The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary, today, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, exhort us to vulnerability and surrender as preparation to accept the nudges of the Holy Spirit on our journey.
The Prophet Zechariah expands on the themes of the First Three Visions.
* [2:15] Many nations…my people: a way of expressing God’s relationship to people in covenant language. The covenant between God and Israel (see Jer 31:33; 32:38) is here universalized to include all nations.
* [2:16] The holy land: the Lord’s earthly territory, a designation found only rarely in the Old Testament. (Zechariah, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)
Judith assembles the people to display the Head of Holofernes.
* [13:12–20] Elements from chaps. 8–9 are echoed here. The assembly of the people at Judith’s return parallels the meeting of the town officials summoned by Judith in 8:10. Uzziah blesses Judith in 8:5 and again in 13:18–20. (Judith, CHAPTER 13 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Gospel of Luke is the announcement of the Birth of Jesus.
* [1:26–38] The announcement to Mary of the birth of Jesus is parallel to the announcement to Zechariah of the birth of John. In both the angel Gabriel appears to the parent who is troubled by the vision (Lk 1:11–12, 26–29) and then told by the angel not to fear (Lk 1:13, 30). After the announcement is made (Lk 1:14–17, 31–33) the parent objects (Lk 1:18, 34) and a sign is given to confirm the announcement (Lk 1:20, 36). The particular focus of the announcement of the birth of Jesus is on his identity as Son of David (Lk 1:32–33) and Son of God
* [1:32] Son of the Most High: cf. Lk 1:76 where John is described as “prophet of the Most High.” “Most High” is a title for God commonly used by Luke (Lk 1:35, 76; 6:35; 8:28; Acts 7:48; 16:17).
* [1:34] Mary’s questioning response is a denial of sexual relations and is used by Luke to lead to the angel’s declaration about the Spirit’s role in the conception of this child (Lk 1:35). According to Luke, the virginal conception of Jesus takes place through the holy Spirit, the power of God, and therefore Jesus has a unique relationship to Yahweh: he is Son of God.
* [1:36–37] The sign given to Mary in confirmation of the angel’s announcement to her is the pregnancy of her aged relative Elizabeth. If a woman past the childbearing age could become pregnant, why, the angel implies, should there be doubt about Mary’s pregnancy, for nothing will be impossible for God.
* [1:43] Even before his birth, Jesus is identified in Luke as the Lord.
* [1:45] Blessed are you who believed: Luke portrays Mary as a believer whose faith stands in contrast to the disbelief of Zechariah (Lk 1:20). Mary’s role as believer in the infancy narrative should be seen in connection with the explicit mention of her presence among “those who believed” after the resurrection at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:14). (Luke, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB, n.d.)
Nancy Shirley wonders as a mother (and grandmother/great grandmother), what Mary thought about her future.
Those of us who are parents remember how many questions arose for us as we first thought about our children’s future. Even before we saw their beautiful, wrinkled faces, we anticipated. Who would they look like? Will they be healthy? What will they be when they grow up? Did Mary deal with that myriad of questions? Did Mary have any idea of her baby’s future? Did she know the sacrifice He would make for us? So many questions in my mind of how a young, innocent girl could take on this enormous responsibility seemingly without anxiety rather with a pure, open heart. There is only one explanation: unwavering FAITH!
This song represents the essence of Mary so clearly that I must have it here for today: Hail Mary, Gentle Woman
Since we are close to the Nativity, I have to include my favorite version of Mary, Did You Know? It capture the many questions, we have as parents about the future of our children in the unique circumstance that Mary faced. (Shirley, 2023)
Don Schwager quotes “Mary conceives the Creator of all things,” by an anonymous early author from the Greek church.
"Gabriel flew down from the vault of heaven and came to Nazareth; standing before the virgin Mary, he cried to her, 'Rejoice! You shall conceive a son more ancient than Adam, the Creator of all things and Savior of those who cry to you. Rejoice, pure virgin!' Gabriel brought from heaven good tidings to the Virgin, and he cried out to her, 'Rejoice! You shall conceive him whom the world cannot contain; he shall be contained within your womb. You shall bear him who shone forth from the Father before the morning star!' (Psalm 110:3).
"The co-eternal Word of the Father who has no beginning, not being parted from the things on high, has now descended here below, in his boundless love taking pity on fallen humankind. He has assumed the poverty of Adam, clothing himself in a form strange to him." (excerpt from STICHERA OF THE ANNUNCIATION) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 1:26-38 notes that today, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we celebrate Mary’s apparitions to St. Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531. She who once said yes to God’s plan for her life saw this same disposition in Juan Diego. Calling him “the most humble of my sons,” she relied on him to communicate her request to the local bishop for a church to be built. Juan Diego obediently relayed her message, even though some of the people rejected and mocked him. The Lord honored his humility, and the miracle of Mary’s image imprinted on his tilma won over the bishop and Juan Diego’s critics.
Today, tell the Lord that you, too, want to be humble as Mary and St. Juan Diego were. Tell him that you want simply to do his will, and ask him to help you overcome any obstacle, like fear or rejection, that would keep you from carrying it out. As it did for Juan Diego, God’s plans will bear good fruit as you respond with a wholehearted yes to him.
“Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray that I may grow in humility. I want to see God’s will be done in me and through me.” (Meditation on Luke 1:26-38, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler notes the call in Zechariah to daughter Zion that God will restore her. He explains some of the imagery in the alternate reading from Revelation that points to the protection of Mary and the Church. The use of the Greek perfect tense in the greeting of Gabriel that Mary is full of grace indicates that this began in the past and continues in the present. Friar Jude notes that the overshadowing of Mary by the Holy Spirit is presenting her as the New Ark of the Covenant.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Joan Chittister, Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, writing from their traditions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, believe we all share equally in God’s image, even amid our joint history of violence. If we don’t view everything as created in the image of God, what happens? We start picking and choosing: well, that’s created in the image of God, but that is not. But everything, everything, is created in the image of God.
What, then, does likeness mean? In the early centuries of Christianity, the Church Fathers concluded: image was our objective, unquestionable creation as a child or image of God. Likeness was our personal appropriation of that reality. Two people might equally be images of God, but perhaps only one chooses to become kind, forgiving, inclusive, accepting, and patient, full of the great virtues. We already have image, but we grow in likeness. There is a dynamism toward growth, universality, and an infinite love that we can’t get rid of. [2] (Rohr, 2023)
We ponder to understand that nothing is impossible for God as we celebrate the conversion of Mexico that began with Our Lady of Guadalupe.
References
Judith, CHAPTER 13 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/judith/13?
Luke, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/1?26
Meditation on Luke 1:26-38. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/12/12/847033/
Rohr, R. (2023, March 2). We Are All Images of God. CAC Daily Meditations 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/we-are-all-images-of-god/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=dec12a
Shirley, N. (2023, December 12). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/121223.html
Zechariah, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/zechariah/2?14
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