NOTES for Luk 1:38

What can a man do alone? What can indeed do a young girl living in a secluded hamlet somewhere in the suburb of the Roman Empire and already betrothed to her future husband? Her forthcoming life was already defined: commonness, household activities … And suddenly a call sounds in this commonness, and the girl accepts with all her heart this call and becomes the Mother of God. All the history of the world breaks at this moment and is transformed into history of salvation of this world. So, what can a person really do alone? What if this person is not alone, but with God...?

As one wise man said: "If the Angel did not leave the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph would have stayed without soup». This rule also regulates our life, by giving it the necessary balance between the spiritual and the material. We cannot stay all the time in the presence of angels; God opens Himself to us in eternity, but this eternity burst forth into our life for some seconds, some minutes and maybe some few hours; after that, we return to our main "soup", the main task becomes then to preserve what remained open. To accept the word and keep it in the heart as the Virgin Mary did is something not easy at all. The daily prayer, the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures, and a religious life are things asking for particular efforts, when there is neither angels, nor mystic inspirations, but when on the contrary we have only "soup". It is obviously such a life, when the Word is not choked by thorns and when the heart is not merged by everyday’s life, which allows to yield fruits hundred times more than what had been sowed (Mt 13:1-23).

These words are spoken at a completely special moment: the Annunciation, when the Angel calls the Virgin Mary to become the Mother of the Son of Man. It is here that the Virgin Mary says the words that became decisive in the relationship between God and humanity: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to Me according to your word." Her question about how this can happen is answered by pointing to the omnipotence of the Divine Word, and it is on this Word that She relies.

God creates the world by His word; God sustains it by His word. This word is almighty... until it encounters the human will. The power of God is the power of love that refuses force, love that can seem like powerlessness when God, century after century, keeps addressing His word to people instead of using force. But biblical history shows that this word is not powerless: under the influence of the word of God, humanity travels a path, changing from covenant to covenant, from prophecy to prophecy. And finally, God Himself comes into this world as the Word in the flesh, not as force, but not in powerlessness either.

How important it is for us to accept that God's Word is not powerless, and to put our hope in Him. Then God's love and our faith meet; then Christ is born and grows in our heart, as He did in the womb of the Virgin of Nazareth.

These words are said at a very particular moment - the Annunciation, when the Angel asks the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of the Son of Man. It is exactly here that the Virgin Mary pronounces these words: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word", become the "turning point" in the relationships between God and man. The perplexity of the Virgin Mary on the way it should occur is resolved by the instruction of God's almighty word, and the Virgin Mary relies upon this word.

By word God created the world, by word He maintains it. This word is omnipotent …as long as it doesn’t encounter with human will. God's power is the power of love - abnegating power, love can seem powerless, when God addresses people century after century, addresses His word to people, and He uses no power. But the biblical history shows that this word is powerful: the humanity goes through its way, changing alliance to alliance, prophecy to prophecy by the influence of God's word. God Himself finally comes into the world not as a power, and also not as powerlessness, but as the Word in flesh.

How it is important that we accept this God's Powerful Word, and that we have hope in it. Jesus arises and lives in our heart, as in the stomach of the Nazarene Virgin, when God's love and our faith encounter.

Today's reading is devoted to an event described by two evangelists: Matthew (Mt 1:18-23) and Luke (vv. 26-38). It is reasonable to think that Luke used in his Gospel the testimony of the Virgin Mary herself, unlike Matthew, who relied on Joseph's account. In addition, in Luke's presentation the story of the Annunciation is joined to the story of the Virgin Mary's visit to Elizabeth (vv. 39-56). Using such a composition, the evangelist, as it were, compares and relates two events: the birth of John the Baptist and the Nativity of Christ.

At first glance, such a comparison can appear rather conditional: after all, the birth even of such a prophet as John is still incomparable in significance with the birth of the Messiah-Christ. And yet this comparison has its own meaning. For every miracle is nothing other than God's intervention in nature and history, changing, though not completely stopping, the course of natural and social processes. From this point of view, the Nativity of Christ too could be considered an ordinary miracle, if only the word "ordinary" were appropriate in this case. For even the birth of the Messiah-Christ and the entry of the Kingdom into the world are not something absolutely external to this world; otherwise Christ would have had no need to be born, and the Incarnation of God would lose all meaning.

The Kingdom is amazing precisely because it includes our world and does not destroy it. Perhaps for this reason the Incarnation of God was absolutely necessary: by containing Himself within the bounds of human nature, which is by definition limited, God enters the world not from outside, but from within; now His greatness does not prevent Him from becoming wholly, to the end, part of the world He Himself created. Apparently, in a fallen world it was not possible to act otherwise; it was possible to set it right only from within, and God resolves on this step for the sake of His love for people.

But even before this He did not abandon humanity, and above all His people. Every miracle, every theophany, was a step toward the world and toward the human person. Therefore Luke quite rightly relates John's birth to Jesus' birth: all "ordinary" miracles find their meaning only in the main miracle - the birth of the Messiah and the manifestation of the Kingdom.

How much this conversation between Mary and the archangel Gabriel means for us. Only a few lines, and yet the fate of the world is being decided in them; our life depends on them. And at the heart of this conversation is boundless trust. God's trust in us, in humanity as a whole and in Mary personally. The salvation of humanity, the salvation of all humanity, is in the hands of one single person. Almighty God, who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, gave food to an entire people in the desert, and punished Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins, entrusts Himself into the hands of a fragile young girl.

And on the other side, we see Mary's trust in God. At first she is troubled by the archangel's greeting, and who would not have been frightened in her place? But God, through Gabriel's mouth, is ready to answer her questions, and she is not afraid to ask them.

We often call the Mother of God the New Eve, and indeed the conversation of the Annunciation is like a mirror of the conversation God has with Adam and Eve (Gen 3:9-13). More precisely, the conversation He tries to have, because neither Adam nor Eve answers His questions directly, and with each word He speaks they begin to be more afraid. The very first consequence of their sin is the loss of trust in God... Mary acts in a completely different way: she does not hide from God - and she receives answers from Him to her questions. And by entrusting herself into God's hands, she gives us an example of humility and trust.

Trust even when what God offers us is frightening and unknown. Trust in the promise of eternal Life even when it appears that beyond death there is nothing. And God does not expect from us an understanding of our calling that is beyond our strength; He only invites us to agree to what He offers us here and now.

Continuing his account, the evangelist again and again returns to the main theme of his book: the new, joyful Good News announced to all people. After Zechariah, Mary from the town of Nazareth hears this news.

On the one hand, she continues the line of biblical righteous people and prophets (compare her prayer with the song of Samuel's mother Hannah in 1 Samuel, ch. 2), recognizing in obedience to God both His infinite superiority and His astonishing nearness. On the other hand, she is "blessed among women," that is, the most blessed one, who received the fullness of love and was granted the greatest mercy from God.

In the evangelist's solemn biblical language, the words most often found here are "blessing" and "grace," that is, the good Word and mercy that God gives to people. It appears that in this case these words best describe the gospel message first received two thousand years ago by the Mother of the Lord Jesus.

Today we celebrate the beginning, the starting point of our salvation. This feast, which arose no later than the 5th century, was originally called the Day of the Incarnation; its modern name appeared later, not earlier than the 7th century. This ancient name expresses for us both the main meaning of the feast and the main Person who acts in it. We rejoice today because Almighty God desired to become incarnate in order to save us, and He fulfilled this will of His. And today we rejoice over Her who received Him in Her womb, over His Mother. We are not celebrating the anniversary of the event, because we do not know exactly when it happened: the date was set quite conventionally, simply exactly 9 months before Christmas. But we rejoice over the Incarnation as an accomplished fact. Once proclaimed by the prophets, it became an event of real history, and because of this everything became a participant in eternity. Let us cite the words of two great saints about this event, in translation from Greek.

Here is what St. John of Damascus says: "Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice: for He who is coessential with the Father, without beginning with Him and sharing His throne, in compassion and man-loving mercy emptied Himself, by the good pleasure and counsel of the Father, and dwelt in a virgin womb, purified beforehand by the Spirit. O wonder! God among human beings, the Uncontainable in a womb, the eternal in time: how glorious are the seedless conception, the ineffable self-emptying, and such a mystery! God is made small, and is incarnate, and is formed, when the angel tells the Pure One of the conception: Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you, He who has great mercy."

And here are the words of St. Andrew of Crete: "Now is the joy of the Annunciation, the virgin celebration; earthly things are joined with heavenly things, Adam is renewed, Eve is freed from the ancient sorrow, and the dwelling of our nature, deified by the One who took our composition, becomes God's temple. O mystery! Incomprehensible is the way He made Himself small! Ineffable is the manner of conception! The angel serves the wonder; the Virgin womb receives the Son; the Holy Spirit is sent down; the Father from above is well pleased; reconciliation for all is created by [His] will! In Christ, saved by Christ, together with Gabriel let us cry out to the Virgin: Rejoice, O favored one, through You the Lord has come, our salvation, Christ our God, who received our nature and raised us to Himself; pray to Him for the salvation of our souls."

The appearance of the angel to the Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, what is it? A revelation like the many others described in the Bible? Yes, of course, this is undoubtedly a revelation, one similar in essence and form to many others. A unique revelation speaking of the birth of the Messiah? Yes, certainly: the main content of the revelation is precisely the good news of His birth. Yet it is not only all this; there is something more here.

A hint of that more is reflected, by the way, in the traditional name of the event itself: Annunciation is the same thing as Gospel, good news. So where does the Gospel, the good news, the Annunciation begin? In the ancient prophecies about the Messiah's coming? Yes, of course, but there it is still only prehistory. In the promise the angel announces to the Virgin Mary? Undoubtedly, for he announces to Her the fulfillment of ancient prophecies. Yet the future is the future; it still lies ahead. And the past is the past; it already lies behind. The good news, meanwhile, is always in the present, or else it does not exist.

What, then, is in the present? "The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You." More precisely, according to the sense of the Greek text, not "will come" and "will overshadow," but "is coming down" and "is overshadowing," since the Greek forms allow the present tense in translation no less than the past. This is truly good news. Good news always includes the one to whom it is addressed. It includes that person in the process that presupposes its reality, the possibility of its fulfillment in fullness, there and then, where and when such fulfillment is provided for by God's providence.

Yet God's providence, if it is revealed to a person, never remains merely in the future for that person. It is always revealed to the one to whom it is revealed as an eternal present, of which that person's own life becomes a part. So it happened with the Virgin Mary: the good news made Her herself part of God's providence. Of course, with Her consent: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord." Without such consent a person will not become part of God's providence. The Virgin Mary consented, and became Who She became. The Mother of the Messiah.