"Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abeizrite. While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to save it from the Midianites, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, 'The Lord is with you, O champion!'" (Judg. 6:11-12)
"And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold the dwelling of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. And they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.'" (Rev. 21:-3)
In a few posts we will begin to examine the great Old Testament themes and prophecies which relate to the Blessed Virgin Mary. For now, however, we will continue with our study of the Lucan texts which relate to Mother of Christ. Up until now, we have only examined the first two words of Gabriel's greetings, which form the opening of the Annunciation scene. Today we will look briefly at the rest of the angel's salutation. It is not my intention to be particularly argumentative in this post, or to attempt to prove any of the peculiarly Catholic doctrines concerning Mary; rather, it is my intention to create an overview, to simply draw our attention to some of the themes and points of interest which occur in St. Luke's Gospel, and which will serve us well in our future considerations.
In Luke 1:28-29 we read, "And coming to her, he said, 'Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.' But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be." In the next verse the angel bids Mary to not be afraid, so we understand that "greatly troubled" indicates fear, or at least something akin to fear. The Greek word used in this passage conveys the idea of a strong emotion that causes disturbance or anxiety. I wish to focus here, for a while, upon the Virgin's fear.
There are two aspects of her fear which are important to note. The first is that her fear, or state of being troubled, was a direct response to Gabriel's greeting. Indeed, the Evangelist seems to go out his way to emphasize this point, saying that she was troubled "at what was said", and then immediately informing us that she "pondered what sort of greeting this might be." The second point to notice is that the Virgin evinces no trace of fear whatsoever at the presence of the angel himself, the very thing which we might expect to cause her the most fear.
This is not the place to enter into a lengthy consideration of some of the early Christian apocryphal literature which treats of the birth and childhood of the Blessed Virgin, as I hope to offer an examination of these in a separate post in the future; but one aspect of them seems worth mentioning briefly here. It is important to insist that this body of literature is in no way considered canonical or scriptural by either Protestants or Catholics, nor is it considered to be a part of Sacred Tradition by Catholics; yet it may offer us some insight into an ancient Christian tradition which may be rooted in biographical fact. According to these texts, Mary, much like Isaac and Samuel, was a child of promise, granted by God to two aging and barren parents, the saintly Anne and Joachim. Much like Hannah, the mother of Samuel, Mary's parents decided to offer their child back to God, and took her, at three years of age, to the temple where she grew up in a life dedicated to prayer and temple service, and where she was regularly visited by an angel.
While there is no need whatsoever to consider these stories as being inspired, they may offer an answer to the fact that Mary was not troubled, nor even surprised by the appearance of the archangel. It is quite possible that she already knew St. Gabriel, or had at least had previous contact with angelic beings. There is no need to try to make too much of a case of this, but it is interesting, especially when we contrast the Annunciation of Christ with the Annunciation of John the Baptist.
The two passages are remarkably parallel, so much so, in fact, that the differences between them become even more striking. When Gabriel appears to Zechariah, during the time of the priest's duty to offer incense, Zechariah is filled with fear:
"Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him. But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.'" (Lk.1:10-13a)
The parallels are clear; the angel of the Lord appears, Zechariah is also "troubled", and the angel also bids him to "not be afraid." Yet again, the Evangelist is pointedly clear. Zechariah is troubled by what he saw. Mary is troubled only by the greeting. Whatever we are to make of all this, it certainly seems to be a point worth pondering.
The second, and perhaps the more important aspect of the Virgin's fear, concerns determining precisely of what she was afraid. Since St. Luke goes to some length to draw our attention to fact that she was troubled by the words that were said, and pondered what manner of greeting this might be, we must go back and examine the angel's greeting, and see it there is anything in it which would be likely to cause fear or consternation.
We can divide the angel's greeting into three parts: the actual greeting, "Hail"; the title by which he calls her, kecharitomene; and the closing statement, "The Lord is with you".
The first part of the angelic greeting, chairo, or "hail", scarcely seems troublesome. In an earlier post we offered a brief examination of the word, which literally means "rejoice", and of its connection to Messianic prophecies, in which we were able to see Mary as the archetype of Zion, or the daughter of Zion. A greeting from an angelic being, in which one is commanded to rejoice, and in which there is the intimation of Messianic hope, does not seem to offer reason for being "greatly troubled."
The second possibility is that the Virgin was troubled by the name, or title, with which the archangel addressed her. This seems to be a more plausible answer, though by no means definitive. We already spent the greater part of two posts studying the tremendous nature of the title kecharitomene, and the greatness of Mary which it indicated. If the Catholic viewpoint of Mary is true, if she was filled with grace and virtues more than any other saint, then it is certain that her humility must have been of the highest order. A soul so devoted to the worship and adoration of her God would quite possibly have little or no awareness of her own greatness. Thus, to be called by such a name as the Blessed Virgin was called would have caused confusion, and would perhaps have been almost troublesomely offensive to great humility. This is certainly a possibility, but I am not at all convinced that it is a certainty. Remember, it is the "greeting" which disturbs her equanimity, and I think that there is something about the greeting as whole, something about the main thrust of it, which unsettled Mary and caused her fear. It is also worth noting that, in her humility, she might well have been troubled by the angelic title, but there does not seem to be anything about it which would cause fear, as it is a very positive title which emphasizes the work and favor of God towards her.
Thus we come to the third possibility. At first glance, however, the statement "The Lord is with you" seems so unlikely to cause fear that we may be inclined to discard the possibility and return to our previous option as the final solution to our question. After all, to have the "angel of the Lord" tell one that the God of all creation which one worships is actually "with you", would surely be one of the most comforting things which one could hear. However, our instinctive understanding of these words suffers from a lack of awareness of their Old Testament context, and a lack of awareness of the their full import. It so happens that these are not merely words of comfort, but word pregnant with meaning, words which will be followed by a life-changing demand upon the one who hears them.
Fr. Lucien Deiss, in his magnificent and illuminating book Mary, Daughter of Zion, blesses us with a careful and comprehensive exegesis of the Old Testament occurrences of the expression "the Lord is with you", or Dominus Tecum. He writes, "With the very opening words of his message, Gabriel makes known to the Virgin that she is chosen for a special vocation, a mission whose fullness will embrace the entire people of God." In the same chapter he quotes from Fr. U. Holzmeister: "In all the cases we have cited, this formula is never applied to a man placed in ordinary circumstances; on the contrary it refers either to the people of God who are the object of the special divine election and protection, or-- more commonly-- to a particular man whom God has entrusted with a mission of singular importance...." From these authors' considerations of the Dominus tecum texts we learn five things about the expression.
1. It is not individualistic. When we read the words "The Lord is with you" we automatically view them in a personal and comforting sense-- God is with me, what a blessing! However, this is not the Scriptural use of this formula. In the Old Testament, the expression does not so much indicate that God is with a person as a companion, but rather He is with the person in the sense of divine assistance. God is with them precisely to help them do something, or to fulfill a vocation; and what He asks them to do will affect and involve the entire people of God. This is a different and larger picture than the one we see if we interpret "the Lord is with you" at face value. Fr. Deiss again quotes Fr. Holzmeister: "By the preposition 'with' is affirmed a certain mode of the divine presence: and a presence which is by no means inoperative, but active and oriented toward the work that the man in question is called upon to accomplish." We can see a particular example of the collective nature of the expression in the story of Gideon, the opening lines of which bear a striking resemblance to the Annunciation. The angel of the Lord (likely Gabriel himself) comes to Gideon and says, "The Lord is with you, O mighty champion!" (Judg. 6:12b) The angel clearly is addressing the formula to Gideon personally, given the personal and singular nature of the phrase, "O mighty champion", yet Gideon immediately responds with "...if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?" (Judg. 6:13b) Thus we see both the singular and the collective aspect of the expression in the same place.
2. With but one exception, the formula is never applied to a woman, besides the Blessed Virgin Mary. The one exception is that of the ancient Jewish heroine Judith. Since the book of Judith is considered apocryphal by Protestants, I will pass over it for the time being. So clear is the foreshadowing of Mary in the Book of Judith, and so strong are the parallels, that it is difficult to not imagine that it was inspired. Surely St. Luke had it in mind at times as he composed the first chapter of his Gospel. Nonetheless, I will leave the examination of Judith to a separate post of its own. As far as the standard Protestant cannon of the Old Testament goes, we may say with certainty that "the Lord is with you", is never applied to a woman.
3. The precise phrase does not appear elsewhere in the New Testament, but the idea does. Here it is connected with the presence of God in the midst of His people, the Church. Thus it seems as if Mary is at once the culmination, so to speak, of all the Old Testament recipients of the expression, and is also the archetype of the Church. The ecclesialogical dimension of Marian dogma will be explored further elsewhere.
4. The formula never stands on its own. It is usually followed by either a promise, and/or a command. Thus, a Jewish person, with great familiarity with the Jewish Scriptures, would have understood that the formula was about to be followed by some earth-shattering announcement, and very likely one which would demand a great deal of the one receiving the greeting.
5. The Old Testament usages of the expression may, with almost no exceptions, be grouped into three particular categories. The first, found in Genesis, is related to descendants and blessing. Thus God is with Isaac and Jacob whose descendants will be innumerable, and in whom the whole world will find its blessing. The second category, found later in the Old Testament, concerns those who (such as Jeremiah, Gideon, and Moses) are to rescue God's people from slavery and the forces of evil by prophecy, combat, and leadership. The third category is found during the time of the Exile, in which it is connected to leading the people of God back to the Promised Land.
From these three categories we can more readily understand why the expression "the Lord is with you" was typically addressed only to men, and not to women. With few exceptions, women in the Old Testament were not seen as leaders, especially not military leaders. Also, the concept of descendants, or seed, was strictly related to the male. The promised Child of the Virgin, however, had no human father; thus we see in Genesis that it is the woman's "seed" who will appear victorious over the serpent. Furthermore, the role of Mary in combating evil was a spiritual one, not one which relied on might of arms, or public leadership. Yet the Child of Mary is greater than all the promised descendants who came before, and her role in the redemption of God's people is greater than that of all previous saints combined. It was to this that I referred when I said above that Mary is the culmination of the usage of the expression "the Lord is with you."
If we consider the import of the three categories listed above together, we may see that St. Gabriel's apparently innocuous and comforting greeting to the humble Virgin of Nazareth carried with it the intimation that Mary was about to be called to a threefold vocation: a vocation of blessing to her own people through her Holy Child; a vocation of combat against the forces of evil; and, like her namesake, Miriam of old, a vocation of being intimately involved with the new Moses in leading the covenant people of God out of bondage, into their everlasting home.
It is doubtful that Mary guessed all of this in detail at the moment of the angel's greeting. Yet, as a devout Jewish girl, well acquainted with the Scriptures, it seems clear that she would have understood that Gabriel's greeting was merely an introductory remark, an introduction to some monumental announcement: the announcement of a vocation that would demand everything of her, and change the her history and the history of her people.
There is one final point which we must consider before moving on, and it may well be considered the most important aspect of this entire discussion. It is also perhaps the most obvious aspect, yet it is so obvious that it is easy to overlook. The virgin birth was prophesied long before the Annunciation, by the prophet Isaiah:
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel." (Is. 7:14)
The fulfillment of this prophecy is found in the conception and birth of Christ; yet Gabriel does not tell the Virgin to name her Son Emmanuel, but rather Yeshuah, "God saves". It appears that nowhere in the New Testament is Christ called by the name Emmanuel. But if we remember that the meaning of the name Emmanuel is literally "God-with-us", we will see that this is not the case.
Perhaps the clearest revelation of this name occurs in Matt. 28:20. The scene is the Ascension of Christ. A moment before He returns to the Father the tells His disciples, "...And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." Christ reveal Himself to His apostles, and hence to the nascent Church, as not merely temporarily, but permanently, Emmanuel.
The principle dwelling place of God with men in the Old Testament, the temple, was transient; the temple was destroyed and has never been rebuilt. But the Church is the temple "not made with hands", comprised of "living stones", and it is the New Jerusalem, in the midst of which God now dwells. Mary is the archetype of the Church, the new covenant people of God.
We noted above that in the Old Testament the expression "The Lord is with you" is most commonly addressed to an individual, for the benefit of the entire people. Mary is last person to receive the individual greeting; from the time of the Annunciation on the idea is directed towards the Church. Thus we see that the Old Testament occurrences of "The Lord is with you", directed to prophets, leaders, and champions, are all dim foreshadowings of the declaration to Mary. Directed to the Mother of Christ, it finds the genesis of its fulfillment and completion. It is in and through the Blessed Virgin that the age of Emmanuel is inaugurated.
When we ponder the great dwelling places of God (or the symbols of Christ) in the Old Testament, we do well to contemplate them in the light of God-with-us in Mary, and in the Church. The Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, the Temple, Zion: all of these are fulfilled first in the Mother of Christ, then in the Body of Christ, the Church. Does not the body of a Child come from its Mother? Are not then all of those who are the Body of Christ, the Son of Mary, who are "of his flesh and bones", also children of the Virgin of Nazareth?
"Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!...The Lord, your God, is in your midst...." (Zeph. 3:14-17)
The Lord is with you. Emmanuel. God with us.
As we have noted before, there was nothing ordinary about any part of the archangel's greeting, and Mary knew it. This was no commonplace, no pleasant greeting or assurance of God's love and presence; this was the preface to a paradigm-changing invitation to a vocation that would radically alter the very course of the universe itself. Small wonder that the Blessed Virgin was greatly troubled, and pondered what the greeting might mean.
"Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'"
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