DOCTOR LUCA'S GYNECOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS: «AND BEHOLD, YOU WILL CONCEPTURE IN THE WOMB"

An ancient tradition, which dates back to the Apostle Paul, reports that Luca was a doctor. a person, so, more suitable than others to tell the special conception; in fact Saint Luke makes use of all his wisdom here, maybe even the professional one, but above all the theological one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The passage from the Annunciation, which is also that of the Vocation of Mary, it is one of the most beautiful and profound in the Gospel of Luke. But also one of the most complex and difficult.

An ancient tradition, which dates back to the Apostle Paul (With the 4, 14), reports that Luca was a doctor. a person, so, more suitable than others to tell the special conception; in fact Saint Luke makes use of all his wisdom here, maybe even the professional one, but above all the theological one. Let's read the passage.

"During that time, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man of the house of David, named Joseph. The virgin's name was Maria. entering from the law, he said: “Rejoice, full of grace: the Lord is; with you”. At these words she was very upset and wondered what sense a greeting like this had. The angel told her: “Do not fear, Maria, because you have found favor with God. And here, you will conceive a son, you will give birth to him and you will call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father and he will reign forever over the house of Jacob and his kingdom will have no end”. Then Mary said to the angel: “How this will happen, for I know no man?”. The Angel answered her: “The Holy Spirit will descend upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with his shadow. Therefore he who will be born will be holy and will be called the Son of God. And here, Elisabetta, your relative, in her old age she also conceived a son and this is the sixth month for her, which was said to be sterile: nothing is impossible for God”. Mary said: “Here is the servant of the Lord: let it happen to me according to your word”. And the Angel moved away from her" (LC 1,26-38).

The Archangel Gabriel is sent by God to communicate to the Virgin Mary the announcement of the imminent Incarnation. A Maria, Joseph's betrothed, it is announced that she will virginally become the mother of the Son of God. The text tells us that God had already prepared Mary for a long time for this mission of hers, as She had experienced having been "made welcome" (cute, Kexaritoméne) to God, through the influence of grace. This is the true meaning of that «full of grace», which we still recite today in the prayer ofAve Maria, but often without fully understanding its meaning. The perfect passive participle of the verb cartoon indicates that it is a past action of grace on Mary, an action therefore prior to the Annunciation, through which Maria felt she was internally oriented towards a still unknown future event. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains it by saying that he experienced within himself a profound "desire for virginity"; so too for Saint Bernard of Clairvaux the grace of Mary was "the grace of virginity". Oriented by that grace, Mary had been prepared for this day: become the mother of the incarnate Son of God, but in a virginal way.

Such a birth appears paradoxical and difficult to believe, maybe even just imagine. Yet Saint Luke, in the Gospel text, it offers us important clues so that we can accept this truth, as all Tradition teaches us. Let's take a closer look at the verse of LC 1,31 which reads in Greek: "And here, you will conceive in the womb". This addition, «in the womb», it is singular, little noticed and often untranslated, as we have seen in the text of the CEI which is proclaimed in church today. There isn't one as it seems like a pleonastic integration, for it is evident that a woman always conceives in the womb. Yet the beginning of the verse integrates well into the overall description of the three moments:

1. You will conceive in the womb;
2. you will give birth to a son;
3. you will call his name Jesus.

Only Mary, throughout Scripture, receives the announcement that his conception will take place entirely "in the womb", it will therefore be completely internal and therefore it will be a virginal conception. Let's see why.

The verse clearly refers to Isaiah's prophecy 7, 14 (LXX version), also taken up by Matteo (1,23) during the announcement to Joseph in a dream:

"There the virgin will have in her womb and give birth to a son and they will call his name Emmanuel".

In San Luca, as it is a dialogue between the Angel and Mary, the second person is used (conceive) and the subject is clearly Mary, no longer the virgin of Isaiah or of Saint Matthew. Also because at the beginning of the song, The Other Brother, it had already been clearly stated twice that She was “a virgin, betrothed"; and that "the virgin was called Mary". But the most surprising thing is Luke's use of the verb. No more "you will have in your womb" as in Isaiah and Matthew, but "you will conceive in the womb". A new expression that goes in the direction of excluding any male participation, therefore human, from this conception. In the Old Testament a woman "receives into the womb" (Is 8, 3) the male seed, or «she has in her womb» (GN 38, 25) after intercourse with a man. But here in Luke it is clearly excluded from Mary's words: "I don't know a man" (LC 1, 34) that is, "I'm a virgin". This is why Saint Luke prefers to use the verb "conceive" (sullambánein), also very frequent in the Old Testament, but always without the addition "in the womb". In fact, the Evangelist uses the verb "conceive" twice, with the apparently superfluous addition of "in the womb" and does so solely by referring to Mary. It doesn't, for instance, with Elizabeth (LC 1, 24.36); for Maria, however, yes, in this passage and in Luke 2,21:

«…as he was called [Jesus] from the Angel, before being conceived in the womb".

They just seem like words, yet here Luke is saying that Mary's conception will be true, PLANT, as the revival of the ancient verb suggests: conceive; yet it will be new, unique and different for Maria, that is, without human participation, male, totally virginal. That is, it required a different "power"., a fertilizing action of a spiritual nature. This is what the Angel will explain to Mary in the face of her real objection:

«The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with his shadow. Therefore he who is born will be holy and will be called the Son of God." (v. 35).

I apologize if, given today's Solemnity, I did not focus on the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, on its historical and theological significance, on original sin for example, as is often done. It seemed more appropriate and compelling to me to focus on the scriptural foundations from which everything flows like a spring. If you notice, indeed, in today's passage from the Gospel of the Solemnity, a nice continuity. From the verse of LC 1, 28, where the Virgin is given the title of «full of grace», we know that Maria, long since, she was prepared by grace for her future mission. At the moment of the Incarnation, the Angel brings her the great and new message: his next conception will take place "in the womb", that is, without human participation. It will therefore be a virginal conception, carried out in Her by the Holy Spirit. Her Immaculate Conception is therefore admirably described by the long preparation of grace in Mary in view of the Incarnation, "in her womb", of the Son of God. There is therefore a perfect continuity well presented by the Evangelist Luke. Maria, full of Grace, after having "conceived" and given birth "holyly" (v. 35) his son under the action of the Holy Spirit, can present him to men as the Son of God, whose name is Jesus. This is the great mystery that is finally revealed to men. But at the center of the whole story is the Virgin Mary.

In this sense the words of Bishop Andrew of Crete are appropriate (+740) refer to Mary:

«The body of the Virgin is a land that God sowed, the firstfruits of Adamic matter divinized by Christ, the image that resembles primitive beauty, the clay shaped by the hands of the craftsman" (Homily 1 on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PG 97,1068).

From the Hermitage, 8 December 2024

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate

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