This passage from Luke is usually titled “The Annunciation.” That’s because it tells of the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she is to bear the Christ child. The passage makes it abundantly clear that Mary has never been with a man. Luke, the narrator, tells us right at the beginning of this account that Mary is a “virgin” and after the angel informs Mary what is to happen, she herself mentions the same fact.

            Thus, this humble woman who became the mother of Jesus has seldom escaped the identifier “virgin.” For many, she will be forever known as “the Virgin Mary.”

            On one occasion, this led to an embarrassment for a church secretary. She was preparing a worship bulletin and announcement page on her computer. Included in a list of workers for an upcoming event was a parishioner named Mary, who was mentioned several times because of various tasks she was to be doing. As the secretary was finishing the typing, she received a phone call informing her that this Mary was not going to be able to help out after all, but that another member, Edna, would be taking her place. Rather than go back and type “Edna” over every place where it said “Mary,” the secretary simply used the “Replace” function in her word-processing program and had the computer replace every Mary with Edna.

            Imagine her horror on Sunday morning as she sat in church looking at the printed bulletin, and discovered that the pastor’s homily title now read “The Angel Comes to the Virgin Edna”!

            Well, those things happen. But let me suggest that if we are going to insist on preceding Mary’s name with an identifier, that “thinker” might serve just as well — the Thinker Mary.

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