Day 29: Something Unexpected

I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension.
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If you haven't already, please consider supporting us at ascensionpress.com forward slash support. The first joyful mystery is the Annunciation.
Luke chapter 1 verses 26 through 38. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to 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.
And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no husband? And the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.
And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
For with God, nothing will be impossible. And Mary said, behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.
All right, just to give you a little lay of the land of where we're going from here, we're going to begin going through the different mysteries. And there's going to be a number of passes on them, approaching them from different ways.
This first pass through all of the mysteries is going to be a little bit more of like what's going on, a little bit more teaching, using the language of the church in regards to the scripture. We're going to really be focusing on the literal sense, like what's actually happening here.
Our second time through is going to be a little bit more of like a homily and our third time through is going to have a little bit of the characteristics of like a Lectio Divina, just a real focused prayer with the scriptures that correspond to the various mysteries. Today, we're looking at the Annunciation and it's going to be a little bit of a longer episode because there's so much, but I'm going to focus on three key parts of the Annunciation account.
Jesus as one who fulfills the promise made to David, Mary as the new tabernacle, the new meeting tent, and eventually what we'll see is the new Ark of the Covenant. All right, first of all, what's super important that we can sometimes pass by because we don't have Hebrew ears, we didn't necessarily grow up hearing the Hebrew scriptures, is the importance of these words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, starting with verse 31.
And behold, you will conceive and your woman bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great.
He'll be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to 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. What the angel Gabriel is communicating very, very clearly to Mary, who as a first century devout Jewish woman would have understand is that she will conceive and bear a son and this son is the awaited for Messiah.
And this is a fulfillment of the promise that God made to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 16 thereabouts. And it says this, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,

I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come forth from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build the house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be his father and he shall be my son. And your house and your kingdom will shall be made sure forever before me.
Your throne shall be established forever. This is verse 33 from Luke chapter 1.
And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This is very clearly the pronouncement, the enunciation that the Messiah King is coming.
And again, because we didn't necessarily grow up going to the synagogue and reading the Jewish scriptures the way that Mary would have, we can kind of pass by this and maybe not understand it. So this is so important.
The Messiah is coming. He is here and his name is Jesus.
Second is this. Mary says, right? How can this be since I have no husband? And this is what the angel says.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
Scripture scholars clearly interpret this as pointing to this cloud of the presence of God, of the glory of God. We see this in Exodus chapter 40, verse 34 and 35.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud above upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
As the glory of the Lord in the form of a cloud filled the tabernacle, so will Our Lady be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. And it's through the fulfillment of this glory cloud, the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, that Mary will conceive Jesus in her womb.
And then lastly for today's episode, something of the newness of Christ. What's really important is the beginning of the Annunciation account.
It references in the sixth month. The sixth month of what? This is pointing to a previous Annunciation that just happens, that just precedes the Annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Mary.
And it's the Annunciation made of the angel to Zechariah for telling the birth of John the Baptist. So there's this connection.
And this number six is so important, right? Because the number six is this, something has come to its end, but not reached fulfillment. Think of the six days of creation, waiting for the seventh day, waiting for the Sabbath.
We'll see the number six again, a number of times in the New Testament, such as the six water jars, which can be changed into wine by Jesus at the wedding feast of Cana. And there's a Bible commentary called the Sacropagina, which I'm pulling a lot of this from, which looks at the difference between the annunciation that happens with Zechariah foretelling the birth of John the Baptist and the annunciation that happens with the angel Gabriel to Mary foretelling the birth of Jesus.
We'll go to Luke chapter 1, starting at verse 8. Now as he was serving as a priest, referring to Zechariah, before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense and there appeared to him an angel.

So here's what we have here. We have a priest.
He's in the temple, serving in the temple. Where's the temple? It's in Jerusalem.
So it's a male, it's a priest serving in the temple in Jerusalem. And there's a large audience as it says, all of the people were outside praying.
And this is where the angel is going to tell Zechariah that his wife, Elizabeth, who is barren, is going to conceive and bear a son. Now let's juxtapose that with the annunciation that happens in the first joyful mystery.
We have Mary, a single poor woman, young, a virgin in a town called Nazareth. The word Nazareth or the town Nazareth never is even mentioned in the Old Testament.
It has a population of about say two to 500 people. And juxtapose that with like Jerusalem, the center of Jewish life where the temple is.
And as Zechariah has all of the people outside praying, Mary's all by herself. There's no witnesses.
And then of course, we have the difference of Zechariah's response, which is kind of a challenge, a question, whereas Mary's response is one of faith of like, how can this be? Show me. But I think also important is this, is right, What does it say about the son of Zechariah, John versus Jesus? The angel says that John will be great before the Lord, but Jesus will be great and the son of the most high.
John will repair people. Jesus will rule the people.
John's role is temporary. Jesus's kingdom will never end.
John is a prophet and Jesus is more than a prophet. And so what do we do with this? How can we pray with this as we're praying the first joyful mystery? I think it's important to remember Jesus' words, right? I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law.
And Jesus coming, and coming in a way that's totally unexpected, it would have probably made sense to, again, a pious Jewish person in the first century for the annunciation of the Messiah to come to a priest in the temple offering sacrifice. But instead, God sends his angel to this hidden lowly woman.
And already at the annunciation, we're getting an insight into the nature of the Messiah King.

He's not here, again, to abolish the law,

but to fulfill the law in a way that is going to be so new.

It's going to feel sometimes like it's a breaking continuity,

but it's not.

It's just something different.

It's something deeper.

And to some people, something scandalous.

It's going to be so different, so unexpected, that many Jewish people are not going to be able to receive it, and so they miss it. So my brothers and sisters, like Mary, I think we want to be renewed in our total and radical docility and receptivity before the plan of God.
That Jesus continues to want to come to us,

continues to be the Messiah and the King to us

to break into our lives.

But can we give him permission

to come to us not as we want,

not as we think,

as he desires to come to us?

And so my brothers and sisters, again,

like with Mary,

let us echo her fiat.

Let us echo her, be it done unto me according to your word. Like Jesus, I invite you to come to me, to come into my world, however you want.
Lord, not my will, but your will be done. Jesus, Messiah, King, Savior, come to me, come to me to save me.
Let it be done unto me according to your word. Let us pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death amen hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mary mother of god pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

All right, everybody, thanks for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.
Poco a poco, friends.