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Peace and love!

In the Gospel of Luke, the narration of the Annunciation of the Angel to Mary is so detailed. How is this possible? I asked the Holy Spirit to enlighten me in seeking an answer, and this appears to me as the most probable: Mary herself told Luke about the Event. After a long search, I found a note, which supports my hypothesis, by Father Costantino Gilardi OP.

I confidently ask you, Father Angelo, for further enlightenment.

I have you and the Order of Preachers present in my prayers every day.

Peace and love!

Ugo C.

The Priest’s answer

Dear Ugo,

1. While we cannot say as sure that Madonna was the one who informed Saint Luke, nevertheless we are sure that Madonna was the first source of information about the birth of Jesus.

From a chronological point of view, Saint Luke could have met Madonna before Her assumption into heaven. However, we cannot say as sure that Madonna directly informed Saint Luke. The evangelist could have received reliable information by those who had received it directly from the Mother of Jesus.

The biblical scholars have a unanimous opinion about this point.

I present three of the most popular.

2. In the prologue to his Gospel, Saint Luke refers to “eyewitnesses” of the narrated events (rf. Lk 1:2) who, in the meantime, had become “ministers of the word” (Ib.).

Therefore, he appealed to the best witnesses. Undoubtedly, they were the apostles and disciples.

Can we think of Madonna too for the childhood of Jesus?

Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange writes: (tr.) “Two discreet, but clear enough, allusions make the reader understand that the same mother of Jesus made the disciples aware of what was most intimate in His very humble origins” (L’Evangelo di Gesù Cristo, p. 10).

The two allusions are as follows: “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19 and 2:51).

Therefore, no doubt that Our Lady was the main source about the events regarding the birth of Jesus.

However, that does not mean She directly revealed to Saint Luke what happened.

The evangelist may have learned by one whom Mary made well briefed.

3. Giuseppe Ricciotti goes into further detail and writes: (tr.) “The prologue itself indicates the tradition as the source, but without specifying; however, it is not difficult to see among the eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, in the first place the revered master Paul, and then also other prominent people whom Luke, traveling with Paul, may have met in Antioch, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Jerusalem, Caesarea, and in Rome: among these authoritative informants, no hazard in including the apostle Peter and perhaps also James (cf. Acts 21:18), as well as the evangelist Philip, whom Luke stayed with in Cesarea (cf. Acts 21:8); others are not excluded, however there would be no use in getting lost in plain conjectures.

The detailed mention of women is remarkable, they had followed Jesus: “Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources” (Lk 8:1-3). Neither Joanna nor Susanna is mentioned by other evangelists, although they were women of high social standing and wealthy; by mentioning them, probably Luke discreetly wants to hint at a source of his information.

The allusion to another woman of incomparable dignity and importance is no less discreet and much more punctual, and she is Jesus’ mother indeed. Only His mother Maria could be the witness and informer of quite a few facts; and Luke admonishes twice, at a short distance in his narration, and almost in the same terms, that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19, and, shortly after, that “his mother kept all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:51).

Such insistence of thought and expression is eloquent, given his considered discretion. There is no evidence whether Luke met Mary in person: but even if he did not speak to Her, Her punctual briefing may have reached him through the apostle John, the adopted son, entrusted to Mary by the dying Jesus, and whose house she lived in after the death of Her true son (rf. Jn 19:26-27)” (Vita di Gesù Cristo, §142).

4. Father Marco Sales writes: (tr.) “Since Saint Luke narrates several mysteries in the story of Jesus’ childhood which were witnessed only, or almost only, by Mary Most Holy and, besides, in this part of his Gospel he recalls twice that Mary Most Holy kept all these things in Her heart (2:19.51), we can rightly conclude that the Mother of God was the main immediate or mediated source, which the evangelist drew from when he narrated the Savior’s infancy.

It is also probable that Saint Luke asked some relative or friend of the forerunner’s family, to receive what he reports about the birth of John the Baptist” (Introduzione al Vangelo di San Luca).

I warmly thank you for your daily prayers for me and for the Order of Preachers. That is precious to us.

I gladly assure mine for you and I bless you.

Father Angelo