Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Elizabeth Kirkland CahillDecember 20, 2016

But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ~ Lk 1:29

One of the rhetorical techniques I learned about in divinity school has the fancy Latin name captatio benevolentiae, or the “winning of goodwill.” We might call this “buttering up” one’s audience. Gabriel uses it to good effect in the Annunciation, hailing Mary warmly as “favored one,” and assuring her, “the Lord is with you.” A peasant woman of no means or social standing, Mary reacts fearfully to this effusive greeting: Luke tells us she is greatly troubled, using a participle, dietarachthe, that derives from a verb meaning “to shake together, stir up.”

If Mary is stirred by Gabriel’s opening words, she is shaken to the core by the rest of his message. “How can this be?” she asks the angel. We, too, may be apprehensive about our ability to succeed at what God asks us to do. We, too, may struggle to understand what it all means. And we, too, may echo Mary’s anxious question as we pray, hoping that God will hear our worry and fortify us with calm confidence to do His will. Whether we recall Moses asking God, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh?” or Jeremiah insisting that he does not know how to speak, the Bible furnishes us with countless examples of servants of God whose initial query is, “How can this be?” So it was with Mary, so it is with us.

RELATED: To subscribe to these Advent reflections, sign up here and check "Digital Content Updates."

In prayer, we ask for the courage to accept the call, knowing that we will not go forward alone. For the Lord, as Gabriel said, is with us.

 RELATED: Read all of our Advent reflections for 2016

Lord God Immanuel, Take and receive all my worries, my doubts, and my fears, and let me hear your response when I call to you. Amen.

For today’s readings, click here.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist who helped expose the abuse committed by leaders of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, gives Pope Leo XIV a stole made of alpaca wool, during the pope's meeting with members of the media May 12, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo offered a heartening message for a global media that has endured a pretty awful year.
Kevin ClarkeMay 23, 2025
If you think our enthusiasm for our basketball team was intense, just wait until you see our support for Pope Leo XIV.
Jack DoolinMay 23, 2025
“I don’t think he’s the kind of man who sends coded messages,” Cardinal Michael Czerny says in this exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.
Gerard O’ConnellMay 23, 2025
First-grade students finish an assignment at St. Ambrose Catholic School in Tucson, Ariz., in this 2014 photo. Arizona has one of the nation’s strongest school choice programs, with vouchers available to every child in the state. (CNS file photo/Nancy Wiechec)
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying state funds to a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma. What should American Catholics be asking about public funding for school choice?
Beth BlaufussMay 23, 2025