NOTES for Luk 1:24-38
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.