Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall
name him Jesus ... God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his reign there will be no end. (Lk 1:31-33)
 

The Annunciation story in today's Gospel reminds us again of God's preferential option for the poor. An obscure village in an occupied country - far from the centers of 1st Century Roman imperialism - and a young unmarried woman provide the setting and the principal actor for the greatest event in human history. Liberation will come not from the great and powerful ones of the earth but through a poor Jewish girl and her Son whose "reign will have no end".

So it is twenty centuries later that people of the Gospel and many others of great good will cling to this same vision: economic and racial justice must finally emerge from "below", from the "little ones", in particular, from those whose rights are denied. And if the privileged of the world wish to join the struggle for equality and the right order of things, we shall necessarily have to place ourselves on the side of those who strive to overcome the oppressions which enslave them...