Ignace de la Potterie: Mary in the mystery of the covenant (summary, ch.1)At the beginning of his salutation, the angel does not address Mary with her name but with a title, "full ofgrace"; at the end of the narrative when Mary gives her consent she calls herself "handmaid of the Lord." The 2titles form an inclusion within which the entire event unfolds.For the first time in history, virginity is no longer a malediction but a benediction. Unique, too, is the "fiat" ofMary, her consent in total freedom and humility to what the Lord asks of her.The Greek word chaire can have 2 meanings. It can be a simple salutation: 'hello,' it also can have a strongermeaning, a more pregnant meaning of an invitation to joy, 'rejoice.' It seems certain that Lk was thinking hereof an invitation to joy.In the LXX this formula always appears in a context where Zion is invited to the messianic joy in theperspective of the future (Jl 2:21-23; Zp 3:14; Zc 9:9; Lm 4:21). In the announcement to Mary, the angelutilizes the formula which the prophets employ to invite the eschatological Zion to rejoice in the salvationwhich God accords her. Thus we read in Zephaniah 3:14-15:Shout for joy, daughter of Zion! Israel shout aloud! Rejoice! exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! Yahwehhas repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away. Yahweh, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you haveno more evil to fear.R. Laurentin sees yet another link between this text of Zephaniah and that of the Annunciation to Mary. Basingit upon the Hebrew text, he thinks that the words of the angel "You are going to conceive" (Lk 1:31) correspondto Zephaniah's words "Yahweh is within your walls" (lit. "in your interior"; LXX reads, "in you" Zp 3:15).Mary is several times described as the new city of the presence of God, the eschatological tabernacle of thepresence of God among people.In the tradition of the Greek Fathers of the Church and in the Byzantine liturgy, the words of the angel havebeen almo...