An archangel announces the birth of Jesus

By John F. Fink (Special to The Criterion)

My name is Gabriel. I’m an archangel.

I hope you realize that it is highly unusual for an angel to deliver a message in print, but that’s what God has asked me to do.

I admit that I’m much more accustomed to delivering messages in person—as I did to Zechariah in Jerusalem and to a virgin named Mary in Nazareth. I’ll get to that story in due time.

First, though, I should explain that I stand before God and serve as his messenger.

In that capacity, I appeared to the prophet Daniel and announced to him the 70 weeks of years before the coming of an anointed one (Dn 9:20-25). I appeared to Daniel again to give him the vision of the Hellenistic wars (Dn 10-12).

Those messages, though, paled in significance with the mission that God gave me a little more than 2,000 years ago. God gave me a role in the salvation of the whole human race.

Before sending me on my mission, God explained that he had decided that the time had come to redeem humankind from the sin of Adam and Eve.

That is, earthly time. Time doesn’t exist in heaven’s eternity.

Ever since they sinned through disobedience and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, there had been an enmity between God and the descendants of Adam and Eve.

This was such a serious break that the gates of heaven had been closed to those who had died, beginning with Adam and Eve. They had all been living in limbo.

God told me that no human could rectify that situation because no mere human could represent all humanity. But God could do it, and the way he planned to do it was by becoming human himself. A being who was both God and man would redeem humanity.

He said that he had chosen a young girl named Mary to be the mother of the Second Person of the Trinity, whose name was to be Jesus. He had prepared her for this by preserving her from the original sin that all other people were born with.

He said that he also was planning to send another man named John to prepare the way for Jesus.

That’s where I was to come in. My assignment was to appear first to John’s father, a man named Zechariah, to tell him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would become John’s parents, and to instruct them on how they were to rear him. He was to have neither wine nor strong drink.

Then I was to appear to Mary and tell her what God had in mind for her.

I appeared to Zechariah, a Jewish priest, while he was in the sanctuary of the Temple. When I appear to someone, I try not to startle him or her, but it seems unavoidable. So I always begin by saying, “Do not be afraid.”

After I said that to Zechariah, I told him that God was going to answer his and Elizabeth’s prayers, and that she would bear a son whom they should name John.

I told him, too, that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit while he was still in Elizabeth’s womb. I didn’t mention it to Zechariah, but that happened when Mary visited Elizabeth while both of them were pregnant.

Zechariah, though, doubted what I said, saying that he and Elizabeth were both elderly. I had to assert my authority, telling him that God himself had sent me to announce the good news. But since he doubted, I told him that he would be speechless until what I told him took place. And so it happened.

I visited Mary later, when Elizabeth was six months pregnant. I addressed her, “Hail, full of grace” because, since she was preserved from original sin, she was full of sanctifying grace.

Then, seeing that she was troubled, I added my usual message, “Do not be afraid.”

Obviously, I took Mary by surprise when I told her that she would bear a son, who also would be the Son of the Most High.

She had been brought up in the Temple and knew Scripture so she understood that I was telling her that she would be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah, especially when I told her that her son, Jesus, would have the throne of David and rule over the house of Jacob.

She had a problem, though. How could this happen, she asked me, since she had taken a vow of virginity?

Fortunately, God had prepared me for her question. I told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her. Her son would be called the Son of God.

I also told her about Elizabeth’s pregnancy. She didn’t know about it since Elizabeth lived about 80 miles away, and communications were difficult in those days.

I told Mary that since Elizabeth could conceive in her old age so could she conceive while remaining a virgin because nothing is impossible for God.

That’s when Mary replied, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

My mission was accomplished so I left.

However, my work wasn’t finished yet. Mary had a problem with Joseph, the man to whom she was betrothed.

At that time, a Jewish wedding had two parts. First, the couple took their vows, the actual wedding. Then, at a later date, there was a big party after which the groom took his bride to his home.

Joseph and Mary had done the first part when he found out that she was pregnant. He was perplexed, to say the least. He knew that he wasn’t the father. He could have accused her of adultery, the penalty for which was death by stoning. But he didn’t want to do that so he decided to divorce her quietly. Since they had taken their vows, divorce was necessary.

God knew that would happen, of course. He told me at the beginning that he wanted me to tell Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary into his home because it was through the Holy Spirit that the child had been conceived in her. This time, though, I was to do it by appearing in a dream.

Furthermore, I was told, I would be appearing to Joseph in dreams twice more after Jesus was born.

The first time would be to warn him that King Herod was going to search for Jesus to kill him and, therefore, he should take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

The second time was to tell him, after Herod’s death, that it was safe to return to the land of Israel.

Fortunately, Joseph realized that his dreams were messages from God.

In regard to the first dream, I think he was predisposed to believe that Jesus was conceived without a man because of her insistence that Joseph respect her vow of virginity. He really couldn’t imagine that she had sexual relations with another man. So Joseph took Mary into his home.

Eventually, Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem and God entered the human race. It was a cause for great celebration, but no one would have known about it if it weren’t for the next mission that God sent me on. I was selected to be the one to announce this tremendous event.

But I wasn’t sent to the Jewish high priest or some other great religious authority. God sent me to a group of shepherds! This time I really startled them by appearing at night in a great light so I really needed to say, “Do not be afraid.”

Then I delivered the great news. “A savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2:11).

By savior, I meant that he would rescue humanity from the condition of alienation from God. By Messiah, I meant the anointed one whom the Jews were expecting. By Lord, of course, I meant God.

That is the message that I gave to the shepherds, and that is the message I give to you today. Jesus, the Savior, Messiah and Lord, has been born to free you from your sins. Rejoice in his birth! Alleluia!
 

(John F. Fink is editor emeritus of The Criterion.) †