“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
37 …. So who is the New Daughter of Sion?
According to contemporary Biblical Scholars, we find in the Annunciation by Archangel Gabriel a sort of an echo, repetition of the prophecies made on the Daughter of Sion.
In fact the first word, Gabriel uttered was: “Khaire”, a Greek word meaning “Rejoice”. In Latin it was translated to “Ave”. But, the original word was “Rejoice”, and not “Hail”.
The angel must have realized that he was passing a unique message; unique, the one and only message in the Story of humanity. For this reason the salutation could not have been any simple, ordinary word. This was an exceptional occasion, so an exceptional salutation was to be ‘Rejoice.’
But what were the reasons for Mary’s Rejoicing? Three reasons are given for Mary to rejoice:
· The presence of the Lord amidst His people whom He wants to save,
· The arrival of the Messiah – King,
· The fruits, the graces freely given, fulfilled in Mary.
The Angel, sort of invited Mary, and waited upon her to give her consent for the fulfillment of the Messianic Promise, and further when he announced to her the great honour and dignity of being the Mother of God, the Angel, understood and encouraged her to “Rejoice”
The Annunciation, helps even us, to realise that Mary was the “New Daughter of Sion”, invited by God to rejoice. It is the extraordinary role of Mary, as the Mother of the Messiah, and the Mother of the Son of God. The Virgin most chase, Mary, the fifteen yer old girl from Nazareth, accepted this honour in the name of all humanity.
Mary was the ‘ONE’ seeming fir in the eyes of God to offer her heart, the heart of a Bride to her Bridegroom. That is why Mary remains the JOY, foretold by the Prophets from hundreds of years before this Announcement, as a fulfillment of God’s Plan to save humanity.
The beloved, late Mons. Fulton Sheen, explained this acceptance in such an original and poetic way. He says that the fall of Adam and Eve’ was a discordant note struck by our first parents. That false note kept travelling and vibrating in the universe, till the time came when God took that note, gave it to Mary, and she, in turn, from that note, built, composed a wonderful ‘Symphony of Love’. That discordant note became the beginning of a lovely work of Art. Marvellous thoughts, wonderful. You might look up this thought…and in a much better way, in Sheen’s book, called the “The World’s first Love”
We have to bear in mind that Mary was living in a man-centric world. Man only was mentioned, as if women did not exist, man was the authority, man only had rights…..an endless list, yet, this special, excellent honour was offered to a woman. Let’s not say, ‘but only a woman gives birth’. God created the universe from chaos, He could certainly have come to earth in other ways….but let’s not swim out of our depth.
Do you not see the beginning of the movement for the ‘emancipation of women’ in the world. This happened in the remote, poor, unknown village of Nazareth, not in New York, Berlin or London. During His lifetime, Jesus kept on boosting the morale and rights of women; the Samaritan woman, Mary Magdalen, the first Missionary etc. /38
Certain information ,from “Who is Mary “ by kind permission of H.G. Mons. S.Magro, Bishop of Benghazi.
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