Study of the Readings
Ed. by
Joyce Ann Zimmerman,
et al
• Words, Phrases
• To the point
• First Two Readings
• Experience
Dennis
Hamm, SJ
Just as the Church was founded with wordplay (Jesus to Peter: you are Petros and upon this petra I will build my Church), the exchange between David and the prophet Nathan deals with the future of the Israelite monarchy using a kind of pun.
John Kavanaugh, SJ
The willingness of Mary to open her life utterly to God is a model of our humanity as well as of our church and sacraments. And this is what brings us to a conundrum of our times. How does Mary reveal the place of women in the “Mystical Body of Christ”? How do women fit into the church?
John J. Pilch
In Luke’s account of the annunciation, a presumably masculine angel visits Mary who seems to be quite alone. Very likely, she is in the innermost quarters of her family’s home, the proper place for an unmarried young woman.
During this present life, Christ rules in the Church. By faith and love he dwells in the hearts of his elect, and guides them by his unceasing care toward their heavenly reward.
Reginald H. Fuller
Annunciation stories are a regular literary form of Scripture. There are a number of such stories in the Old Testament (for example, the births of Isaac, Samson, and Samuel), and of course Luke has already recorded the annunciation of John the Baptist.