Mary in the Gospel of Luke: Part XI: The Annunciation
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
“Let it be to me according to your word”. (1:38).
This statement of Mary has, as we saw, a personal and also a community meaning. It is both an expression of Mary’s own faith and also through and in Mary, an expression of faith of all the people of God. Having examined the personal dimension of Mary’s fiat in the previous issue of The QUEEN, this second segment of our analysis is devoted to the important truth that Mary’s Yes was spoken in the name of the entire universe.
The Annunciation
II. The Community Aspect of Mary’s Fiat
S ince God is love (1 Jn 4:8, 16), God respects his creatures whom he has endowed with free will.
God calls, God invites, God lures, God empowers. But coerce? Impossible. That would turn his people into things; it would be the destruction of the crux of creation: free men and women. It would also demand a denial of God Himself, for Love never grabs a person by the scruff of the neck and forces consent!
When, therefore, the first human couple freely turned their backs on God and refused to accept his Love, God did not force them to repentance for that would entail a contradiction. When God devised a magnificent plan to save us – becoming a member of the rebellious human family – he would not force his way into our midst. He would knock at humanity’s door and request admission. His redemptive plan, then, calls for the sending of the archangel Gabriel to ask a little girl of the human race – Mary – if she would freely open the door of the human family and receive, in the name of all, Him who is Salvation, Jesus the Lord. The annunciation narrative is the Lucan inspired dramatization of that turning point in salvation history.
God Devised a Magnificent Plan
God knocks, God calls out to sinful humanity, and Mary responds lovingly and responsibly, welcoming the Wisdom of God into her womb. Infinite Obedience enters into our finite rebellion and thereby transforms it into the covenanted, redeemed people of God. The slave-girl of the Lord says Yes, effectively giving entry, therefore, to Redemption – Jesus the Christ – for all members of the family. In and through Mary, the mutinous and, therefore, sinful people consent to be loved in Christ Jesus the Redeemed. Her fiat is in the name of all.
Such is the evident teaching of the annunciation narrative. It is underlined by, so it appears, two literary tools of the inspired, master storyteller, Luke: a covenant format and implicit references to the Daughter of Zion.
1. The Covenant Format
Although, as we have seen in previous issues, Luke adopts the typical Old Testament annunciation of birth outline as his basic plan in recounting the incarnation of the Lord, he appears to superimpose upon it a covenant format. This entails two steps. First, the discourse of the spokesperson through whom God offers the alliance; second, the response of the people. After a brief explanation of the meaning of a covenant, the two essential aspects of such an event and its application to the annunciation will be studied.
a. The Meaning of Covenant
A covenant, in the context of God and creation, is the bending-low of God to his sinful people, lovingly offering them a new depth of redemptive union with him. To this proposal of a “pact” or “treaty,” man is called to respond with whole heart. The covenant, therefore, includes two moments: God’s offer and man’s response. Often the covenant presented by the Almighty contains certain by-laws, like the Ten Commandments which must be observed as part of the treaty. Moreover, the ritual accompanying the institution of the covenant is indicative of its intensity and force; a covenant made in blood is the strongest union possible.
St. Luke Painting The Virgin: Italian Painter: Raphael:
This is the ninth article in the series. While there will be additional articles covering Mary in the Gospel of St. Luke, this is the last article focusing on the Annunciation. The first article may be found here, and the previous article may be found here.
No alliance between God and the human race can be made without its free acceptance by the people of God . . .
The Annunciation is, then, the making of the supreme covenant between God and creation. Gabriel is the spokesperson who describes the essential elements of the alliance, and Mary is the people of God crying out, “We will do whatsoever you say”. Her Yes is not only in her own name, but in the place of the entire human race.
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The Scriptures speak of the covenant made by God, e.g., with Noah and his family after the Flood (Gen 6:18); with Abraham and his descendants when the patriarch left his homeland for Canaan (Gen 15:10 ff); with the pilgrim people in the desert during the Exodus (Ex 19:1 f0. It is this great covenant of Mount Sinai accomplished through Moses and sealed with the blood of sacrificed animals that is the peak treaty between God and humanity in the Old Testament. Many are the renewals of this Sinai alliance, usually celebrated after Israel had broken the covenant through sin. The prophets, most especially Jeremiah (31:27), announce a new and stronger redemptive bond between God and the human race. Similar to a marriage but far more intense, this wedding between the Spouse, God, and the human race, the Bride, will last forever and never be superseded.
The New Covenant
The annunciation of the victorious incarnation of the Word of God is the fulfillment of this promise. God in Jesus Christ enters into a new alliance. It is a definitive covenant with humanity by becoming a member of the human family. It is a covenant sealed in the triumphant Precious Blood poured out on Calvary; its fundamental by-law is love of God and love of neighbor.
Like the Sinai covenant between God and humanity, this climactic alliance of the incarnation includes the discourse of the spokesperson sent by God to announce his treaty to the people and the assent of the people: God’s offer and man’s response.
b. The Discourse of the Spokesperson Announcing the Alliance
As Moses was chosen by God to be the go-between through whom the Lord offered a new covenant to the people, so the angel Gabriel is “sent from God to a village of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph”. (Lk 1:26-27). As Moses explained the covenant so that the people would be able to make a free response, so Gabriel proclaims the essentials of the proposed covenant: Mary is called to give birth to Jesus, the messianic king who will reign forever in the house of Jacob (vv. 30-33). In her and through her, God wishes to be united with the human family by becoming one of us: the absolute novelty of the new and eternal covenant. The Lord, as Zachary proclaims, “is mindful of his holy covenant”. (v. 72).
When Mary puts forward an objection; “How can this be for I know not man?”, the angel fulfills the duty of the spokesperson of a covenant. He clarifies the meaning of the alliance so that a responsible and free decision can be made: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you . . .” (vv. 35-37).
c. The Response of the People.
No alliance between God and the human race can be made without its free acceptance by the people of God. The covenant of the New Testament, accomplished by the redemptive incarnation of the Word – Jesus – demands the Yes of humanity. As the chosen people of the Old Testament shouted out their response to God’s offer, “Whatever the Lord has said, we will do it” (Ex 19:8; cf 24:3, 7; Jos 24:24; Ezra 10:12; Neh 5:12; 1 Mac 13:9), so Mary – the personification of the people of God – cries out her response to the Lord’s offer of a covenant to humanity: “Let it be to me according to your word” (v. 38). As Moses will bring to YHWH the response of his people, so Gabriel “departed from her,” to bring to God the acceptance of Mary.
The Annunciation is, then, the making of the supreme covenant between God and creation. Gabriel is the spokesperson who describes the essential elements of the alliance, and Mary is the people of God crying out, “We will do whatsoever you say” (Ezra 10:12). Her Yes is not only in her own name, but in the place of the entire human race.
