The Annunciation of the Lord

The feast of the Annunciation, now recognized as a solemnity, was first celebrated in 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. Because 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.

Mary 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.

-Franciscan Media

Even the highest rulers on earth still have someone above them. 

Shona Proverb

In our daily vocabulary, one of the words that have overtime run out of vogue is the word ‘obey’.  We (the modern man) view ourselves as a product of self-initiative, self-confidence and self-efficiency.  We do not shrink for anybody. Phrases like ‘do it yourself’ or ‘take charge’ are model motto's of how to live.  ‘You are the master of your destiny’, we say.  
 
But is this so? Are we really ‘it’, as we think?
 
The Christian attitude is way different.  We are created by God; to know God, to love God and serve God (Baltimore catechism).  This means to obey God comes first.  King Ahaz in today’s first reading has that ‘I listen to nobody’ attitude. The prophet Isaiah urges him to seek divine help.  He refuses (trusting his human allies more) and everything ends in failure.  God, however, insists he is needed and cannot be denied.  He is with us whenever we need Him and we will need him.  Why?  Because He alone knows, completes and effects us best (“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” Jeremiah 1:5)
 
A young and disoriented Mary asks the angel Gabriel: “how can this be, since I have no relations with man? (Luke 1:34).  How often do we along life’s journey ask this or similar questions especially when human agency stops, fails or simply does not have answers.
 
The Angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…”  Even Elizabeth called barren will conceive a son in her old age; for nothing will be impossible for God.  You see, when God is in charge, what He says happens and it does not disappoint.  He is master of heaven and earth. His mere word ‘effects’ and nothings stands in the way.
 
Let us pray for the courage to allow Mary’s attitude to grow in us.  Mary said “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38).  Lord teach us to obey you always.

Fr. Anthony