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Catholic Bible Study
Joyful Mysteries: The Annunciation
00:19:26
Have you ever wanted to grow in your understanding and devotion to the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary? Join Dr. Ben Akers and professors from the Augustine Institute Graduate School as they walk through these Biblical mysteries and seek to grow in understanding and love for Christ through them.
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- [00:06]
A
Hello, welcome to form. Now, My name is Dr. Ben Akers and we're beginning a new series of the Biblical Foundations, the Biblical Roots, a Bible study on the Joyful Mysteries. My guest today is Dr. Elizabeth Klein. You're familiar with her. We always enjoy a great. I always enjoy having a great conversation with you, Liz, and hopefully these studies have been helpful for you. This is. We've done the other Mysteries of the Rosary and so people have asked us to do all the Mysteries of the Rosary. And with John Paul II's edition of the Luminous Mysteries, we have 20 shows now we're going to be doing on the Rosary. And October is known as the month of the Rosary. There's a feast of Our lady of the Rosary that We celebrate on October 7th. And the, the Rosary has always been a devotion that's very popular for Catholics to, to do. And even my own life as a testimony, I've. I have a ebb and flow relationship with the Rosary. I know some people just wake up and they can't wait to say the Rosary. For me, it's a little bit harder to say the Rosary, but I think that when I know when I go return to the scriptural roots of each of the passages, as I go through the Mysteries of the Rosary, it makes me, it makes it easier for me to meditate on because I've realized, like, I'm just actually reliving these scenes with Our lady, with Our Lord.
- [01:20]
B
Yeah. I mean, I find the Rosary in general very intimidating for the same reason, you know, especially something like the Annunciation. I asked to do this one. I was like, well, what are you supposed to say about that? I mean, it's such an important moment in salvation history, such an important passage. So much has been said and written about it that it is kind of.
- [01:36]
A
Yeah.
- [01:36]
B
It's kind of intimidating to try and hold those things. But hopefully we'll give you lots of things that little bits and pieces that you can meditate on when you're, when you're praying the Rosary.
- [01:45]
A
So one of the first mystery of the Joyful Mystery is the Annunciation, because this is actually the one that starts off Mary's. Yes. Starts everything out for us in recreation and new creation and salvation. That gives us all the. Then the Luminous Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, the Glorious Mysteries, all rooted in this mystery, begin with this mystery.
- [02:06]
B
Yeah. I actually think let's start maybe with talking about that. Yes. Or what people often say Mary's. Yes. But it's actually interesting for she doesn't. There's no question and answer in the actual Annunciation story, she doesn't say, yes. She says, let it be done unto me according to your word. And that in and of itself is kind of interesting. It's to say something like, I hope that happens to me. You know, I mean, things happening to us isn't generally the kind of thing that we talk about. Or we want, you know, we don't want to say, I hope that. I hope that happens to me. We don't like things happening to us.
- [02:36]
A
I hope I win the lottery. Yeah, yeah.
- [02:39]
B
But we don't generally like things happening to us. We want to be the one deciding what's going to be done.
- [02:45]
A
Active agent.
- [02:45]
B
We want the active agent. We do kind of want the question and answer, you know, dialogue. But this, this really shows kind of the fullness of Mary's faith, maybe even more so than other characters who do have a kind of back and forth question and answer with God. Mary hears the word of God and accepts it. She doesn't take it as a question, she takes it as a given and something that she's already fully given herself to. And so even though we often shorthand say Mary's yes, it is kind of interesting that in the passage, they're actually, there is no question. The angel announces what's going to happen and Mary accepts it as a fait accompli. Right. The fiat of Mary as something that will happen because God has said it.
- [03:27]
A
No. And there's also clues in the text. Exactly as you said, there are clues in the text that she has just always been, from the very beginning, full of grace. We're in Luke, if you want to open your Bibles and join us. We're in Luke chapter one and the scene of the Annunciation. So just the phrase Annunciation, announcing, there's an announcing. And Luke chapter one, verse 26 through 38. So if you want to join along in your Scriptures. So what's that word there that you know, what are the clues in the text that we know that Mary's disposed to say yes to whatever the Lord did.
- [03:59]
B
Right. So the key word, you know, the word that's sort of much debated, I suppose, in terms of different Bible translations, is found in Luke 1:28, the greetings. And then sometimes it's translated highly favored one or full of grace in Greek. This is karytomine. So it is kind of hard to get that in English without sounding really awkward. But the root of the word is karis, which means grace, but it's a verb. So it's like you who have been graced.
- [04:34]
A
It's like a perfect passive participle.
- [04:35]
B
It's a perfect passive participle. Right. So you owe you one who, having been graced, an action that had been.
- [04:43]
A
Completed in the past, that happened in the past, but still continues to the present.
- [04:46]
B
Right, Right. So if you say. If you say something like, you know, I have done something in the past, that's the perfect in English. So that's the idea is that not only is she graced or favored by God, but she has been in the sense of it being completed. And this word is peculiar because it doesn't appear anywhere else. And, you know, the early church, Father Origen, says that Mary is surprised by the greeting because she knows the Scriptures and knows that no one else has ever been greeted in this way. And so her puz, you know, she's not distressed like the other enunciation in the first part of Luke with Zechariah, but she's distressed at the greeting because the greeting is so unusual. And what. What does it mean?
- [05:31]
A
You know, that's exactly right. Like that. I like, she's not surprised by seeing an angel. Like Zachariah's, like, whoa. What? You know, and angels have to say, not be afraid. You know, like sometimes when you see angels appear, they think, you know, some people think they're gods. Like in Revelation, John wants to worship. He's like, no, no, I'm just an angel. But Mary's not surprised by the angel's presence, but she's surprised by the.
- [05:50]
B
And it's kind of interesting. The exchange is so, so similar in some ways. Right. She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. So our attention is drawn to that title for Mary as a point of contemplation. And the angel says to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. But what is the fear, her fear compared to Zachariah's fear? It appears that her fear is not at seeing the angel, it's at the title that she's been given. And so that there's a kind of holy fear of possibility. I sometimes think about, like, the fear experienced by an angel depends on kind of the person who's seeing the angel. And it's the kind of fear in the face of the possibility. It's like the fear that you get when you see someone you have a crush on, you know, like, what is it that you're really afraid of? Are you really afraid of rejection? Probably not. What you're afraid of is missing opportunity you're afraid of what might be actually, and that. That great possibility of love, you know, that. That you experience. And so it's kind of interesting that you have a very similar exchange. You have the angel and then there's fear. But the Mary sphere is attributed to something very different than Zacharias.
- [07:01]
A
That's beautiful. There's some echoes to the Old Testament, not in her title, but about the Lord being with the daughter Zion. In Zephaniah chapter three, there's a great prophecy of daughter Zion, daughter Israel. So Zion represents the Israel as a nation, and the Lord wants to be so close to you. In the Hebrew in Zephaniah it says the Lord is in your womb. Now, it's often translated in our text as the Lord is in your midst. But that the greeting, you are the one highly favored by the Lord. You're the one full of grace. The Lord is with you. It seems to be setting up that she's so in tune with the scriptures that she might have a hint of what might be coming.
- [07:40]
B
Well, also in the words that the power of. They'll overshadow you, right? That language is going to point to the, the dwelling of God with the people and the tabernacle and in the temple. That's sort of the typical language used in the cloud, right? This, this shadow that's coming over her. So that's sort of alarming too. And in, in the visitation, which I won't do because I'm not doing that mystery. There are other hints that Mary is being described as the ark of the covenant. And so there is the Lord being with you in the temple. And now the Lord's going to be with. With us in the temple of the human body, you know, especially, of course, in, particularly in Mary. But now, not only is God going to dwell in the temple in Jerusalem, but he's going to come and dwell among men. And that's what it says in John's Gospel, right? That the Lord was made flesh and dwelt among us. But the dwelt there is like tabernacled among us. He's pitched his tent. And so this, this transition from that tabernacle to the tabernacle of Mary.
- [08:35]
A
No, it's beautiful. I shouldn't even say she had a hint because, like, no one sees this coming, right? There is no way that one could have predicted that God would become man in a young virgin's wom. It really is just an incredible mystery of our faith. So the angel greets her. Mary's, you know, and says, don't you, you have favor with the Lord. And then he announces to her the good news. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
- [08:58]
B
So people have often pointed to that verse, echoing Isaiah, the prophecy of a virgin will conceive and her womb and will bear a son, and she will give him the name Immanuel. And often in artistic depictions of the Annunciation, Mary will be near a book or looking up from a book. So it's kind of a tradition that she reading Isaiah, you know, at the moment that the angel comes, and then she's able to, to recognize the prophecy. But whether or not, you know, Mary was actually sitting there reading that particular passage, the, the book kind of evokes, you know, the opening of the scriptures and then it being the angel coming and that, that scripture is coming to life and being fulfilled in Mary.
- [09:34]
A
Yeah, the word of God is actually going to take place and take flesh inside her womb. Now it's interesting. We have the name Jesus is revealed. So Mary is not going to be able to pick the name of her son, but the angel says the name will be Jesus. What's the significance of that name?
- [09:51]
B
Right. So the name Jesus. Sometimes we tend to think of Jesus as like his human name. And Christ is like his divine name or like this is, you know, I.
- [09:58]
A
Thought Christ was the last name. It's like Joseph Christ, Mary Christ, the little baby Jesus Christ, the Christ family.
- [10:02]
B
But Jesus really is the most precious title for our Lord as it is his whole identity. It means God saves. And there's a kind of fittingness to that in that God in himself is actually kind of pure activity. Right. He isn't. He is never at rest. And so that's. That's all of what he is. That's all of who he is. And it's what he does, just as in God is who he is and what he does all at once. And so it is a really beautiful, beautiful name.
- [10:29]
A
And so Jesus is a. Is the Greek form of the Jewish name Joshua.
- [10:33]
B
Joshua.
- [10:34]
A
So if you want to go back to the Old Testament and look at the Joshua of the Old Testament, the right hand of Moses, that's a great kind of comparison of all the people in the Old Testament that the Lord, this name, he doesn't make up a brand new name. He picks a name from the Old Testament that was familiar to his people. And then we start to read the Joshua story through the lens of knowing that Jesus will have the same name. It really takes on a new meaning.
- [10:57]
B
And Also, I like how the names are really signaled out in this passage as, I don't know, these almost precious gifts given to us. I always love the way it sounds to read this to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the Virgin's name was Mary. Almost like that's like a big. That's a big moment of like a big reveal of salvation history. Right. And. And in such an unlikely place in a town that no one's heard of. You know, even compared to the Annunciation in the beginning of chapter one to Zechariah, that's in the temple has a kind of spectacular nature to it. The Annunciation really is in a hidden place in a kind of unknown city to an unknown place person. And then of course, the. Yeah, the height of that and. And you will call his name Jesus and, and just the idea that the Lord put on a name and gave us a name by which we can call him, what you shall call him, not only to Mary, but to all of us that, you know, originally, if you recall, God named himself I am who I am. Not exactly the kind of name that you can like put in your phone.
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A
Book, you know, I am's calling.
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B
Right, right. Yeah, I am. And so this, this, you know, majestic name that shows us who God is, but that he's going to put on a hu. Human name, it adds a whole other dimension of intimacy which, you know, the incarnation is.
- [12:15]
A
But yeah, just the fact that God takes on a human name, takes on a human face, that we can actually look on the face of Christ and, you know, just see the face of God and live in Jesus Christ. Then the angel. You know, my text in my, in my letter of the Bible goes kind of that. This tells me that there's some kind of prophecy or there's some kind of poet poetry that goes. Because it kind of sets off the phrases. He will be great. He'll be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob and Jacob forever and his kingdom, there will be no end.
- [12:46]
B
Yeah, it's. It's really beautiful. And it's kind of like a. It's like a building up. It's like almost like, okay, you'll call him name Jesus. That's pretty normal. Okay, he'll be great. Okay. He'll be called Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his Kingdom, there will be no end. It's almost like leading Mary into this mystery stepwise, you know, you're going to conceive a son as a virgin. That's. That's enough. And he's going to be great. Okay, that's even better. Or he's going to be son of some of those high. He's going to be on the throne of his father, David, and his throne will. There'll be no end. So she's being revealed. Interestingly, Mary gets a step wise too, but in an abbreviated form, that Christ is the Messiah, you know, whereas the disciples, it takes them quite a lot longer. Yeah, she's quicker to be told that he or to understand who he is, and yet the entire identity is revealed right away. So I kind of think of that, like, Christmas song. Like, Mary did you know? It's like. Well, the angel kind of told her she knew. I mean, she seems like she was told a lot of information. Maybe like not like everything, but your.
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A
Son will be the son of God. Mary did you know? Yeah, the angel told me. Yeah, the angel told me. I got it.
- [13:54]
B
The angel told me.
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A
I was listening.
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B
I was listening to that.
- [13:56]
A
Yeah, no, you're right. That song drives me crazy because it's just so not biblically rooted and theologically sound. The son of the Most High, we have echoes to the Old Testament father, David. So this is David's probably the most famous, the king of the Old Testament, living a thousand years before this prophecy. And then Jacob goes back even further. You know, reminds me of the story of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the twelve sons. And kind of taking me back even further to the story of salvation.
- [14:24]
B
And by this time in salvation history, one has to kind of think, like, when God promised David a throne that would last forever, was that kind of like rhetorical throat clearing? Was that kind of like exaggeration? Because, you know, David did have it pretty good. But right after David, you know, there's the Babylonian exile. And it's not like at this period in history, things are looking so great for the nation of Israel.
- [14:45]
A
Yeah. Herod, who is the king, right. In Luke 1:5, he's actually not a Jewish king, but he's sitting on the throne of the Jewish throne.
- [14:51]
B
Right. So for this promise to be renewed really is amazing. And the form that this everlasting kingdom is going to take is not something that barely anybody is able to understand. Even at the ascension, the disciples are standing there looking up in the sky, and the angels are like, why are you looking up in the sky?
- [15:12]
A
Right. They ask Jesus, like, is now the time you're gonna restore the kingdom? You're like, yeah, we didn't get it, what you're talking. Yeah. Now we say this, we profess this in the creed. We believe in the kingdom. His kingdom will have no end.
- [15:23]
B
Right?
- [15:24]
A
So it's something in the creed that we profess to go back to this promise to Mary that this, your son will have a kingdom, will have no end. Now, Mary has a question that sounds like Zechariah, but I know it's different. How can this be since I have no husband? So Zachariah, when he has the enunciation of his wife burying John the Baptist, it's almost like, give me proof.
- [15:43]
B
Right? And it's really interesting, again, how these two stories are so similar, and yet they seem to have almost like a completely different meaning. And it does really say something about the heart, you know, and that the angel is able to discern the heart. But this. This part that said, how will this be since I am a virgin, or since I have no husband, is literally in Greek, since I do not know a man. And so some people have taken this way of her saying, I do not know a man to indicate that Mary has some kind of vow of virginity. And so that her question indicates not a doubt in how it will happen, but how it can happen and still align with the vow that she has made. Because her question in some ways doesn't really make any sense, like, how will this be since I am a virgin? Because it's like, well, then you won't be, and then you'll have a son. It doesn't actually make that much sense. Like, she's betrothed. She's about to be married. So the fact that God would say, well, you're going to have a son, wouldn't it just be.
- [16:39]
A
Don't you remember I consecrated myself to you? Yeah.
- [16:41]
B
So it's. So. So some people have. Have argued that the question actually doesn't make any sense unless behind it is some declaration that, well, but I planned to be a virgin. I planned not to know any man ever, so how could. How could I possibly have a son?
- [16:57]
A
Yeah. No, and that makes sense about where the nothing, as the angel will say later, nothing will be impossible with the Lord that, yes, I honor your virginity, but I'm also going to bless you with maternity. And it's. I'm going to do something in a way that you could not even expect, but still honor your desires and honor your. Your vow to me. The angel says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. You should be the child to be born, will be called the Holy, the Son of God. So we have a revelation to Mary of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity Most High, the Father. And then in her womb will be the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. We could have never figured out the Trinity on our own. It had to be revealed. And so it's very fitting that in the midst of this wonderful mystery of the Incarnation, that the most foundational, fundamental mystery of our faith, the Trinity is revealed to Mary.
- [17:50]
B
Yeah. And you know, it also says something about her fiat, I mean, how much she understood about the Trinity or the intimation she got. You know, the Trinity we understand as a communion of love, something that's a complete self gift eternally and always. And saying yes to that in a broken world ends up looking like the cross. And so the life of the Trinity in her is a lot more terrifying. You know, it's, it's almost. Yeah, it kind of amps it up when you, when you have a sense or a notion of what that entails.
- [18:20]
A
Well, Mary's response, Mary said, behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. What would you like to share about that?
- [18:29]
B
I mean, yeah, just what we've, what we already said about that kind of, that kind of yes that isn't even, doesn't even appear to be a yes of deliberation, but a yes of complete trust and obedience for which, you know, she's been, she's been prepared.
- [18:44]
A
What a beautiful example for us of living in the Christian life. And we try to do with prayer. And the Rosary is a beautiful prayer that we say the Hail Mary and we, we ask the Lord to let his will be always done in our life, that we can have a disposition like Mary, to always be attuned to the movement of God in our life, to be attuned with our spiritual senses, to what he might be asking of us to do and to always say, let it be done to me according to your word. So thank you, Liz, for joining me today and going through this passage. Thank you for joining us on this first episode, on the first joyful mystery, the Annunciation. Please join us for other mysteries of the rosary, the joyful mysteries, but also the sorrowful, glorious and the luminous. Thank you and God bless.