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Week Sixteen, Day Four

Luke 1:26-37

In this passage, we find a record of what is known as “The Annunciation” or “announcement.” Once more, it is Gabriel who is sent as God’s messenger, but this time it is to a small town in Galilee rather than to the temple in Jerusalem. It is interesting that Luke is careful with the geography, or setting, of these two announcements. First, the conception of the forerunner is announced; then, six months later, Gabriel goes out to a village in the countryside to visit a young woman named Mary who was engaged but not married.

Again, this is the only place where this story is told. Gabriel says, “Greetings favored one.” This story is well known in the church. It has been depicted by the greatest artists, and it is commemorated with feast days in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Mary, of course, asks how she will bear a son since she has not had sex. Unlike his response to Zechariah, Gabriel is gentle with Mary and assures her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the child she bears will be called the Son of God.

Here we are left to decide if this is a record of history or a parable of faith. If Luke is recording the facts as they happened, we are left to assume that the source of this information had to be Mary herself since there were no other witnesses. We then are eavesdropping on a private spiritual experience, and, again, we are not reading a historical record. What we have is a story that is at least 60 years old told in the context of the hindsight of faith. Jesus has been gone for decades. The early Church worships him and has begun to venerate his mother.

Ironically, we might miss what seems to be Luke’s original point. God is working through an old, unknown, unranked priest and his wife to prepare the way. Then God selects an unmarried young woman in an obscure village. While Zechariah got the first visit, it is really through the two women—who are distant relatives—that God does this most amazing work. Further, God is blessing the scandal of an unmarried woman who is pregnant by someone other than the man to whom she is engaged. The radical and revolutionary message of this story has been tamed by our art, feasts and Christmas cards. What Luke is telling us is that God is working through women—one scorned as barren, one scorned because of infidelity. Letting God’s will be done in their lives didn’t bring wealth or success, but these women are the very definition of faith: “Let it be done to me according to God’s will.”

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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