The feast of the Annunciation goes back to the fourth or fifth century.
Its central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From
all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the
decision is being realized. The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed
all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because
human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering
and an agonizing death: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
Mary
has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity God
destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in
the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s
decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of
Incarnation. As Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a
role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given
role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent
figure she is only by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God
could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.
She is the
virgin-mother who fulfills Isaiah 7:14 in a way that Isaiah could not
have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of
God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38).
Together with
Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and
earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the
possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the
infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect
God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the
Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the
ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She
manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.
Comment:
Sometimes
spiritual writers are accused of putting Mary on a pedestal and thereby
discouraging ordinary humans from imitating her. Perhaps such an
observation is misguided. God did put Mary on a pedestal and has put
all human beings on a pedestal. We have scarcely begun to realize the
magnificence of divine grace, the wonder of God’s freely given love.
The marvel of Mary—even in the midst of her very ordinary life—is God’s
shout to us to wake up to the marvelous creatures that we all are by
divine design.
Quote:“Enriched
from the first instant of her conception with the splendor of an
entirely unique holiness, the virgin of Nazareth is hailed by the
heralding angel, by divine command, as ‘full of grace’ (cf. Luke 1:28).
To the heavenly messenger she replies: ‘Behold the handmaid of the
Lord; be it done to me according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38). Thus the
daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the
Mother of Jesus. Committing herself wholeheartedly and impeded by no
sin to God’s saving will, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of
the Lord, to the person and work of her Son, under and with him,
serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of Almighty God” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 56).
Prayers:
God our
Father,
Your word became man and was born of the Virgin Mary.
May we become more like Jesus Christ,
whom we acknowledge as our redeemer, God and man.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Almighty Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
You have revealed the beauty of Your power
by exalting the lowly virgin of Nazareth
and making her the mother of our Savior.
May the prayers of this woman
bring Jesus to the waiting world
and fill the void of incompletion
with the presence of her Child,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading: Luke 1:26-38
In the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of
Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose
name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name
was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace,
the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the
saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this
might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid,
Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His
name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the
Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His
father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever;
and of His kingdom there will be no end." And Mary said
to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"
And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore
the Child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And
behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived
a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said,
"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to
me according to your word." And the angel departed from
her.