Εὐαγγελισμὸς τῆς παρθένου Μαρίας
26 ᾿Εν δὲ τῷ μηνὶ τῷ ἕκτῳ ἀπεστάλη ὁ ἄγγελος Γαβριὴλ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς πόλιν τῆς Γαλιλαίας, ᾗ ὄνομα Ναζαρέτ, 27 πρὸς παρθένον μεμνηστευμένην ἀνδρί, ᾧ ὄνομα ᾿Ιωσήφ, ἐξ οἴκου Δαυΐδ, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς παρθένου Μαριάμ. 28 καὶ εἰσελθὼν ὁ ἄγγελος πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπε· χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη· ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ· εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν. 29 ἡ δὲ ἰδοῦσα διεταράχθη ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ διελογίζετο ποταπὸς εἴη ὁ ἀσπασμὸς οὗτος. 30 καὶ εἶπεν ὁ ἄγγελος αὐτῇ· μὴ φοβοῦ, Μαριάμ· εὗρες γὰρ χάριν παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ. 31 καὶ ἰδοὺ συλλήψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ καὶ τέξῃ υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦν. 32 οὗτος ἔσται μέγας καὶ υἱὸς ὑψίστου κληθήσεται, καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τὸν θρόνον Δαυῒδ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, 33 καὶ βασιλεύσει ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον ᾿Ιακὼβ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, καὶ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔσται τέλος. 34 εἶπε δὲ Μαριὰμ πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον· πῶς ἔσται μοι τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω; 35 καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ ἄγγελος εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Πνεῦμα ῞Αγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι· διὸ καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον κληθήσεται υἱὸς Θεοῦ. 36 καὶ ἰδοὺ ᾿Ελισάβετ ἡ συγγενής σου καὶ αὐτὴ συνειληφυῖα υἱὸν ἐν γήρει αὐτῆς, καὶ οὗτος μὴν ἕκτος ἐστὶν αὐτῇ τῇ καλουμένῃ στείρᾳ· 37 ὅτι οὐκ ἀδυνατήσει παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ πᾶν ρῆμα. 38 εἶπε δὲ Μαριάμ· ἰδοὺ ἡ δούλη Κυρίου· γένοιτό μοι κατὰ τὸ ρῆμά σου. καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς ὁ ἄγγελος. Luke 1:26-38
Today we are in the midst of Lent, one week from celebrating the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and we are celebrating the nine months Mary was to be pregnant, of course looking forward to Christmas. You can tell that men wrote the Church Calendar, there is no consideration of the fact that the gestation period of a particular women is not necessarily nine months. But leave that as we may, there is something paradoxical here, when we look forward to two events which mark the beginning and end of existence for man, and perhaps do it on the same day. If we extract the magic from the text we get a picture of a man to be born and a man to die, all in a few weeks time. We are confronted face to face, so to speak, with the existential finitude of human existence.
Given the current tendency to think that life begins at conception, we face a more paradoxical situation in a few short weeks time of thinking on life and death. What is it to be human? To be conceived, and then to die? Should we do all in our power to preserve life? Should we use any means necessary to insure that life continues? We face those dilemmas today because we put them there.
Should we believe in space men (ancient aliens) coming down from somewhere impregnating a young woman (a virgin according to Luke) so as to send a message of hope and peace to mankind? I wonder about our attempts today to take biblical themes and stories so literally that we must search for some physical explanation of them. We cannot see can we that we are confronting a spiritual theme here and ought not to be immersed in some form of literalism. This day we are confronted with the story of our existence. And we are to give it an existential meaning. It’s about spirit not matter, as today’s materialistic and physicalistic mode of thinking demands. More than anything today we ought to look to what we are, that we are mere travelers here, we are not owners. In fact we might entertain the thought that we do not as a matter of fact own ourselves. We are mere instances in the cosmic scheme of things. We are conceived, born and then eventually we die (cease to exist). All of us are such. So what am I proposing that we make of this existential fact about ourselves? Nothing more than this: It matters naught that we were conceived and eventually will cease to be, what matter happens between those termini of life. What matters is what we make of ourselves. Just as a man was conceived by the name of Jesus and eventually we tired of him and he was put to death, so it is with us. What matters is not Jesus’ birth or conception or even his death (and or resurrection), what matters is his message, what he left behind. So with us it matters what we leave behind.
