Mary in the Gospel of Luke: Part IX: The Annunciation

The Annunciation

“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High;

“and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end (Lk 1: 32-33) . . . The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1: 35).

Introduction

Who will be born on Christmas Day? Or more precisely, who is the child whom Mary is to conceive virginally through the overshadowing Spirit? Luke, the divinely inspired playwright, now slowly lifts up the curtain on this hidden mystery of God. In words meant more for us than to describe the precise words of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, Luke reveals God’s plan in the verses cited above which form the subject of this installment.

It should be constantly noted that the entire Mariological endeavor is primarily to clarify who Jesus is; and only secondarily, who Mary is. Everything about Our Lady is subordinate to her Son. Yet the scripture authors cannot but speak of the beauty of the woman God freely chose to be the loving, Mother of salvation, Jesus the Lord. The halo of Mary is but a reflection of the splendor of her Son.

It is only by a certain overflow of beauty from Jesus that we discern the grandeur of Mary’s soul. If this be the Son, how great must be the Mother!  We will examine first verses 32-33, Jesus the Messiah. And then verse 35, Jesus the Son of God.  The two sections are the final core message of the angel Gabriel.

Jesus the Messiah

1. Jesus the Messiah (32-33). The words Messiah, Christ, the Anointed One, are all synonyms. They indicate a person who has been anointed in order to fulfill a leadership task in Israel. However, the anointed one is David the King. The prophet Nathan (cf 2 Sam 7:12-13) promised David that the role of the King Messiah will always be within his family. It is only in the immediate centuries before Jesus that there is insistence on a future king, the one who is to come, who will be the definitive and final anointed of God; the one who will restore Israel and bring about the kingdom of God.

Even today there are groups within Judaism who proclaim the imminent coming of the King Messiah who will establish the reign of YHWH. For Luke that day has arrived through the message of the angel Gabriel to Mary. The child to be born will not only be a chosen one of God – great, the Son of the Most High – but will carry out the functions of the ultimate, final Messiah. He will be given the throne of David, his father . . . he will reign over Israel forever . . . his kingdom will have no end.

Self-surrender In Love

In him the definitive rule of God will flower over all nations; among the many allusions to Old Testament texts found in Luke’s annunciation narrative is the famous vision of the son of man to come. “And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14-15)”.

This first section, therefore, tells us that Mary is the Mother of the Christ: one of her most popular titles. It is through her that the final Anointed One, the restorer of the people of God enters into the world. During Advent season we are reminded that the tiny child in Mary’s womb is the great King-Messiah. He who subjects all people to the Father through his total self-surrender in love.

Son of God

2. Son of God (verse 35). The identity of the child to be born is even further clarified by the second part of Gabriel’s description of the work to be accomplished by Jesus. If the first part extols Jesus as the King- Messiah, this second section looks even more deeply into why he is so uniquely the anointed of God. It touches on the very person of Jesus: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, Gabriel says to Our Lady, and the power of the Most High will over-shadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.

The Holy Spirit, the Power of the Most High, will come upon Mary. The same verb, “come upon” is used again by Luke in Acts 1:8 when Jesus told his disciples at the Ascension. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”.  The creative power of God which formed the incarnate Wisdom in Mary’s womb, will also come upon the disciples at the Cenacle to form the body of Christ, the Church. The verb indicates that Jesus – and his Church – is a total gift of God.

Luke is a dramatist. His first two chapters form a masterpiece of sudden if not startling intimations, as if light and darkness in a variety of forms scurry across the stage of the infancy narrative, revealing here and there sudden profound depths of meaning. This is seen in the rather mysterious implications of Luke’s choice of the phrase the power of the Most High will cast a shadow over you. At first hand, it would seem that it does nothing more than repeat in different terms the expression will come upon you.

To Cast A Shadow

Yet, Luke’s infancy narrative is steeped in the Old Testament. To cast a shadow is an expression which turns one’s mind to the scene of Exodus 40:35 describing the cloud of God’s glory casting a shadow over the desert tabernacle. It is a symbol of the presence of God. And even in the Transfiguration scene, we see that Luke chooses the same verb – to cast a shadow – to depict the majesty and glory of Jesus. Is Luke telling us that the child in Mary’s womb is the Almighty God? Surely there is no doubt that Mary is the “new tabernacle,” the “new Ark” in whom the incarnate God is present. But is this the thought that Luke is trying to get across? It would appear, considering the genius of Luke’s narrative, that this is most probably the case.

The child in Mary’s womb: our God. Mary: the Ark carrying the Lord of Hosts. This opinion seems to be bolstered by the final expression of this section; “The child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (verse 36). Holiness implies being set apart for the service of God; it both attracts by its goodness and wards us off by its majesty. The child in Mary’s womb is holy and in a unique sense, the Son, the Beloved of God. How far is Luke leading us? It appears that in these verses the limited horizon suddenly, and for a brief moment, becomes infinite.

(To Be Continued)