Mary in the Gospel of Luke: Part V: The Annunciation
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said. “Rejoice, O highly favored, the Lord is with you.!” (Luke 1: 26-28).
The Annunciation
T hese beautiful, simple verses constitute the first part of the Lucan account of the annunciation of the Lord to Mary: the appearance of the angel. In the previous articles, we have studied the significance of the presence of the archangel Gabriel, the meaning of “engaged to a man named Joseph,” and “the virgin’s name was Mary”.
In the Part IV article, The Queen explained some of the possible meanings of the name of the virgin, Mary. However, do you notice that in these opening verses of the annunciation scene, Gabriel does not call the young virgin by her proper name, Mary? Rather, God through the archangel, gives Mary a new name, one which signifies her being and her role within the people of God: highly favored. The name of the virgin is changed in the Annunciation narrative from Mary to this rather strange new designation. What does this all mean?
God Gives Mary a New Name
A scriptural change of name often discloses God’s gift to an individual, which is to be manifested in a new vocation. The Book of Judges tells us that Gideon—the terrified Old Testament leader—is given a new name by God: Mighty Man of Valor (Jdg 6:12). This is a gift of God to Gideon and signifies his new vocation: he is to be the invincible warrior for the cause of God. And so he is. In the New Testament, Simon is given a new name: Peter (which means Rock). A new grace and vocation is bestowed upon the apostle. Henceforth he is to be the solid rock on which the church of Jesus Christ is to be built. And so he is. God’s word is creative.
Mary also undergoes a name- change: from Miriam to highly favored. This young maiden is receiving from God a new grace, a new vocation. What is that grace, what is that vocation? The answer lies in our understanding of Mary’s new name; highly favored. However, there are many other renditions of this new designation of Mary. Saint Jerome prefers “full of grace,” the revised standard version, “O favored one,” the Jerusalem bible, “so highly favored.” The option of bible translators today is to include the word “favor” in Mary’s new name and to omit any explicit reference to “full of grace”.
Highly Favored Daughter
And rightly so. The original Greek of Mary’s new name is kecharitomene. Notice the core of Mary’s new name: charis. Our English word charism (meaning gift, favor) is derived from it. Paul speaks about the variety of charisms in the church, i.e., the multiplicity of the gifts of God bestowed upon the church so that it may fulfill its role as the Body of Christ. Mary’s new name, therefore, means that she is so gifted by God, so blessed, so favored. This is her vocation. This is her very being. Mary is the one uniquely blessed, uniquely gifted, uniquely loved, uniquely favored. For the gift she receives, the charis bestowed upon her is explained in v 30-33; You have found favor (charis) with God. . . you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and shall call his name Jesus. . . he will be called the Son of God.
Mary’s vocation, Mary’s grace is, then, to be the Mother of God. The gift of God to her is that she is to be the Theotokos, the God-bearer. This is the favor with which she is blessed. A charis is pure gift. It is unmerited, unearned. As any gift, it must be accepted to experience its true reality. And this gift Mary accepts; Let it be done unto me according to your word.
She becomes the highly favored daughter for she freely accepts to bear within her the favor, the charis of God; the Eternal Wisdom of the Father.
Mary is, in a unique way because of her Divine Motherhood, the kecharitomene, the one so favored by God. But we, too, are also so favored by God as the Letter to the Ephesians tells us. We, too, are graced through Jesus Christ. We, too, bear the same new name as Mary – so highly favored – although she is called by that name in a distinctive, peerless way. In Mary we see what it means to be graced. In her we see the Church in all its beauty. And, in her we see who we are called to be for whenever we talk about Mary we are ultimately talking about ourselves as disciples of Jesus. If like Mary, we totally and lovingly surrender to the Lord, we are called by her name: kecharitomene: so blessed by God.
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All Beautiful One
Since Mary is so gifted, since she alone is the Mother of the Incarnate Wisdom, can we not deduce that she is the uniquely loved? Surely that is the way that the Church has always understood the biblical portrait of Mary; she is the person “so beloved of God”. She is the first beloved in the Beloved (cf Eph 1:6). Mary is the uniquely beloved for God has bestowed upon her the gift which surpasses all: his beloved Son.
This vocation of Mary to be the Mother of God implies that she is gifted with all that is needed to be a worthy Mother of the Savior. And this may be one of the reasons why Saint Jerome translates the original kecharitomene as “full of grace.” Not only Grace Incarnate, her Son, but an unfathomable intensity of sharing in the very life of God so that she can carry out that vocation of the faith-filled Mother of the Lord.
As the Church prays, in the power of the Spirit, the beautiful biblical image of Mary, her portrait becomes more and more clarified. From the very first moment of her conception she is destined to be the Mother of God the Son. From her very first moment of conception, she is uniquely loved. This unique predilection of God for Mary from her very beginnings is called the Immaculate Conception. She is redeemed by the foreseen merits of her Son in her very conception. She is, then, the all beautiful one, thanks to the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ, from the first moment of her existence. Through the prayer, life and teaching of the Church, the depths of the name kecharitomene are disclosed.
Pure Gift
The name-change from Miriam to highly favored gives us an insight into the being of Mary. It also speaks of the infinite God of Love who so graciously blesses her and all creation in her. She is the beginning of the Church in all its beauty as the Bride of Christ.
It is important to note that there is only one other text in the New Testament which employs the identical verb (charitoo) used to designate Mary as kecharitomene. It is found in the Letter to the Ephesians. In 1:5,6 we read. He (God the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ ) destined us in love to be his children through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he so freely favored (charitoo) us in the Beloved.
Mary is, in a unique way because of her Divine Motherhood, the kecharitomene, the one so favored by God. But we, too, are also so favored by God as the Letter to the Ephesians tells us. We, too, are graced through Jesus Christ. We, too, bear the same new name as Mary – so highly favored – although she is called by that name in a distinctive, peerless way. In Mary we see what it means to be graced. In her we see the Church in all its beauty. And, in her we see who we are called to be for whenever we talk about Mary we are ultimately talking about ourselves as disciples of Jesus. If like Mary, we totally and lovingly surrender to the Lord, we are called by her name: kecharitomene: so blessed by God.
(To Be Continued)
