Hi everyone. Welcome back to logical Bible
study. Today we're looking at a really
famous reading. This is one that most Catholics
know and love and it's read many times in the liturgical year and
it's quite a beautiful reading in many ways, it teaches us
about the richness of various things.
There's some information We learn from this about the
Trinity, a whole lot of stuff about Mary about angels, and the
way it weaves in the Old Testament, that it's really
quite beautiful and there's a whole lot of different
directions. You can take this reading in and
so obviously we can't cover everything but we want to give
you a glimpse at various things that Scholars have pointed out
about this famous text. So we're looking at Luke chapter
1 verses 26 to 38. Here's the reading for today.
The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth to a virgin betrothed, to a man named Joseph of the
House of David. And the virgin's name was Mary
He went in and said to her Rejoice, so highly favored.
The Lord is with you. She was deeply disturbed by
these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean.
But the angel said to her Mary, do not be afraid.
You have one God's favor. Listen, you are to conceive and
bear a son, and you must name him Jesus, he will be great, and
will be called, son of the most high.
The Lord God will give him the Throne of his ancestor David, he
will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will
Have no end. Mary said to the angel but how
can this come about since I am a virgin?
The holy spirit will come upon you, the angel answered and the
power of the most high will cover you with its shadow.
And so, the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.
No, this to your kinswoman Elizabeth has in her old age
herself, conceived a son and she whom people called Barren, she
is now in her sixth month for nothing is impossible to God.
Mary said, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Let what you have said, be done to me and the angel left her.
So I'm sure many of you have heard this reading before and
you probably already know quite a bit about the various facts
that play into what's going on in this text.
But there's probably also some aspects of this that you may not
be as aware of. So let's dive into it.
What's the context? So just before this we have the
story of Elizabeth and Zachariah.
So Elizabeth has just become pregnant.
Don't even though Zechariah didn't believe that it could
happen. So if you want to hear what
happens just before this, you can hear that on December 19th
every year. So the story of Zechariah and
Elizabeth and then it leads straight into today.
And of course, what we have today is the famous Annunciation
scene when the angel appears to marry.
This is the key text at various times in the liturgical year.
So you'll hear this every year on the solemnity of the
Annunciation and also on the solemnity Of the Immaculate
Conception. So it's the same Gospel reading
for those key feasts, and it's also on various other Marian
feasts, which is celebrated in different parts of the world at
different times. So, let's start here at verse
26. Now, if you look at the Bible,
verse 26 actually has a phrase here that it's not in our
lectionary today. So it starts with in the sixth
month. So that means we're talking
about this happens in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
It says the angel L was sent by God to a town called Nazareth.
So who's Gabriel? Well.
He's actually already appeared in this chapter.
If you look at the earlier story, he's already appeared to
Zechariah so he's been busy in this time period.
And in fact, he's already appeared in the Old Testament,
as well. If you look at the Book of
Daniel Gabriel appears in the Book of Daniel to give various
prophecies to Daniel about the Messiah.
So, it seems that whenever Gabriel shows up in the Bible,
he always has information. In about the Messiah that he's
delivering to people, which is quite interesting.
Verse 27. So he sent by God to a town
called Nazareth. Now, we've all heard of Nazareth
before because, of course, we know that's where Jesus grew up.
Now, in the time of Jesus, though, it's not a particularly
special Town, there's probably only a few hundred people that
live there. Scholars, think a population of
about 300 is what you would have seen at that time, period.
So it was kind of like a Backwater area of Galilee in the
north northern part of Israel. It was not a special town at
all. In fact, most people seem to
have quite a dismissive attitude towards the town of Nazareth.
If you look at John chapter 1 verse 46, their Nathaniel says,
can anything good come out of Nazareth?
And this is a attitude. That's repeated several times in
the gospels. What's interesting about
Nazareth, though, is that it appears that it was populated
mostly by descendants of David? Not all the Jews at this time,
were descended from David, but some of them were, and
apparently, many of them chose as a group to stay in this town
of Nazareth. Some scholars believe the root
word of the towns named Nazareth is Nestor and that word means
Branch or shoot. If that's the case, it may have
deliberately been called that by the people who settled there.
And it could be based on this Old Testament, passage Isaiah
11:1, which talks about the coming Messiah, and it uses this
language of Branch or shoot. It says, one day, there'll be a
shoot of Jesse and that is a Prophecy of the Messiah.
So, shoot or branch. Is probably a reference to the
Messiah particularly, in terms of the way he is, descended from
David. So maybe the people who settled
in this town deliberately named it because there were all
descendants of David and they're expressing a Messianic, hope
that one day, the Messiah will show up.
So this is one explanation of what may have been going on a
Nazareth at that time. It could have been populated by
people who are descended from David and hoping that the
Messiah will come soon. If that's the case that gives us
a good explanation for why Jesus grows up in there.
Earth. Why did God choose for Jesus to
grow up in Nazareth? He could have picked any other
famous town for Jesus to grow up, and he could have grown up
in Jerusalem for example, but instead he gets him, God gets
Jesus to grow up in this town Nazareth.
And it may be, because of the Messianic hopes associated with
the people that lived in Nazareth, at that time, even
though it was a very small town. In fact, Nazareth is not
mentioned at all, in the Old Testament and it says here that
Gabriel is sent into Nazareth to a virgin.
Who is proved now to understand what betrothal is.
We need to unpack this a bit. So in that culture, marriage,
worked differently, they didn't have engagement and then
marriage, that's not how it worked.
They had marriage in two stages and the first stage of marriage
was called betrothal. As soon as your betrothed,
you're basically legally married, you are married.
It's just that you haven't had the marriage ceremony yet and
you haven't consummated the marriage.
So, to get to this first stage, the betrothal stage, the groom
would present a written of official document to the bride.
So it was an official marriage from that point onwards, but she
remained in the family home until about a year later.
When the husband would come and collect her and they would have
the official marriage wedding ceremony in The Wedding Banquet,
and then he would take her home to live with him.
So it occurred in two stages but as soon as you are betrothed you
are legally married. We need to keep that in mind as
we as we read this text. In order to break off a
betrothal, you needed a divorce and that explains why in The
Gospel of Matthew, it says that Joseph was thinking about
divorcing Mary, because, although they haven't
consummated the marriage they were in fact, betrothed and to
break that you need a divorce. How old is Mary?
This is a question that Scholars often debate, we don't know.
There is simply no way of knowing how much how old Mary
is. But if we go by how old women
typically were in that time period when they got betrothed,
she's probably about 14 years old, so she's very young.
That would be typical at that time.
And she is betrothed to a man named Joseph of the House of
David. So, Luke here is highlighting to
his readers. That Joseph is a descendant of
David. He specifically says, Joseph is
from the House of David, so he probably lives in Nazareth to,
and he's a descendant of David, so it makes sense for him to
live in Nazareth. This is important because the
Messiah had to be a descendant of David.
The Old Testament makes that clear.
So, Luke goes out of his way to say that Jesus, legal father.
But Joseph is a descendant of David now, that's important
because when Joseph is Jesus legal father and in that
culture, legal fatherhood is equivalent to biological
fatherhood in terms of inheritance.
So if you were legally adopted, you would get all the legal
inheritance rights of that family.
Even if you're not biologically related to the father so Joseph
is able to confer the Privileges of being a diabetic descendant
to Jesus. That's important.
Jesus is fully. A descendant of David even
though he's not biologically from Joseph.
How old is Joseph? This is a question which is also
debated. And again, there's no way of
knowing there's actually two Traditions here.
One tradition is that? Joseph was an older man who
already had a previous marriage but his wife had died and that
would give us an explanation of why he doesn't necessarily need
more children. So that's one tradition.
But there is another tradition which says that he's actually
quite a young man and you can take either of you as a
Catholic. It appears that both Mary and
Joseph, a descendant of David, if you track their genealogies,
through their both descendants of David, it would seem.
So Jesus is a descendant of David, both biologically from
Mary and illegally from Joseph. He's a full descendant of David
in every respect. And Luke, he tells us the
virgin's name was Mary now, Mary was a very common name in that
culture. The name appears a lot in the
New Testament. In fact, it be can be quite
difficult to try and work out, which Mary is being talked about
at the foot of the cross. It appears that there are four
different Mary's there. It's actually a variation of the
name Miriam. Remember Aaron and Moses had a
sister called Miriam and that's exercise 6:20.
So based on that, many Jewish families.
When they had a daughter, they would call her Miriam or Mary.
Verse 28 that angel appears. And we don't know what Mary is
doing at this time. She's probably inside doing
something and then Angel just shows up.
And the angel Gabriel says to her hail or more literally
Rejoice. That's what hail means.
Let's unpack this a bit. Well, there's various Old
Testament passages which address Zion or Jerusalem and they tell
Jerusalem to rejoice. And the reason that Jerusalem is
told to rejoice in the Old Testament is because Jerusalem's
faithful children will experience God's blessings one
day. When God dwells in her midst,
the Old Testament is very explicit whenever it says for
Jerusalem to Rejoice it's typically because of a prophecy
that one day God will dwell in your midst.
If you look at Joel, Chapter 2 and Zephaniah chapter 3 and
Zechariah 9:9. They all have this language of
hail or Rejoice for Jerusalem here.
We can see that Luke is apparently portraying Mary as
the New Jerusalem and the time of the Fulfillment has arrived,
the all that Messianic hopes have been looking for.
Have finally arrived. Gabriel has come to bring good
news to marry and then he says this to her.
Hey y'all so highly favored. Now this phrase is given various
different translations you. So highly favored can become a
full of grace. Of course, we're familiar with
that from the Hail Mary prayer or it can be translated one who
has been graced. First thing to say here is
notice, he doesn't say that angel doesn't say to Mary Hail
Mary, he doesn't actually call her Mary.
Interestingly, now when we say the Hail Mary prayer as
Catholics, we say hail Mary but that's not actually there in the
original and that's actually really Important.
This is really significant wine. Hail full of grace or hail one
who has been graced in that culture.
If you said hail it, typically, what should come after that is
the person's name. But that's not what the angel
does here, the angel identifies, the woman not as Mary but as so
highly favored, that's what he calls her hail.
So highly favored. So Mary's this is a title for
Mary full of grace or so highly. But it's a title that Gabriel
calls. Mary, remember Gabriel has
Supernatural knowledge, so he gives her a title that must be
truthful and appropriate. It's quite a specific one.
So highly favored. It's actually the only place in
the Bible where an angel address is someone by a title rather
than a name and we should see that is significant.
There must be a reason why the angel focuses on this title.
What is this phrase mean full of grace?
Or one who has been graced? The Greek here.
We're used to, of course, full of grace, but the Greek here,
almost certainly should not be translated full of grace.
Luke uses a different Greek expression for the English
version of Full of Grace. If you go to Acts chapter 6,
verse 8, there it talks about Stephen, the Martyr and Luke.
They're actually cool, Stephen Full of Grace Scholars, agree
that the best translation of this Greek phrase that that Luke
uses there for Stephen. It really is full of Rice.
That's a good translation of it. But it's actually a very
different set of Greek words that are used here in Luke
chapter 1. So if we know that in Acts
chapter 6, a different set of Greek, words means, full of
grace, it probably means that it shouldn't be translated.
Full of grace here, the Greek word that we see here in Luke
chapter, 1 is kakarrot. 'Man a and other more literal
translations render. It as one who is perfectly full
of God's grace, something like that or there's different ways
of He's lighting it but it's certainly more than just full of
grace when this word could carry two men.
A it apparently seems to imply an action which was completed in
the past but has present effects when we put all this together.
Scholars say that this title that Gabriel gives Mary actually
suggests that she is without sin.
She is literally full of grace. God has made her full of grace
in the past and that carries into the present.
It apparently means that she's without sin, and of course, this
has strongly implications for the Catholic teaching on the
Immaculate Conception. Gordon down Mary with an
abundance of Grace. That's what the Greek word says.
She's has an abundance of Grace. Why does God give her that?
He's preparing her for the vocation of divine motherhood
that he knows that she's going to have.
He wants to make her an example of Christian Holiness.
And as a result, God chooses to preserve Mary entirely from sin
and its inclinations. Now, this Doctrine, which we
know is the Immaculate Conception, this was believed
all throughout Christian history, but it was not Not
formally defined infallible e until 1854 when Pope Pius the
ninth in his encyclical in a fabulous Tales.
When he goes through all the texts about Mary including this
one and he proclaims the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception. So it's largely based on what we
see here in Luke chapter one. It's one of the most
controversial Catholic teachings as you know, but when you
unpack, the Greek here at does seem to point in that direction.
And then the angel Gabriel goes on.
He says to me. The Lord is with you.
These same words actually given to Gideon when he's called by
God. If you look at Judges chapter 6,
verses 11 to 24 Gideon, there is called by God.
And those same words are directed to him.
The Lord is with you. Basically, it means something
like the Lord is in your midst. And that matches well with what
the angel Gabriel has just said about hail, if you go to
Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 15, there says hail to Jerusalem and
then straight away. It says the Lord is with you.
So the angel Gabriel is using words here that have already
been spoken in the Old Testament.
So these Old Testament phrases are waived all throughout these
early chapters of Luke. It's really quite amazing.
So, so far, we have the first couple of lines here of the Hail
Mary. So, Hail Mary full of grace, the
Lord is with you. That all comes here from what
we've seen in Luke chapter 1. Now, the following phrases come
from elsewhere. In Luke chapter 1, they come
from later in the chapter, let's move on to verse 29.
Luke says, she was deeply disturbed by these words or
more. Literally, she was greatly
troubled at the saying. So Mary is genuinely shocked at
what has just come out of Gabriel's mouth, and then Luke
gets more specific. He says, and she asked herself
what this greeting could mean, so what's Mary troubled about?
It's not apparently not the fact that the angel has just showed
up, that's not what shocks her what?
Shocks her is, the greeting, the words that the angel uses, she's
shocked that the angel calls Is her full of grace?
As you would be verse. 30 Gabriel, says Mary, do not be
afraid. So now, he uses her name, Mary
all throughout the Bible, whenever an angel appears to
someone, it is a very scary experience.
There's something quite fearful about angels apparently.
So here, the angel says, do not be afraid.
You have one God's favor. That's quite a beautiful phrase,
isn't it? You have one God's favor that
suggests that God has chosen her specifically for this time.
Ask in fact, the word for favor is actually similar to the word
for Grace. So when we say that Mary is full
of grace, you can really say. She's full of fave.
Oh, she's full of God's favor. Verse 31.
The angel says you will conceive and bear a son.
Now, notice the passage doesn't tell us that she will conceive.
Immediately. Some people take it that way,
but it doesn't say that all it says, is that you will conceive.
There's another reference to the Old Testament here.
Remember Isaac and how his mother is Bauer Owen.
Well, when Isaac is miraculously conceived, and then born in
Genesis 17:19, very similar language is used you will
conceive and bear a son. That's a promise that is given
to Isaac's mother. And here Gabriel goes on to say
You must call his name. Jesus.
This is a command. It's not I recommend you call
him Jesus. It's you must call him.
Jesus. Jesus name is quite significant.
Jesus means God Saves. It was a reasonably common name
in that culture but the Angel says it is an appropriate name
for the Messiah, God Saves the significance of Jesus name and
how he comes to have that name. It's actually unpacked more in
Matthew chapter 1 verse 32, he will be great, and will be
called son of the most high. So, here the angel is going to
say all these titles that Jesus will end up being called, he
will be called son of the most high in that culture, a son was
considered to be the best representation of a father.
And that actually helps Soooo set some context here.
In fact, the sun was almost considered to be in the image of
the father. So, when we see these phrases,
Son of God, there's very strong trinitarian theology here.
The Son of God, Jesus is the best representation of the
father, and that comes out in some of the Parables later on,
where is John. The Baptist is listed as the
prophet of the most high. That's what was said earlier.
In the chapter to Zechariah, Jesus is the son of the most
high. That's really specific title
Gabriel goes on, the Lord, God will give him the Throne of his
ancestor. David, what's this?
Throne of the ancestor David? Well, the Old Testament
prophesied that the Throne of Which had been temporarily lost.
By the time of the Old Testament, it would one day be
taken up again, by the Messiah. So at the time, David became
king, God promised to David your house and your kingdom.
Our firm forever before me. Your throne shall be established
forever. So that's what God Said,
directly to David in second. Samuel 7.
Now, in the Old Testament, though.
The davidic line is eventually lost.
There Are No More Kings after a certain time period, because the
Israelites are Going into Exile. But still the prophets
continually reminded the Jews of this promised that God had given
David. They continually announced that
one day there will be a future reunions of Israel under a
davidic messiah. One day there will be a davidic
king sitting on David's Throne again and that will be the
Messiah. So if you look at Isaiah 11, a
zekiel 37 Hosea, one Amos 9, all of these prophets are repeating
the same message. There will be a messiah that
sits on David's Throne again. So the Jews were looking forward
to this. One of Luke's key themes in his
gospel, is the regathering of God's people.
And of course, we know that Jesus has come to bring all of
God's people together into God's glorious Kingdom.
So, there's so much you could say about this, but we'll keep
moving verse 33. The angel says, he will reign
over the house of Jacob forever. As in, he's going to be the king
of Israel permanently. He will reign over it forever.
Already hear the gospels are hinting.
The part of Jesus mission is to be the king of the Jews.
He's going to be various titles, but one of them will be king of
the Jews. So, remembered his crucifixion.
One of the accusations about Jesus that's made is that he is
King of the Jews. Well, that's actually basically,
right. That's what Angel Gabriel says
to Mary, he will be king of the Jews.
And his reign will have no end or you can translate that
Kingdom of his kingdom. There will be no end.
Jesus has a kingdom. He is a king.
So, Jesus is going to be the king of the Jews, but probably
what, not many Jews realize at the time about the Messiah was
at the kingdom, is going to be much more vast, and deep than
just, allowing Jewish people. In the Kingdom of the Messiah,
would be the kingdom of God. It's going to be open to
everyone and it's going to be Eternal.
So they did understand that the I would be a king.
But here, the angel tells Mary and this is unpacked further in
the gospels that he's going to have a much deeper and more
profound Kingdom than they could have expected verse 34.
Mary now, speaks, how can this be since I am a virgin.
Now, more literally, this phrase actually reads since I know,
not, man. Now, Mary is not disbelieving
here, like Zechariah did remember when Gabriel told
Zechariah that his wife was going to have a child Zechariah?
L, can't believe it here when Mary says, how can this be?
She's inquiring as to how that's going to take place.
So, whereas Zechariah Zechariah wants proof.
Mary wants instructions. There's a difference here.
Now Scholars point out that Mary's response here is a little
strange. Gabriel has said to her you're
going to have a son and Mary's response is, how can this be
since I know not. Man.
Now she's betrothed. So if she was expecting that,
That she was going to have normal relations in her
marriage. Then it shouldn't be.
That surprising. That an angel would appear to
her and say, you're going to have a child.
So she shouldn't be that shocked by the news and yet, apparently
she is she says how can this be? Since I know not man.
So some scholars believe here that when she says, I know, not
man, maybe it means something like I have taken a vow not to
know any man. Which is an interesting way of
looking at it. So and this is a genuine view
that's out there because there are some other texts, which are
outside the Bible but apparently, written around this
time period which tell us a little bit more about Mary.
Now we're not sure because they're not in scripture, so
they're not infallible, but perhaps they have some reliable
historical information and one of these documents is the
protoevangelium of James and that document suggests that Mary
had, in fact taken a vow of virginity Earlier in her life.
So she had planned to never have relationshi had planned to stay
a virgin. So when she says here, how can
this be since I know not man, what she's actually saying is
I'm planning not to know him and say how can I have a child.
So this is a legitimate interpretation it.
We're not 100% sure if that's correct.
But some Scholars think the statement here does imply that
there have been some famous people in history who have
believed this interpretation to so st.
Gregory Of Nyssa. Believe that that's true about
marry. That marry did literally take a
vow of virginity and also Saint Augustine believe that Mary had
taken a vow of virginity that's not Catholic teaching.
But it is a widely held Catholic view that Mary planned to never
have relations in her life. So that's why she's surprised.
You Gabriel answers our question.
He says the holy spirit will come upon you, the angel
answered. So the Angels answer is
basically no man will be involved because God Do all the
work, that's the answer. The the angel gives this is
truly a miraculous pregnancy. The holy spirit will come upon
you to bring about the birth. Now it's not an entirely clear
biologically how this pregnancy happened, what was the genetic
set up? That makes this happen, we're
not sure some Scholars have suggested that maybe Mary
contributed her egg, whereas the Holy Spirit made a completely
new sperm or something like that, but really, we have no
idea. It could, it could have been
done in a way that It can't even be putting two scientific
language either way, though we have here a virgin birth of
urging that's conceiving, which is a fulfillment of Isaiah's
prophecy. Remember, Isaiah 7:14 says,
Behold a virgin shall conceive and you shall name him Emmanuel.
Now that prophecy actually was fulfilled in a sense in the time
of Isaiah. But here it has a deeper and
greater fulfillment. Now, there's some interesting
links here in terms of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
So when Mary becomes pregnant, there's no male genetic input
from Joseph because Joseph does not have relations with her.
So from this, we know that the sin nature is not passed on to
Jesus from a father. So here, the Catholic, teaching
on the Immaculate Conception can be helpful.
Mary herself was born without sin.
This is a Catholic teaching, so she didn't really have a sin
nature to pass on to Jesus. This is one way of looking at
it. So Jesus did not receive the sin
nature from his Earthly father, because he doesn't have an
Earthly biological father, and Mary did not have a sin nature
to pass on to him. So Jesus did not inherit a sin
nature from either, Earthly parent.
So this is one interesting aspect of the Ocular conception,
it's not the strongest argument for the Immaculate Conception,
but it's interesting to think about God didn't have to do it
this way. This is, he could have prevented
the sin nature from being passed.
The Jesus, even if Mary did have a sin nature, but it appears
that he chose to do it this way. It's a fitting thing that God
chose to do it this way, even though it wasn't strictly
necessary. So that's getting into some
quite complex theology there, but hopefully, you find that way
of thinking about it. Somewhat helpful, Angel Gabriel
here, says the Over the most high will cover you with its
shadow or you can translate this.
The power of the most high will overshadow you.
Basically this means that God will protect Mary during the
pregnancy. Interestingly, the word here for
overshadow, it's only found in a couple of other places in the
Bible. It's found that the
Transfiguration to describe the cloud that overshadows them on
the mountain. And also, it's in the Old
Testament to describe how the cloud of God's glory
overshadowed the tent of meeting.
If you look at it, Exodus 40 verse 35, The Cloud of God's
glory, which represents God himself, settles and overshadows
the tent. So some Scholars say, this is
evidence that Luke intended his audience to understand that Mary
is the new tent of meeting or the new ark of the covenant,
because God overshadows her just like the Ark in the old
Covenant, he is the Arc of the New Covenant, she is filled with
God's holy presence, just as the Ark in the old Covenant was,
which is quite a fascinating connection.
We'll talk about this. As more as we get to when Mary
visits Elizabeth. There's some really interesting
things that are said, they're all three persons of the Trinity
are mentioned here by Gabriel. We have here, God, the most high
doing the work, we have, Jesus, the son of God being conceived
and Gabriel, says that she'll be overshadowed, the most high and
the Holy Spirit will come upon her.
So, all three are mentioned here.
Gabriel says, and so the child will be wholly, another word for
Holy Sanctified. So this means Jesus will be set
apart for the service of God even from within the womb,
because of his miraculous conception, it makes sense that
Jesus is. Holy God has set him apart for a
certain purpose, which is to be the Messiah.
And then the angel Gabriel says specifically, he will be the Son
of God. That's the term that the angel
Gabriel says to Mary. Jesus would literally be the Son
of God according to Gabriel. Now, some would say that one of
the answers to the question of, why was the Virgin birth needed?
And there's various answers you can give to this.
One of the answers is that to ensure that Jesus could be
considered the Son of God, literally in his Earthly form,
not just in his Heavenly form. We know as the second person of
the Trinity, he's the son of God even before the world began.
But maybe one of the reasons that God chose for it to be a
virgin birth with, so that it could be obvious to people that
he's also literally the Son of God in a biological respect as
well. It doesn't have an Earthly.
Father, God is his father. Verse 36 Gabriel says, no this
to or a better translation. There is behold your kinswoman.
Elizabeth has in her old age herself conceived a son.
Now, the full story of this is narrated just before this in
chapter 1. At this point, Mary's not aware
of that Elizabeth is pregnant because they didn't have
internet mail wasn't particularly fast at that time.
So Mary doesn't know that Elizabeth is pregnant Gabriel
now tells her that Elizabeth is pregnant.
He gives this too Ooh, her as a sign that God will indeed
fulfill the words of Gabriel here as well.
He basically says God is already made Elizabeth your relative
pregnant and now he's going to do that for you too.
And she whom people called Barren is now in her sixth
month. Now from this some people have
said that means that Jesus and John.
The Baptist are six months apart because in the sixth month of
Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel Gabriel appears to marry and
says that she's going to be pregnant that could be right.
However, we don't know If Mary can saves straightaway, we do
know that by the time she gets to visit Elizabeth in the Hill
Country, Mary is pregnant by then.
So, there isn't a particularly long time before Mary gets
pregnant here, but we're not sure if she gets pregnant on
this day, specifically verse 37, Gabriel says for nothing is
impossible to God. Or another translation is full
with God. Nothing will be impossible.
So God can overcome the infertility of Elizabeth and the
Unity of Mary. Nothing is impossible for him.
This language is taken straight from the Old Testament as well.
If you look at Genesis 18, verse 14 and Jeremiah 32 verse 17.
It's very similar. And Mary says here, to finish, I
am the handmaid of the Lord. This same expression is used
sometimes in the Old Testament and basically, it means I am the
female servant of God. And then she says, let what you
have said. Be done to me.
So, Mary freely and actively Embraces God's invitation to
Bear the Messiah. In fact, the Greek here is more
than just passive. She doesn't just passively say
yes, the Greek e implies that she actively desires to fulfill
God's will she wants to do this? now theoretically Mary could
have said, no That's part of her free will.
But she chooses to say, yes, and that's important and in that
sense, she's a model for all Christians.
And then the angel left her So that's the end of the text.
It's a longer text and it's quite a beautiful one, and we've
really only scratched the surface.
There's so much you could say about this and it's a text
that's well worth meditating on now, the next event that occurs
here in Luke chapter 1 is the visitation, its when Mary goes
to visit Elizabeth and if you want to chase this one down, you
can hear this. Next section of Luke on December
21st every year and also on the solemnity of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, so you might like to go through the
podcast archives, to find that next section if you would Like
to, let's turn to the catechism and as you'd expect, there's so
many places where the catechism references this event, this is a
central event in the mystery of Salvation.
And so there's sections in here about Mary.
So, parts of the catechism about Mary mentioned this.
A lot parts of the catechism about Jesus mentioned this event
a lot about angels about the Trinity, it's spread all
throughout the catechism. So there's about 20 different
paragraphs. In fact, maybe even more I'll
include as many of these as I can, in the Notes and we'll just
read out a few of them now, but there are so many of them.
So let's just pick a few highlights of how the catechism
understands this particular event paragraph. 148 says, the
Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies The Obedience of Faith
by faith, Mary welcomes, the tidings and promise brought by
the angel Gabriel believing that with God.
Nothing will be impossible. And so giving her a cent behold,
I am the handmaid of the Lord let it be done to me according
to your word. Paragraph 269, this is in the
section, about God, doing whatever he pleases.
Nothing is impossible with God, who disposes his Works according
to his will. So that's an interesting link
here. Paragraph 33 to this is about
Christ's relationship with the angels angels have been present
since creation and throughout the history of Salvation.
Announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the
accomplishment of the divine plan, they closed the Earthly
Paradise protected lat Saved Hagar.
And her child stayed, Abraham's hand, communicated the law by
their Ministry. Led the people of God announced
births and callings and assisted the profits just to cite a few
examples. Finally, the angel Gabriel
announced the birth of the precursor and that of Jesus
himself paragraph or 30. This is about the word, Jesus.
Jesus means in Hebrew God Saves at the Annunciation that angel
Gabriel, gave him the name Jesus.
Has as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and
his mission, since God Alone can forgive sins.
It is God who in Jesus? His eternal son, made man will
save his people from their sins in Jesus.
God recapitulates all of his history of Salvation on behalf
of men. Paragraph. 486 the father's only
son conceived as man in the womb of the Virgin.
Mary is Christ. That is to say anointed by the
Holy Spirit from the beginning of his human existence.
So that one's a really interesting link there because
it mentions how when the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary that is
in a sense, an anointing of Jesus.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary paragraph, 48, a to this is
about Mary's, predestination God sent forth his son but to
prepare a Ready for him. He wanted the free cooperation
of a creature for this from all eternity.
God shows for the mother of his son or daughter of Israel.
A young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, a virgin betrothed
to a man, whose name was Joseph of the House of David and the
virgin's name was Mary. The father of mercies willed
that the Incarnation should be preceded by a cent on the part
of the predestined mother so that just as a woman, had a
share in the coming of Death, so also should a woman contribute
to the coming of life. Paragraph 4 90.
This is about the Immaculate Conception to become the mother
of the Savior. Mary was enriched by God, with
gifts appropriate to such a role that angel Gabriel at the moment
of the Annunciation salutes her as full of grace.
In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free Ascent of
her faith to the announcement of her vocation.
It was necessary that she be wholly, born by God's grace
through the centuries. The church has become ever more
aware that Mary full of grace through God was redeemed from
the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the
Immaculate Conception confesses as Pope Pius and 9th proclaimed
in 1854. The Most Blessed Virgin Mary was
from the moment of her conception, by a singular,
Grace, and privilege of almighty God.
And by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, savior of the
human race preserved immune from all, stain of original sin,
Paragraph 4 94. This is in the same section
about Mary says at the announcement that she will give
birth to the son of the most high without knowing Man by the
power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded with The Obedience of
Faith certain that with God. Nothing will be impossible.
Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord let it be done to me
according to your word, thus giving her consent to God's
word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus.
Espousing the Divine will for sale.
Ovation wholeheartedly without a single sin to restrain her.
She gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her
son. She did.
So in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and
dependent on him by God's grace. As Saint irenaeus says, being
obedient. She became the cause of
salvation for herself, and for the whole human race.
Hence not a few of the early fathers.
Gladly assert that the not of Eve's Disobedience was untied by
Mary's obedience. What the Virgin Eve bound
through her disbelief Mary loosened by her faith.
Comparing her with Eve. They call Mary the mother of the
living and frequently claimed death through Eve, life through
Mary. So that's quite amazing Marian
theology, which is coming through here in the catechism.
Last paragraph will look at, as I said, there's so many of them,
but we'll just finish with this one because this tells us how we
can relate to marry today. So paragraph 2677 because she
gives us Jesus. Her son, Mary is Mother of God.
And our mother, we can entrust Just all our cares and petitions
to her. She prays for us as she prayed
for herself, let it be to me, according to your word by
entrusting ourselves to her prayer.
We abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her thy
will be done. So, that's a nice place to
finish. It's been a longer episode
today, but I hope you've learned something new.
If you have, please tell other people about this ministry and
share this podcast with them, and will continue to look at the
gospels in the coming days. So, that's a nice place to
finish. It's been a longer episode
today, but I hope you've learned something new.
If you have, please tell other people about this ministry and
share this podcast with them, and will continue to look at the
gospels in the coming days.