The Favored One

An Advent meditation from last year:

I was reading through the Annunciation text in the gospel of Luke. Specifically, my attention was caught by Mary's reaction to Gabriel's famous "Hail Mary" greeting:

Luke 1.26-30
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God."

Here's what struck me. Notice what perplexes Mary. It's not the angel, it's the greeting. Mary "pondered what sort of greeting this might be."

Ponder that. An angel has just appeared to Mary. You'd think that would be the big shocker. But it's not, it's what the angel says that perplexes her.

And just what does the angel say to her? This: "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Mary seems to doubt that she is favored by God. As evidence for this doubt, notice how Gabriel has to say it again to reassure her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God."

I don't have any big insight about having noticed this, that Mary seems to think she's not or hasn't been favored of God. Maybe it's a sign of Mary's deep humility. Or maybe it's a sign of Mary's deep humiliation, how she felt so far down the ladder of favor and status that hearing that she was favored just didn't compute.

And maybe that tells us something about why Mary was chosen by God. Mary was at the absolute bottom, so far down that the greeting "Hail, favored one" would have been deeply and profoundly shocking and perplexing.

Grace interrupts the shame of the world to fall upon the very least of these.