Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Lectionary: 545​

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word."

Then the angel departed from her.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Verbum Domini, the Word of God in the life of and mission of the Church, wrote

"...we need to look to the one in whom the interplay between the word of God and faith was brought to perfection, that is, to the Virgin Mary, “who by her ‘yes’ to the word of the covenant and her mission, perfectly fulfills the divine vocation of humanity”.[79]

The human reality created through the word finds its most perfect image in Mary’s obedient faith. From the Annunciation to Pentecost she appears as a woman completely open to the will of God. She is the Immaculate Conception, the one whom God made “full of grace” (cf. Lk 1:28) and unconditionally docile to his word (cf. Lk 1:38). Her obedient faith shapes her life at every moment before God’s plan. A Virgin ever attentive to God’s word, she lives completely attuned to that word; she treasures in her heart the events of her Son, piecing them together as if in a single mosaic (cf. Lk 2:19,51)

An ideal, we often suppose, is by definition impossible. And yet we celebrate two persons as living ideal human lives. They were unquestionably human with all the frailties and vulnerabilities typical of our species, but from conception till death Jesus and Mary were perflectly pleasing to God their creator. Made in the image of God they were empty vessels filled with grace; "full of grace," in the words of the Angel Gabriel. For it is only by grace that one can be pleasing to God.

We saw that grace in the very beginning when the Lord breathed over mud and the mud became a man. Without the breath of God there is no life. Adam means dirt and he was pleasing in God's sight. "God looked upon all that he had made and said, 'It is very good."

This mud man was the model for the Christ; and Eve, the model for Mary. Made of the same dirt, they would please God entirely. Where Adam and Eve were blessed, Jesus and Mary were given superabundant blessings, far beyond our imagining. Such is the privilege of God, to bless some more than others according to his own purposes and design.

During Lent we pause to anticipate Christmas with this solemn feast. The celebration sweetens the bitter taste of Lent for it reminds us that our dry emptiness may be filled to overflowing. Our enormous hunger for justice and our insatiable thirst for righteousness can be satisfied by the mercy of God.

This blessing comes dear to Jesus and to Mary. He will carry his own cross to Calvary; she will follow, offering her only begotten son to God as a thank offering. It comes dear to each of us as we practice faith through our particular calvaries.

But today is a feast and we should rejoice​, for rejoicing in the LORD is our strength!

On this extraordinary day during Lent we ask God to lavish upon us the Spirit of Mary and Jesus, a willing spirit who only wants to delight the Lord.

When he set for the sea its limit,

so that the waters should not transgress his command;

When he fixed the foundations of earth,

then was I beside him as artisan;

I was his delight day by day,

playing before him all the while,

Playing over the whole of his earth,

having my delight with human beings.