Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD
Readings:
Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10
Psalm 40:7-11
Hebrews 10:4-10
Luke 1:26-38
Abbreviations: NAB (New American Bible), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
March 25th, nine months before the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, is the traditional date for celebrating the Solemnity of the Annunciation. The exception to this rule occurs when the Church moves the day of the celebration in the Liturgical Calendar to prevent it from falling during Holy Week or Easter Week or on a Sunday. To avoid a Sunday before Holy Week, the Church observes the feast on March 26th. When March 25th falls within Holy Week or Easter Week, the Solemnity of the Annunciation moves to the Monday after the Octave of Easter, which is the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday).
The Theme of the Readings: The Word of God Became Flesh
The Solemnity of the Annunciation celebrates the visit of
the archangel Gabriel to Mary of Nazareth and the conception of the
Redeemer-Messiah, Jesus Christ (Lk 1:26-38). It is the day the Holy Spirit
completed the work of God for the Son to become flesh in Mary's womb. In
ancient times in the Church, Christian scholars believed that Jesus died on the
Cross at the end of His earthly ministry on the same day of His conception years
earlier. There are references to the Feast of the Annunciation celebrated in
the Church as early as the fifth century. See CCC 430, 484, 490, 969, 973,
1171, 2617 and 2674.
In the First Reading, the 8th century BC prophet Isaiah announced a sign from God: a virgin would give birth to a Davidic prince destined to be the Redeemer of Israel promised by the prophets. It is the same prophecy that St. Matthew will announce fulfilled in the Virgin Mary of Nazareth and her son, Jesus: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means "God is with us." (Mt 1:23).
In the Responsorial Psalm, attributed to King David, the psalmist submits himself to God, understanding that it is not the outward signs of animal sacrifice that pleases God. He acknowledges that the spiritual gift of a contrite and humbled human spirit pleases God more than material gifts.
The Second Reading assures us that we were consecrated to God through the obedient will of Jesus when He offered Himself in sacrifice for our sins. Jesus fulfilled the will of God by abolishing the "old" imperfect animal sacrifices to establish the "new" and perfect offering of His life for the sanctification of believers. He did this, as St. Paul wrote, "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" to reconcile humanity with God by bringing all who accept Jesus as Savior to salvation!
Finally, in the Gospel Reading, we see the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in the Annunciation of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary's fiat. She willingly submitted herself to the Lord and His sovereignty over her life with her words: "May it be done to me according to your word." At the very moment of Mary's free will response, God the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin, conceiving baby Jesus in the Davidic Virgin's womb. By the power of God the Holy Spirit, Mary's womb became the Ark of the New Covenant, and the dwelling place of "God is with us" as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah.
The Fathers of the Church also saw the Virgin Mary as the "new Eve," and Mary's "yes" as undoing the virgin Eve's disobedience. St. Irenaeus wrote: "Thus, the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.22.4). The Church affirms her role as the "new Eve" from the promise of Mary's role in salvation history prophesied in Genesis 3:15 (known as the Protoevangelium, "first good-news"/gospel). "Furthermore, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium (Gen 3:15) as Mary, the mother of Christ, the 'new Eve'" (CCC 411, also see CCC 489, 726, 2618 and 2853). By the power of God the Holy Spirit, Mary became the "new Eve." And her womb became the Ark of the New Covenant, the dwelling place of "God with us" as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah and as we proclaim in the Gospel acclamation: "The Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory" (see Rev 11:19-12:1; CCC 2676).
The First Reading Isaiah 7:10-14 ~ The Sign of the Virgin Birth
10 The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying: 11 Ask for a sign from the
LORD [Yahweh], your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the
sky! 12 But Ahaz answered, "I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD [Yahweh]!"
13 Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to
weary people, must you also weary my God? 14 Therefore, the Lord himself
will give you this sign: the virgin [ha almah] shall be with child, and bear a
son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means "God is with us!"
[...] = literal term in the Hebrew text, IBHE, Vol. III, page 1626.
In Isaiah 7:3, God commanded the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah to take his little son Shear-jashub (whose name means "a remnant will return") and meet Davidic King Ahaz of Judah (735-715 BC). The Lord sent Isaiah to tell the king not to be afraid of his enemies (the kings of Aram and Israel) because God would save David's royal house from its oppressors. However, the prophet also warned the king that unless his faith was firm, he would not be firm on his throne (Is 7:9b). Then, the Lord told Ahaz through His prophet to ask for a miraculous "sign" as proof of God's favor, but Ahaz refused to ask.
The king's refusal was not out of humility, as Ahaz suggests, but because he lacked faith in Yahweh, and he preferred to depend on the might of his Assyrian allies to help him fight his enemies. In response, Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gave the king a sign of the future preservation of the Kingdom of the Davidic heirs, the Southern Kingdom of Judah. As a reward for King David's faith and submission to the God of Israel, the Lord promised David that a Davidic heir would sit on his throne forever (2 Sam 7:12-17; 23:5; 1 Kng 2:4; 2 Chr 13:5; Ps 89:2-5; Sir 45:25). There is a link between God's promise of an unconditional and eternal covenant with the House of David and Isaiah's prophecy to King Ahaz. Isaiah told the king: Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means "God is with us!" Notice that the prophet does not say "a virgin" but "the virgin," meaning a specific virgin. Isaiah's prophecy can hardly be a sign that some virgin in the king's family will marry and have a son, an event that frequently happened within a royal household full of multiple wives and daughters. This virgin birth will be a miraculous sign.
St. Matthew's Gospel quotes from the prophet Isaiah approximately 65 times, and the announcement of the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14 will be the first of ten "fulfillment" statements (Mt 1:23; 2:15, 17-18, 23; 4:14-16; 8:17; 12:17-21; 13:35; 21:4-5; 27:9-10). St. Matthew announces that Mary of Nazareth fulfills Isaiah's virgin birth prophecy with the birth of her son Jesus, the heir of King David. Mary is the virgin descendant of King David (Lk 1:32). She is the specific woman prophesied by Isaiah, who brought forth the "Emmanuel," "God with us," who would inherit the throne of His "father" David (Lk 1:26-27, 31-33). Mary is also "the woman" promised by God to bear the son without the seed of a man who will defeat Satan and bring salvation to humanity in Genesis 3:15.
Bishop St. Irenaeus of Lyons (martyred c. 198/200 AD) compared the Virgin Mary to the virgin Eve. He wrote: "Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race [...] The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3, 22, 4). Comparing Mary with Eve, the Church Fathers called Mary "the Mother of the living" and frequently claimed: "Death through Eve, life through Mary."
Matthew established the human Jesus' bloodline in a genealogy at the beginning of his Gospel (1:1-16). However, he wanted his readers to understand that Jesus was more than a mere human when he wrote: For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her; in other words, "by the Holy Spirit without human seed" (Lateran Council of 649). Both Isaiah and St. Matthew identify the son born of the virgin by the title "Emmanuel," in Hebrew, "God with us," identifying Jesus as the child born from a virgin foretold by the prophet Isaiah. After His Resurrection, Jesus will assure His disciples: And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age (Mt 28:20), affirming that He is the "God with us" foretold by the prophet Isaiah.
In the "sign" Isaiah gave to King Ahaz in Isaiah 7:14, the Greek Septuagint translation (LXX), in use during Jesus' lifetime, translates the Hebrew words ha almah into Greek as "the virgin," using the Greek words ho parthenos. Since the Christian era, Jewish scholars have maintained that the Hebrew word almah does not mean "virgin" but instead refers to a young woman recently married. The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew word as "virgin," however, is an important witness to an early Jewish interpretation of the word almah as "virgin," a translation accepted by St. Matthew and applied to the virgin birth of the Davidic Redeemer-Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. See the document: "Defending the Virgin Birth"
The Responsorial Psalm 40:7-8, 10-11~ Humility and
Obedience is the Valued Sacrifice
Response: "Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will" (8a, 9a).
7 Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you
gave me. Holocausts or sin offerings you sought not; 8a then said I,
"Behold I come."
Response:
8b "In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, 9 to do your will,
O my God, is my delight, and your Law is within my heart!"
Response:
10 I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips,
as you, O LORD [Yahweh], know.
Response:
11 Your justice I kept not hid within my heart; your faithfulness and your
salvation I have spoken of; I have made no secret of your kindness and your
truth in the vast assembly.
Response:
In this psalm, attributed to David, the psalmist is celebrating what God has done for him. He begins with a confession that he was in distress and called on the Lord, who heard him in his time of need. The Lord delivered him, and in response to the Lord's kindness, he sings a new song, a hymn that is a confession of praise to God (verse 4, not in our reading).
7 Sacrifice or offering you wished not, but ears open to obedience you
gave me. Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not
The psalmist understands the true meaning of sacrificial offerings
made to the Lord God in liturgical worship. It is not the blood of the animal
that the Lord wants as a sin sacrifice. God wants the humble repentance of the
sinner whose sacrifice is his self-interest in a relationship in which the love
of God comes before his love of self (verses 7-8).
8 then said I, "Behold I come. In the written scroll, it is prescribed
for me, 9 to do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your Law is within my
heart!"
In verses 8-9, the psalmist addresses God directly, announcing that
his joy comes from being obedient to the precepts of Mosaic Law. The Law isn't
just words on a page (scroll) but is the path of life that God has engraved on
his heart.
10 I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips,
as you, O LORD [Yahweh], know. 11 Your justice I kept not hid within my
heart; your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of; I have made no
secret of your kindness and your truth in the vast assembly.
In addition to keeping the commandments, the psalmist
understands that his dedication to God must be active and not passive; his
faith must be vocal and not silent. He must proclaim the goodness of God in
the liturgical assembly of worship so that others may hear of the good things
God has done for him.
The psalmist's attitude of humility, obedience, and gratitude to God is what we need to demonstrate in giving thanks to God for His merciful works in our lives. The Holy Spirit calls us to respond to Christ by proclaiming His light shining in our lives, our faith communities, and the secular world, as Jesus taught when He said: "your light must shine in people's sight so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in Heaven (Mt 5:16).
The Second Reading Hebrews 10:4-10 ~ The Imperfection of
Old Covenant Sacrifices Made Perfect in Christ Jesus
4 It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.
5 For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
6 in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
7 Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"
8 First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in."
9 These are offered according to the Law. Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your will." He takes away the first to establish the second.
10 By this "will," we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.
The inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews identifies the imperfection of the Old Covenant sacrifices in Hebrews 10:2. He asks the rhetorical question: If the Old Covenant sacrifices were perfect and the worshipers purified of their sins, why would there be the necessity of continually repeating them? He answers his question in verse 4, saying, It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins. He makes the definitive statement that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins because the only remedy for human sin is the unblemished blood sacrifice of a perfect man who has the power to offer a spiritual cleansing of sin. It is not a new concept since similar teachings appear in the prophet's writings concerning the imperfection of animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins (Ps 51:1-16; Is 1:11-13; Jer 6:20; 11:15; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:2). God seeks the desire for transformed lives and contrite hearts. The purpose of animal sacrifice was to teach the nature of sin and the need for atonement, purification, and the restoration of fellowship with God.
In Hebrews 10:5-7, the inspired writer announced the reason for the Messiah coming in human form. He wrote: 5 For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight. 7 Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.'" Christ is the implied speaker in verses 5b-7. The inspired writer's argument concerning the imperfection of blood sacrifice is that God Himself rejected animal sacrifice as a means of atoning for sins. The Old Testament quote in Hebrews 5-6 is from Psalm 40:6-8 LXX (Septuagint Greek translation) and 39:9 in other translations. The verses point to the inadequacy of all the Old Covenant sacrifices and offerings. Hebrews 10:5-7 and Psalms 40:7-9 also state that from a time before the Incarnation of Christ, Sacred Scripture pointed to the coming of the Redeemer-Messiah to fulfill the Law and "to do God's will."
St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning Christ's death as the fulfillment of Sacred Scripture. Paul wrote: For I handed on to you as of first importance which I also received: That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:3-4). Connecting this passage from Psalms 40 to Jesus, the inspired writer emphasizes not only the fulfillment of Scripture but Jesus' complete submission to the will of God. Jesus' complete yielding to God's will is expressed in Matthew 26:42 when He said: "My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking, it, your will be done!" And as St. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:8, Jesus entirely submitted Himself to the will of the Father as: he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. The "body you prepared" (Heb 10:5; Ps 40:6 LXX) is the blood sacrifice of Christ on the altar of the Cross.
Psalm 40:6-8 from the Greek Septuagint translation also emphasizes that the performance of the Law's external demands only pointed to what God truly required. God wanted an inward change as expressed by the prophet Hosea in 6:6, For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts. Jesus submitted to the will of God to bring about the transformation of hearts and what the old Law wasn't capable of achieving. Only Jesus, through the purification of His atoning sacrifice, could fulfill what the Law was incapable of fulfilling: the forgiveness of mortal sins and the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus made statements to this effect in the Gospels (e.g., see Mt 5:17 and 9:13).
8 First, he says, "Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in." 9 These are offered
according to the law. Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your will." He
takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this "will," we have been
consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.
The inspired writer continues to offer instruction on Psalm
40 from the Septuagint version of Sacred Scripture. However, he is also
connecting that passage to the words of the Prophet Samuel. In 1 Samuel 15:22,
Samuel wrote: Does the LORD so delight in holocausts and sacrifices as in
obedience to the command of the LORD? Obedience is better than sacrifice and
submission than the fat of rams. Samuel anointed David King of Israel when
he was still a boy (1 Sam Chapter 16) and was David's first teacher. According
to the psalm quoted earlier, David certainly learned this lesson from Samuel: it
is obedience and submission to His will that God desires and not the blood of
animals.
He takes away the first to establish the
second. 10 By this "will," we have been consecrated through the offering of the
Body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Under the Law of the Sinai Covenant sacrificial system,
there were different kinds of acceptable animal sacrifices offered in various ways:
where the altar fire consumed the entire animal like the twice-daily Tamid sacrifice.
The sin sacrifice was a two-part process: the first being the sacrifice itself that demonstrated the sinner's repentance and contrition, which led to the second part, forgiveness, and restoration of fellowship with God. However, the animal's flesh and blood were not what God desired. He wanted repentant and purified hearts, cleansed of sins: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, and so God provided the perfect sacrifice: a body you prepared for me (Ps 40 LXX; Heb 10:5). That body God prepared was the Incarnation of God the Son that the angel Gabriel announced to the Davidic Virgin, Mary of Nazareth!
The self-sacrifice of the Son God removed the necessity for animal sacrifice. He offered, instead, His glorified Flesh and Blood; He is the Lamb of God who established the perfect and eternal sacrifice for the consecration and sanctification of humanity. Through the obedient "will" of Jesus to offer Himself up in sacrifice, we have been consecrated (verse 10). It is the will of God that Jesus fulfilled, abolishing the old, imperfect sacrifices to establish the new in an eternal New Covenant for the sanctification of believers (Mt 18:14; Gal 1:4; Eph 1:5, 9, 11) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb 10:10) to bring man to salvation.
The verse before the Gospel: The Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw
his glory (Jn 1:14ab).
The Gospel of Luke 1:26-38 ~ The Angel
Gabriel Announces the Birth of the Messiah
26 [In the sixth month] The angel Gabriel was
sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin
betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name
was Mary. 28 And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace [greetings/rejoice,
has been graced]! The Lord is with you." 29 But she was
greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might
be. 30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found
favor with God. 31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall
name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord
God will give him the throne of David his father, 33 and he will rule over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." 34 But Mary said to
the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" 35 And the angel
said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called
holy, the Son of God. 36 And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her
old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; 37 for nothing will
be impossible for God." 38 Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me
according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
[...] = literal Greek translation (Fitzmeyer, The
Gospel According to Luke, page 345-46).
In the Gospel Reading, we see the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in the announcement of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel and the fiat of the Virgin Mary.
6 In the
sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, 27 to a virgin
betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's
name was Mary.
"In the sixth month" refers to Elizabeth's pregnancy; it is
the fifth month as we count with the concept of a zero place-value which the
ancients did not use. God sent the angel Gabriel to a virgin named Mary. Her
Hebrew name was Myriam. She lived in the insignificant village of Nazareth,
located just north of the fertile Jezreel Valley, 15 miles east from the Sea of
Galilee and 20 miles from the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The virgin had
the same name as the prophetess Myriam, Moses and Aaron's sister
(Ex 6:20, 23; 15:20 and Num 26:59).
Notice that St. Luke makes an emphatic statement of Mary's virginity, using the Greek word "virgin" twice in this passage. It is the same Greek word (parthenos) for "virgin" used in Isaiah's prophecy of the Old Testament Greek Septuagint translation of Isaiah 7:14, a prediction that designates "the" virgin and not "a" virgin (see the First Reading). Also, notice how St. Luke's Gospel links the priestly family of St. John the Baptist to the family of Mary of Nazareth. The families were related (see Ex 28:1; Lk 1:5, 32, and 36). Zechariah's wife was a kinswoman of Mary, and both Zechariah and Elizabeth were descendants of the first High Priest, Aaron, the brother of Moses, and their sister Myriam (Num 26:59; 1 Chron 5:29). Mary's kinswoman, Elizabeth, had the same name as her ancestress, Aaron's wife (Ex 6:23). Therefore, as well as being a descendant of King David (Lk 1:32), Mary also has an inherited connection to the priestly bloodline (1:36).
Mary was "betrothed" to another descendant of the great King David, a man named Joseph (Mt 1:20). A betrothal was the first stage of an arranged marriage and lasted about a year (Mishnah: Ketubot, 5:2). It involved a ketuba, a formal contract in the presence of witnesses, in addition to the payment of the mohar, the "bride price" (see Mal 2:14). The second stage was when the bridegroom came to take the bride to his home. There was a seven-day marriage feast with the union's consummation on the first night (Gen 29:27-28; Judg 14:12-18; Mt 1:18; 25:1-13; Tob 8:20, 27; Mishnah: Ketubot, 4:4-5). A betrothal gave the groom legal rights over the girl, and the intended groom could only break the contract through a rite of divorce (see Mt 1:18-19). Mary and Joseph were in the first stage of the marriage arrangements at the time of the Annunciation, and she was still a virgin.
28 And coming to
her, he said, "Hail, favored one [Hail, has been graced]! The Lord is with you."
The angel's greeting to Mary is different from the one to
Zechariah in Luke 1:13. Notice that Gabriel did not greet Zechariah with the
same respect and status as he did by giving Mary a title. It is also unusual that
he did not begin with the typical Semitic greeting of shalom (peace) but
with chare, meaning "hail" or "rejoice," and by announcing Mary's
special status. This status is often incorrectly translated as "full of grace,"
but the literal translation is "has-been-graced." The angel's announcement in Greek
is Chare, kecharitomene [kah-ray kay-kah-ree-toe-may-nay]. The angel
addressed Mary by a title that was a past perfect participle of the Greek noun charis,
meaning "grace," kecharitomene is literally "has-been-graced" (Fitzmyer,
Gospel of Luke, page 345).
The most common rendering of this phrase in most translations is "full of grace." It is a transliteration of Jerome's Latin Vulgate text. However, while "full of grace" certainly describes Mary's condition, it is not expressed in the Greek past perfect participle verb kecharitomene. "Full of grace" in Greek is pleres chariots, as used for Christ in John 1:14 and for St. Stephen in Acts 6:8. Mary's title, kecharitomene, indicates a state which is beyond filled. In addressing Mary with this title, the angel signifies that she possesses, and has always possessed, a plentitude of divine grace (Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, page 268-69). A past perfect participle suggests a condition that existed in the past and continues in the present. Mary has been perfected in and remains in a state of grace. To be "graced" in the past tense is to have never been lacking in grace; it indicates Mary's unique conception without original sin. This phrase is found in only one other place in the New Testament in Ephesians 1:6-7, where St. Paul describes how God's grace has "been granted" to all Christians in Christ Jesus. That Mary was deeply disturbed by the angel's greeting (Lk 1:29) is evidence that someone of her humble station had received a unique greeting and addressed by a highly unusual title that left her perplexed.
The Fathers and Doctors of the Church taught what Pope Pius IX expressed in the encyclical Ineffabilis Deus: "this singular, solemn and unheard-of greeting showed that all the divine graces reposed in the Mother of God and that she was adorned with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit." Her singular condition meant that Mary was never subject to the curse of original sin, and the Holy Spirit preserved her from all sin throughout her life. The theologically explosive words of the Archangel Gabriel constitute one of the primary text sources to support the dogma of Mary's Immaculate Conception (see Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, and Paul VI, Creed of the People of God; also see CCC 411, 490-93, 722).
The angel's greeting also identifies Mary as the image of "the daughter of Zion" in the writings of the prophets. God's holy prophets taught that it was the destiny of the nation of Israel to give birth to the promised Redeemer-Messiah, and now Mary, a daughter of Israel, was asked to fulfill that destiny. The prophet Zephaniah wrote: Shout for joy, daughter of Zion [chaire thygater Sion], Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice; exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! 15 Yahweh has repealed your sentence; he has turned your enemy away. Yahweh is king among you; Israel, you have nothing more to fear. 16 When that Day comes, the message for Jerusalem will be: Zion, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp. 17 Yahweh, your God is there with you, the warrior-Savior (3:14-17 NJB). [...] = Greek translation. Compare this passage with Luke 1:28-31.
Mary fulfills Israel's destiny to produce the Redeemer-Messiah in St. Luke's allusion to the "daughter of Zion" prophecy. "Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person" (CCC 2676).
|
(Gabriel speaking) |
Zephaniah 3:14-17 NJB & LXX Greek (God speaking) |
| "Chaire (Rejoice)" (Lk 1:28) | Chaire ... thygater Sion "Rejoice daughter of Zion" (Zeph 3:14) |
| "the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28) | "The LORD [Yahweh] is king among you" (Zeph 3:15b) |
| "Do not be afraid, Mary" (Lk 1:30) | "you have nothing more to fear... Zion have no fear" (Zeph 3:15-16) |
| "you will conceive in your womb" (Lk 1:31) | "The LORD [Yahweh] your God is there with you" (Zeph 3:17) |
| "Jesus" [Hebrew = Yahshua/Yehoshua = "Yahweh saves"] (Lk 1:31) | "the warrior-Savior" (Zeph 3:17) |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2012 | |
31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
The angel Gabriel told Mary to name her son Jesus. Both St. John the Baptist and Jesus were divinely named (Lk 1:13). The ancients believed a name reflected the true essence of a person. The Greek text of the New Testament renders Jesus' name as Iesous, but this was not the name His family and friends called Him. Jesus' Hebrew name was (in old Hebrew) Yah'shua; in Jesus' time, His name evolved into Yeshua (Hebrew) or Yehoshua (Aramaic), meaning "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation." The angel Gabriel revealed to Joseph the significance of the child's name in a dream, saying: She will give birth to a son, and you must name him Jesus because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21; underlining added for emphasis). In Hebrew, His name was the same as the Promised Land's hero-conquer, Moses' successor, Joshua.
The angel's statement to Joseph in Matthew 1:21 is a wordplay on Jesus' Hebrew name that means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation" or even more literally, "I AM saves" (Ex 3:14 defines the Divine Name as "I AM"). Jesus' Hebrew name is a theophoric name that includes the name of a deity. In this case, the Yah is a prefix for Yahweh: "Yah" is a short form representing the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, the name God revealed to Moses, and the "I AM" of the burning bush in Exodus 3:13-15. The name "I AM saves" or Yahweh saves" signifies the very name of God present in the person of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. Jesus is God-made-man for the redemption from sin of all of humanity; as St. Peter will state to the Jewish Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus, declaring: there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
The Fathers of the Church saw a typological link between Jesus and the Old Testament hero who succeeded Moses, led the conquest of Canaan, and bore the same name. Joshua in the Old Testament prefigured Jesus in the New:
| Joshua (Yah'shua) "Yahweh is salvation" | Jesus (Yah'shua) "Yahweh is salvation" |
| Moses gave Hoshea the name Yah'shua/Joshua. | The angel Gabriel told Mary of Nazareth to name God's Son Yah'shua/Jesus. |
| His name defined his mission as God's anointed. | His name defined His mission as God's anointed. |
| Joshua's mission was to lead the children of Israel into the Promise Land of Canaan. | Jesus' mission was to lead the children of God into the Promised Land of Heaven. |
| Joshua began his mission by crossing the Jordan River from the east to the west. | Jesus began His mission after His baptism by crossing theJordan River from the east to the west. |
| Joshua faithfully served God all of his life. | Jesus faithfully served God the Father all of His earthly life and beyond. |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2012 | |
Jesus' name defines both His destiny and His mission. Since God alone can offer the gift of eternal salvation and the forgiveness of sins, God the eternal Son's destiny and mission are to save humanity, just as His name suggests: "I AM saves"/"I AM salvation."
The angel told Mary: "He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father, 33 and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
The angel Gabriel told Mary her son's throne would last forever. It is a prophecy that recalls the promise of the 5th kingdom in Daniel 2:44, the kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever. His words also recall God's covenant promises to King David in 2 Samuel 7:9-16 that his throne would endure forever (see 2 Sam 23:5; 2 Chron 8:13; Sir 45:25; 47:11/13). St. Luke intentionally links God's promise to David of an eternal covenant and the inauguration of that covenant promise to Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus is the promised son of David's line, who will rule as king forever. He is the prophet greater than Moses promised in Deuteronomy 18:17-18. He is God's "anointed" (Messiah) who will lead His people across the great "river" of physical death into the Promised Land of Heaven, as prefigured by Joshua, who led the children of Israel across the Jordan River into the Promised Land of Canaan (Josh 3:1-17). Compare the promises the angel Gabriel made to Mary concerning Jesus' destiny in Luke 1:31-33 and the promises God made to King David in 2 Samuel 7:9-16.
|
Promises made to David in 2 Samuel 7:9-16 |
Promises made to Mary in Luke 1:31-33 |
| And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth [literal translation = I will make your name great] (2 Sam 7:9). | and you will name him Jesus. He will be great (Lk 1:32). |
| The LORD reveals to you that he will establish a house for you and when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors [literally= your fathers] (2 Sam 7:11-12). | The Lord will give him the throne of David, his father (Lk 1:32). |
| I shall be a father to him, and he a son to me (2 Sam 7:14). | and will be called Son of the Most High (Lk 1:32). |
|
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your
loins, and I will make his kingdom firm [literally = the throne of
your kingdom I shall establish forever] (2 Sam 7:13). Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever (2 Sam 7:16). |
he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Lk 1:33). |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2000 | |
34 But Mary said to
the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"
Zechariah's question to the angel in Luke 1:18 rendered a
rebuke in 1:20, whereas Mary's question in 1:34 does not receive a negative
response. Zechariah's question expressed unbelief (verse 20), whereas
Mary's question concerns only her state of virginity.
35 And the angel
said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called
holy, the Son of God."
The angel uses the verb episkiazein (overshadow) to
explain Mary's divine conception by the power of God the Holy Spirit. The same
verb appears in the Greek Septuagint translation of Exodus 40:34 when God the
Holy Spirit, in the visible form of the Glory Cloud, "overshadowed" the Tabernacle
and the glory of Yahweh filled the dwelling. The same word was in the Transfiguration
of the Christ (Mt 17:5 and Lk 9:34) when the three Apostles heard the voice of
God coming from a cloud that cast its shadow over those assembled on the
mountain. It also appears in Acts 5:15, when St. Peter, filled with the Holy
Spirit, approached the sick, and they experienced healing as his shadow fell
over them. The shadow of God is the gentlest manifestation of His Divine
Presence. Notice how tenderly He overshadowed the Virgin Mary to change her
destiny and all of human history.
In Exodus 40:34, God overshadowed the desert Sanctuary that held the Ark of the Covenant when His presence came to dwell on it (Ex 25:10, 21-22). There a connection between the Virgin Mary and the Ark of the Covenant. According to Hebrews 9:4, there were the three items in the Ark of the Covenant when it resided in the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple. Compare Mary's womb with the description of the contents of the Ark of the Covenant from Hebrews 9:4:
| Contents of the Ark of the Covenant according to Hebrews 9:4 | <Jesus Within Mary's Womb |
| The Ten Commandments = the word of God (also see Ex 25:21; 40:20) | Jesus = the Living Word of God (Jn 1:1) |
| A pot of the manna, the bread from heaven (Ex 16:33-34) | Jesus = the Living Bread come down from heaven (Jn 6:51) |
| Aaron's staff or branch that came back to life when green shoots budded as a sign of God's favor (Num 17:23, 25) | Jesus = "The Branch" of the House of David that died but came to life again* |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 1998 | |
*"the Branch" is a prophetic title for the Messiah in the books of the prophets (Is 11:4; Jer 33:15; Zec 3:8; 6:12).
The sacred shrine of the Ark of the Covenant, upon which
God's presence rested, was last seen just before the destruction of Jerusalem
in 587 BC. The prophet Jeremiah removed the Ark from the Temple and hid it
along with the tent of the desert Sanctuary in a cave on Mt. Nebo (2 Mac 2:1-8). The prophet Jeremiah foretold that the time would come when the box of
the Ark would no longer be relevant to the covenant people: They will in
those days no longer say, "The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD!" They will no
longer think of it, or remember it, or miss it, or make another (Jer 3:16b).
But would God deprive the faithful remnant of Israel, who would
become the New Covenant Church of the people of God, of a sacred vessel associated
with the very presence of God? See CCC 2676 and Rev 11:19-12:1-5; 21:3. No!
The Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant! Her womb is the first "dwelling
of God ... with men" (Rev 21:3; CCC 2676).
| God the Holy Spirit overshadowed and then indwelled the Ark. The Ark became the dwelling place of the presence of God (Ex 40:34-35). | God the Holy Spirit overshadowed and then indwelled Mary. At that time, Mary's womb became the dwelling place of the presence of God (Lk 1:35). |
| The Ark contained the Ten Commandments (the word of God in stone), a pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that came back to life (Ex 25:16; Dt 10:2, 5; Heb 9:4). | The womb of the Virgin contained Jesus: the Word of God enfleshed, the living bread from heaven, "the Branch" (Messianic title) who would die but come back to life (Lk 1:35). |
| The Ark traveled to the hill country of Judah to rest in the house of Obed-edom (2 Sam 6:1-11). | Mary traveled to the hill country of Judah (Judea) to the home of Elizabeth (Lk 1:39). |
| Dressed in a priestly ephod, King David approached the Ark and danced and leaped for joy (2 Sam 6:14). | John the Baptist, son of a priest who would himself become a priest, leaped for joy in Elizabeth's womb when Mary approach (Lk 1:43). |
| David shouted for joy in the presence of God and the Holy Ark (2 Sam 6:15). | Elizabeth cried with joy in the presence of God within Mary's womb (Lk 1:42). |
| David asked, "How is it that the Ark of the Lord comes to me?" (2 Sam 6:9) | Elizabeth asked, "Why is this granted unto me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:43) |
| The Ark remained in the house of Obed-edom for three months (2 Sam 6:11). | Mary remained in the house of her cousin Elizabeth for three months (Lk 1:56). |
| God blessed the house of Obed-edom by the presence of the Ark (2 Sam 6:11). | The word "blessed" appears three times concerning Mary at Elizabeth's house (in Lk 1:39-45). |
| The Ark returned to its sanctuary home and eventually ended up in Jerusalem, where God revealed His presence and glory in the newly built Temple (2 Sam 6:12; 1 Kng 8:9-11). | Mary returned home after visiting Elizabeth and eventually came to Jerusalem, where she presented God the Son at the Temple (Lk 1:56; 2:21-22). |
| God made Aaron's rod return to life and bud to prove he was the legitimate High Priest (Num 17:8). | God would resurrect His Son, who was enfleshed in Mary's womb and born to bring salvation to all humanity, to prove He is the eternal High Priest (Heb 4:14). |
| When transporting the Ark outside the Holy of Holies, the priests covered it with a blue veil (Num 4:4-6). | In Mary's appearances outside of heaven, visionaries testify that she wears a blue veil. |
| In Revelation 11:19, St. John sees the Ark of the Covenant in Heaven; this is the last verse of chapter 11 before John's vision of "the woman" in 12:1 | In Revelation 12:1, John sees Mary in Heaven. It is the same vision Juan Diego saw of Mary in Mexico in 1531: the Woman clothed with the sun and standing on the moon. |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2002, revised 2012 | |
Mary's unique role in salvation history was first mentioned in Genesis 3:15 when God cursed the serpent and promised that the Redeemer-Messiah, born from a woman, would crush the power of Satan: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed] and hers [her seed]. The Church Fathers referred to this passage as the first Gospel message, or in Greek as the Protoevangelium. God's prophets narrowed this promise by identifying Israel as the people destined to bring forth the promised woman. Also, the prophet Jeremiah foretold Mary's role as the Ark of the New Covenant. Jeremiah wrote in Chapter 3 concerning the sacred, gold-covered box of the Ark of the Covenant that disappeared in the Babylonian conquest. When the remnant of Israel returned after the exile, he told the people that a time would come when they would no longer look for the lost Ark: I shall give you shepherds after my own heart, who will pasture you wisely and discreetly. Then, when you have increased and grown numerous in the country, Yahweh declares, no one will ever again say: The Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh! It will not enter their minds, they will not remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made. When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called: The Throne of Yahweh and all the nations will converge on her, on Yahweh's name, on Jerusalem, and will no longer follow their own stubborn and wicked inclinations (Jer 3:15-17 NJB).
In this prophecy, "Jerusalem," as the center of true worship, became a symbolic name for the universal New Covenant Church. Then in Chapter 31, a chapter in which Jeremiah prophesied the promise of a New Covenant (31:31), he wrote: The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: the woman must encompass the man (Jer 31:22b). This is the literal Hebrew and Greek translation from Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the promise of the New Covenant; see Jer 31:22-34). The NAB ends this sentence with the words "with devotion," but those words are not in either the Hebrew or Greek texts. This passage only makes sense if there is a contrast between the Creation of the first man and woman. In the Creation event, the virgin Eve was encompassed and born from the body of the man Adam when God formed her from Adam's rib (Gen 2:21-22). Jesus was encompassed within and formed from the body of the Virgin Mary. A man-child born from the body of a woman is not "something new," but it is "something new" when that man-child is the Son of God enfleshed, and the Virgin Mary is His mother.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms Mary's role as the "daughter of Zion" and the "Ark of the New Covenant": "Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the Ark of the Covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is the dwelling of God ... with men" (CCC 2676).
What was the Holy Spirit's role in preparing Mary for the Incarnation of the Messiah, and what was the result?
The result was twofold:
38 Mary said,
"Behold, I am the handmaid [servant/slave] of the Lord. May it be done to me
according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
Mary humbly identified herself as God's female slave/servant.
The Greek word is doule, the feminine of doulos, which means
"male slave/servant." In the ancient world, most servants were slaves. Then,
Mary wholly submitted herself to the Lord and His sovereignty over her life
with her words: "May it be done to me according to your word."
At the moment of Mary's free will response, the Holy Spirit conceived the flesh and blood Jesus within the Virgin's womb. "From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived 'by the Holy Spirit without human seed.' The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own" (CCC 496).
The Incarnation took place as God the Holy Spirit "overshadowed" (episkiazein) and enveloped the Virgin Mary. He is the same Spirit of God who moved over the waters of Creation, bringing life (Gen 1:2-31). Now He came bringing life to the Virgin's womb, and the fruit of her womb was the work of God the Holy Spirit (CCC# 697). This worthy Virgin, conceived without the stain of sin, became the new Tabernacle of God and Ark of the New Covenant (see Rev 11:19-12:1; CCC 2676). It is the mystery Catholics reflect upon every time they pray the Angelus.
Mary's fiat, her unequivocal, free will "yes" to the will of God for her life, stands in sharp contrast to the free will response of another virgin faced with a decision that not only affected her life but the course of human history in Genesis Chapter 3. In her obedience, the Virgin Mary stands as a sharp contrast to the virgin Eve and her decision to rebel against God and His will for her life. Eve made a free-will decision to decide for herself what was good and evil in eating the forbidden fruit. Mary made a free-will decision to trust God to enact His will for her life and the life of her son.
The Fathers of the Church saw the Virgin Mary as the "new Eve," and Mary's "yes" as undoing the virgin Eve's disobedience. St. Irenaeus wrote: "Thus, the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.22.4). The Church affirms her role as the "new Eve" from the promise of Mary's role in salvation history prophesied in Genesis 3:15 (known as the Protoevangelium, "first good-news"/gospel). "Furthermore, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the 'new Eve'" (CCC 411, also see CCC 489, 726, 2618 and 2853).
By the power of God the Holy Spirit, Mary became the "new Eve." And her womb became the Ark of the New Covenant, the dwelling place of "God with us" as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah and as we proclaim in the Gospel acclamation: "The Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory" (see Rev 11:19-12:1; CCC 2676).
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Isaiah 7:14 (CCC 497)
Psalm 40:7-9 LXX/Greek Septuagint (CCC 462); 40:7 (CCC 2824)
Hebrews 10:5-10 (CCC 606); 10:5-7 (CCC 462, 516*, 2568); 10:5 (CCC 488*); 10:7 (CCC 2824); 10:10 (CCC 614*, 2824)
Luke 1:26-38 (CCC 497*, 706*, 723*, 2571*); 1:26-27 (CCC 488); 1:26 (CCC 332*); 1:28-37 (CCC 494*); 1:28 (CCC 490, 491); 1:31 (CCC 430*, 2812*); 1:32-33 (CCC 709*); 1:32 (CCC 559); 1:34 (CCC 484, 497*, 505); 1:35 (CCC 437, 484, 486*, 697); 1:37-38 (CCC 494); 1:37 (CCC 148, 269*, 273, 276); 1:38 (CCC 64*, 148, 510, 2617*, 2677, 2827, 2856*)
The
Annunciation (CCC 484-494)
Jesus is the Son of David (CCC 439, 496, 559, 2616)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2021 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.