Annunciation to BVM
Holy Trinity Church, Fortitude Valley
14 April 2024
[https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4942823]
On this principal Marian festival—Lady Day—we celebrate Mary in both Scripture and Tradition.
One of the key principles for hermeneutics that I seek to inculcate in my students is the idea that we do not mortgage truth to history.
That is a particular weakness of Western thought since the Enlightenment, but it does serve us well when we are seeking spiritual wisdom for everyday life as we are in this liturgy, and indeed every time we gather at the Table of Jesus.
We would like to know what really happened, but we rarely can do that.
However, what we need to know (as distinct from like to know) is to live now in ways that are holy and true.
MARY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Our shared memory of Mary, mother of Our Lord, is grounded in Scripture. But on closer examination is has a very narrow base within the sacred texts.
Gospel of Mark – just a single episode in which Mary and the siblings of Jesus are participants in a scene (Mark 3:21–35 with parallels in Matthew and Luke). Here, Mary and her other children are so concerned about Jesus’ wellbeing that they have come to Capernaum to rescue him from the crowd and bring him home for some R&R.
Gospel of Matthew – a revised and enlarged edition of Mark released perhaps 25+ years later. Matthew preserves the same incident from Mark 3, and famously adds the Bethlehem birth narratives. But in that story Mary is almost absent. All the action is with Joseph, the wise men, and Herod. Indeed, we are not even told of Mary giving birth to Jesus. Matthew’s birth story is all about Jesus as Moses 2.0 character, with Joseph being given instructions via dreams just like his ancient namesake. Mary sis simply the mother of the child whose birth is not even mentioned.
Gospel of John – here we shall find two stories in which Mary is a participant. But in this gospel, we are never told her name. She is simply “the mother of Jesus.” In fact, in John 6:42 we even find the crowd saying: “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” The two episodes where Mary does appear in the action are the wedding feast at Cana and then at the crucifixion, since John has Mary present in Jerusalem for her son’s death.
Gospel of Luke & the Acts of the Apostles – almost everything that we think we know about Mary comes from the Gospel of Luke. But it is also true that almost everything Luke tells us about Mary is found in the first two chapter, where he provides us with a beautiful infancy narrative for Jesus. This is not just a birth story for Jesus, but a set of intertwined stories about the birth of John and Jesus. Where Matthew wanted to portray Jesus as Moses 2.0, Luke wanted to present Jesus as the child chosen by God to be saviour of the world. Luke had his eye on Rome with its legend of Romulus and Remus, as he tells a new tale of two boys, one of whom is destined to be ruler.
The rest of the New Testament – nothing at all is said about Mary and not even her name has survived.
LUKE’S PORTRAIT OF MARY
Unlike Matthew, Luke is interested in Mary, and he represents her in very positive terms. Joseph fades into the background and Mary is an active participant in the story that Luke tells.
- The angel Gabriel comes to Mary
- Mary responds with humility and courage
- Mary spends time with her cousin Elizabeth out of the public eye
- Luke crafts the prophetic Song of Mary (Magnificat) for her to sing
- as an observant Jewish mother, Mary takes Jesus to the Temple
- Mary is an anxious parent when the 12-year-old Jesus goes missing
- Mary is reflective (she ponders these things in her heart)
- Mary is at the cross and comes to the empty tomb (an idea borrowed from John?)
This is the biblical portrait of Mary, and it is a sacred gift to us from the pen of Luke.
What is the ratio of Lukan imagination and historical detail?
We can never know, but to spend time on those questions is to miss the point and also to miss the opportunity to grasp the spiritual wisdom that Luke is offering us in this beautiful account.
God does not just send Gabriel to Mary.
The annunciation is not a once-off event, but a process that recurs across time and in every place, indeed in every human heart.
God comes to each of us and seeks to engage us in the divine mission to transform creation and bring the kingdom (rule) of God into our lives, our villages, our workplaces, and our churches.
In the character of Mary, Luke offers us a template for how we might offer a humble yes to God’s amazing invitation. Like Mary, we can be God-bearers. May her prayers assist us to say yes to God, and to be people who ponder these things in our heart.