value of the world compared to life?* *And what is the value of life, if not to be given?* *And why do we torment ourselves, when it is so simple to obey?*The wise and evangelical observation, presented in the famous work ‘The Announcement to Mary’ by the French poet and playwright Paul Claudel (1868-1955), captures the crux of the incomparable Lucan narrative about the message delivered to the Virgin of Nazareth in Luke 1:26-38. We wish to meditate on the evangelical text that reveals the mystery of Mary’s call, which has the power to prepare our lives for God’s unexpected events.The Text’s Formal DimensionThe passage announcing Mary’s conception is unique to the Gospel of Luke. In the narrative of Jesus’ earthly beginnings, this account stands as the second panel, following the announcement to Zechariah in Luke 1:5-25. If we consider what is declared in the prologue (Luke 1:1-4), where the text’s sources are mentioned, we must infer that, among the eyewitnesses from the beginning, the narrator refers to Mary. Behind this passage, it is legitimate to suppose that her testimony lies. However, Mary’s testimony, as Luke 2:19 and 2:51 indicate, is nothing other than the result of her heart’s memory. Therefore, the text does not provide details of a chronicle but the fruit of Mary’s contemplative reflection throughout her life, in the light of her Son’s events. Thus, the text is deeply intertwined with a purely “Marian” testimony of a contemplative nature.In addition, the pericope reflects the literary genre of announcements of prodigious births, such as those of Ishmael (Gen 16:11-12), Isaac (Gen 18:1-15), Samson (Judges 13:1-25), Samuel (1 Sam 1:9-18), the Messiah (2 Sam 7:14; Is 7:14-17), and John the Baptist (Lk 1:5-25). However, the biblical account that most closely resembles ours is the vocation of Gideon in Judges 6:11-24. The episode begins with the greeting of the messenger, who addresses the called one with an honorific title. Gideon does not understand the greeting and questions its content. The angel then communicates a first message consisting in the assignment of a task: to save Israel from Midian. Gideon, however, is aware of his own weakness and asks: How can I save Israel? The angel responds with a second message in which God guarantees his presence. Gideon, finally, asks for and receives a sign and expresses his consent by building an altar.Now, the same scheme is used, with some variations, in Lk 1:26-38, and allows the author to narrate the vocation of Mary as the call to a great enterprise of liberation, decisive for salvation. Among the distinctive features of Luke’s passage, the name of the angel stands out: Gabriel. He is a messenger presented in Dan 8:16-19; 9:20-23 to communicate God’s salvific intervention. He calls Daniel “man of desires“, that is, desired, chosen, especially. The presence of Gabriel reveals to the prophet the end of times and also confers on Luke’s narrative a escatological nuance.A second aspect of the text is marked by the scheme of the covenant. As in the Old Testament, for Mary too God’s proposal is communicated through a mediator who addresses an interlocutor. This one accepts the proposal and promises to obey. Thus it happened at Sinai, where the people responded to Moses’ reading of the law: “All that the Lord has commanded, we will do and be obedient” (Ex 24:7).Moreover, the focus of interest in the Lucan narrative is christological: it seeks to explain who the boy about to be born is. Therefore, both the response of the person involved and faith for the acceptance of the message are of utmost importance. Mary is called to collaborate in a grand enterprise: the establishment of an eternal kingdom. She is presented as a model disciple, who believes and embraces God’s call. Finally, the Annunciation to Mary is also a theophany, which occurs “on” and “in” Mary, as it did in the time of Moses with the Tent of Meeting. The priority is given to the Word, it is the primordial event. Its energy is life-giving, as affirmed in Genesis 1 or Isaiah 55, 10-11: “Thus shall my word that goes forth from my mouth not return to me empty, but shall accomplish what I purpose, and achieve the end for which I sent it.”The theological messageFrom the primacy of the divine Word in this passage, the reader can grasp the pillars of the narrative that allow focusing on the fundamental points. Indeed, if it is the divine Word that presides over the account, it enters the text first with Gabriel’s greeting in verse 28: “Rejoice, full of grace: the Lord is with you.” This is a greeting used by ancient Greeks and also present in Mark 15:18, Acts 15:23, and 23:26. While “rejoice” conveys the sense, it is more than a greeting; it is an announcement of joy, as proclaimed to the shepherds in Luke 2:10.In the same verse 28, the greeting is reinforced by the expression “full of grace,” which would be better translated as “full of God’s favor, of His blessing.” The term is difficult to express with a single word. We could translate it as “you who have been and are forever in a state of grace.” In court language, it is the benevolence manifested by the king towards a servant. However, royal favor and love sometimes become synonyms (cf. Esther 2:17; 5:8; 7:3; 8:5). Mary is greeted as one who enjoys the king’s favor, the beloved, the uniquely chosen one for an enduring purpose. As Abraham in Genesis 17:5: “No longer shall you be called Abraham, but Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (cf. also Genesis 32:38), so Mary receives a completely new name that definitively places her in God’s design.From this arises the conclusive meaning of the greeting: “The Lord is with you“. It is a promise of divine assistance. Found in vocation narratives such as in Gen 26:3-24; Ex 3:12; Js 1:5; Jz 6:12; Jer 1:8-19, it is a promise made when God entrusts an important mission. It indicates the reason for messianic joy: Mary becomes the sign of God’s salvific presence among His people. God is with her, who will be the Mother of “God with us“.The surprising aspect of this greeting becomes evident when compared to the narratives of the Old Testament mentioned. In the “callings” of biblical history, such greeting is a guarantee offered after the objection to the call. Moses, Jeremiah, Gideon expressed their difficulties. Therefore, God affirms: “I am/will be with you“. However, for Mary, this is said before any possible objection. It is not a guarantee for a frightened soul, but the free affirmation of God’s abundant presence over this creature. It is the proclamation of a fact prior to any response and descriptive of a persistent, active situation, not deserved. This type of greeting, never heard in biblical literature, indicates the entrance of a new divine mode into history, which begins with a gaze full of love and blessing directed towards this girl from Galilee. With this greeting, Mary enters sacred history with a note of absolute distinction and singularity: we are before a “unicum“.This singularity also emerges because God asks for everyone’s availability of “yes“, equivalent to an act of faith from the addressed party. Only then does God specify the type of mission. First, he asks for an act of faith that must be unlimited regarding all of God’s truth, whether the call is understood or not, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. Then, in response to the objection to the call, God promises assistance. The only exception to this divine strategy is Mary, to whom is presented a “you shall give birth“, showing her her precise role in the plan of salvation, before she expresses her consent. This exception is proof that God, unlike all sinners who always want to impose conditions, can count on a “yes” given “a priori” to everything imaginable and unimagined. We are here at the heart of divine preference, which makes Mary full of all grace.The reason for this choice, however, lies not in Mary but in God. He is the first mentioned in verse 26: he sends Gabriel. To him is due the initial movement of grace that fills Mary. If we were to inquire into the reasons for this preventive act of grace, we would find an answer in Is 43,4: “For you are precious in my sight, you are honored, and I love you…”Therefore, God’s choice is all of Mary’s life, God’s unexpected preference for her is the total horizon of her life. If the Forerunner is all voice, Mary is all called, all desired, all full of favor. Thus, from what God accomplishes in Mary, it appears that vocation is the word we should love most, as it is the sign of how important a creature is in God’s eyes. It is the index of favor before Him, of our fragile life. For if He calls us, it means He loves us.We are important to Him. In a multitude of people, one name resounds: mine. No one had thought of me. He did! He wrote “I love you” on the rock, not on the sand, and is not ashamed of me. Therefore, Dante in the *Vita Nuova* (42,4) calls God “sire de la cortesia” (Lord of all delicate kindness). God is the Lord of all gentle goodness.*After the greeting, comes the turmoil*. Unlike Zechariah, Mary’s turmoil in verse 29 is not caused by the vision itself, but by the great words she hears, considered disproportionate to the recipient. It is the turmoil of the spirit that is humble and aware of its own lowliness (Lk 1,48). Therefore, it is not fear of the vision, for before it, Mary affirms that she “was pondering these things” (v. 29). Mary does not dispute the message nor, like Zechariah, ask for a sign, but she begins to consider her situation. She is immersed in history, but does not forget to seek its meaning. She realizes that something new is happening to her and wants to understand.*Who will help her in this?*It is the light of Scripture, which in John 1:19-28 provided John the Baptist with the elements to define his own identity, that offers Mary the light to clarify God’s plan for her. Thus, the reader learns to understand that every connotation of personal history reveals its full meaning in the light of the scrutiny of the Sacred Word. Mary understands that what is happening to her is understandable through meditation on the Scriptures.At this level, Mary’s question takes on the contours of a drama. Mary finds herself in the delicate situation of a virgin, already betrothed, according to Jewish custom, still living in her home, but in the perspective of marriage. She knows the Scriptures, compared to Gabriel’s words, feels exposed to one of the most difficult human situations, sanctioned in Deuteronomy 22:23-27 with death. Mary’s question does not arise from doubt or inadequacy. It proceeds from a clear prescience that that message is casting her into a dramatic situation.We are not far from Jesus’ stay in Gethsemane, where the same Luke presents Jesus consoled by an Angel (Luke 22:39-46). The Mother, before, and the Son, afterward, feel fully the weight of the responsibilities demanded and feel crushed: *Mary asks, the Son bleeds*. If one does not take into account this context in the light of the Scriptures and Jesus’ agony, one cannot understand the extraordinary greatness of this Daughter of Zion, who risks death but consents in God.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and Post-Graduate Studies in Mariology.On Mary’s role in the Incarnation of the Word of God, refer to the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.