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Image: The Annunciation by Murillo, 1655–1660, Hermitage Museum, Petersburg
Pope Francis’ Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025 – Jesus Christ our Hope
Catechesis 2. “The Annunciation. Mary listens and is willing
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Audience Hall – Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Gospel Reflection for the Annunciation – Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin who was 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 this saying and pondered 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 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 there will be no end to his kingdom.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, for 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[d] 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 is 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.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today we continue the catecheses of the Jubilee cycle on Jesus Christ our hope.
At the beginning of his Gospel, Luke shows the effects of the transforming power of the Word of God, which reaches not only the halls of the Temple, but also the poor home of a young woman, Mary, who, betrothed to Joseph, still lives with her family.
After Jerusalem, the messenger of the great divine announcements, Gabriel, was sent to a village never mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: Nazareth. At that time it was a small village in Galilee, in a remote part of Israel, on the border with the pagans and their pollution.
It was there that the angel brought a message of an unprecedented form and content, so much so that Mary’s heart was shaken and disturbed. Instead of the classical greeting “Peace be with you”, Gabriel addresses the Virgin with the invitation “Hail”, “Rejoice”, an appeal dear to sacred history because the prophets use it when they announce the coming of the Messiah.
It is the invitation to joy that the Lord addresses to his people when the exile ends and the Lord makes his living and active presence felt.
In addition, God calls Mary with a loving name unknown in biblical history: kecharitoméne, which means “full of divine grace”. Mary is full of divine grace. This name tells us that God’s love has been dwelling in Mary’s heart for some time and continues to do so.
It tells us how “gracious” she is and, above all, how God’s grace has engraved her, making her His masterpiece: full of grace.
This loving name, which God gives only to Mary, is immediately accompanied by reassurance: “Do not be afraid!”, “Do not be afraid!”: the presence of the Lord always gives us this grace of not being afraid, and so He says to Mary: “Do not be afraid!”.
In history God said “Do not be afraid” to Abraham, Isaac and Moses: “Do not be afraid!”
He also says to us too: “Do not be afraid, keep going; do not be afraid!”. “Father, I am afraid of this”; “And what do you do when…”. “I am sorry, Father, I will tell you the truth: I go to the fortune teller”.
“You go to the fortune teller!”. “Ah yes, I have my palm read…”.
Please, do not be afraid! Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid! This is good.
“I am your travelling companion”: and He says this to Mary. The “Almighty”, the God of the “impossible” (Lk 1:37) is with Mary, with and beside her;
He is her companion, her main ally, the eternal “I-am-with-you”
Then Gabriel announces to the Virgin her mission, letting echo in her heart numerous biblical passages referring to the royal and messianic nature of the child that was to be born of her, and that this child will be presented as the fulfilment of ancient prophesies.
The Word that comes from on high calls Mary to be the Mother of the Messiah, the long-awaited Davidic Messiah. She is the Mother of the Messiah.
He will be King, but not in a human and carnal way, but in a divine and spiritual way.
His name will be “Jesus”, which means “God saves”, forever reminding everyone that it is not man who saves, but God alone!
Jesus is the one who will fulfil these words of the prophet Isaiah: “It was not an envoy or a messenger, but his presence that saved them with his love and compassion” (Is 63:9).
This motherhood shakes Mary to the core. And being the intelligent woman that she is, able to read into events (cf. Lk 2:19,51), she tries to understand, to discern what is happening to her.
Mary does not look outwards but inwards. And there, in the depths of her open and sensitive heart, she hears the invitation to trust in God, who has prepared for her a special “Pentecost”.
As at the beginning of creation, God wants to nourish Mary with his Spirit, a power capable of opening what is closed without violating it, without interfering with human freedom; he wants to envelop her in the “clouds” of his presence because the Son lives in her, and her in him.
And Mary is enlightened by confidence: she is “a lamp with many lights”.
Mary welcomes the Word in her own flesh and thus begins the greatest mission ever entrusted to a woman, to a human creature.
She places herself at the service of all: she is full of everything, not as a slave but as a co-worker of God the Father, full of dignity and authority to administer, as she will do at Cana, the gifts of divine treasure, so that many will be able to draw from it with both hands.
Sisters and brothers, let us learn from Mary, the Mother of the Savior and our Mother, to open our ears to the divine word and to welcome it and cherish it, so that it may transform our hearts into tabernacles of His presence, into hospitable homes where hope grows. Thank you!
Summary of the Holy Father’s words:
As we continue our Jubilee cycle of catecheses on “Jesus Christ our Hope”, we now reflect on the confident response of the Virgin Mary to the message of the Archangel Gabriel that she has been chosen to be the Mother of the Messiah.
Mary, “full of grace”, understood and freely accepted the unique mission entrusted to her by God, thus collaborating with Him in fulfilling the hope of Israel and giving birth to the Saviour of the nations.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, she continued to collaborate in the fulfilment of God’s plan, as we see from her maternal intercession at the wedding feast of Cana, which led to the first of the Lord’s miracles.
May we learn from Mary to trust firmly in God’s promises, to bear witness with our lives to the hope born of the Gospel, and to offer that hope above all to those of our brothers and sisters who are struggling and tempted to despair.
