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.”

 B ecause this feast must fall nine months before Christmas, Catholics eagerly celebrate Mary's willingness to be the Mother of the Messiah despite the Season of Lent. Perhaps we should also allow Lent to bring its own colors to the festival. Mary's consent in March takes on a darker hue; it's deepened with a chiaroscuro effect. 

Rightly we celebrate her as the mediatrix of all grace. All grace is the Word of God and the same Word became flesh within her willing body. Nothing can be more splendid, beautiful, or joyous than the perfect gift she gave us. 

But the joy is made more wonderful by the intense sadness of the Lord's crucifixion. It is a sadness which he shares with his mother, and so we call her the Mother of Sorrows. The feast of the Annunciation recalls her lifelong process of becoming the mediatrix of all grace. She grew in grace as her story began in joy, was deepened by lumination, overwhelmed with sorrow, and glorified by the Resurrection of the Lord. These are the mysteries of our faith which Catholics recall whenever we recite the rosary.

By her ready hearing of Gabriel's message the young woman set out on the road to Jerusalem, Calvary, Easter, and Pentecost. Her fiat welcomed more joy than anyone can conceive, and more sorrow. Mary, did you know...? 

She did not know. No one knows the future. She could only embrace her life's work with the same willingness of every engaged couple and transitional deacon. We believe God is good; we believe God is trustworthy; and because he called us he will provide for us at every step of the way. The Lord who said, "Gather up the fragments so that nothing will go to waste," (John 6:12) will not waste his most favored daughter or the people he has chosen to be his own. 

And so we go with Mary to Calvary, especially during this season of Lent. The debacle of Good Friday makes the gift of the mediatrix more powerful, beautiful, and true for us. It becomes all the more applicable to the troubles, challenges, disappointments, losses, and failures of our life. She knows; she understands; she is there with us. She has always been there. She was there before we arrived. 

She became the Mother of the Messiah by her response to Gabriel; she could not know she was the Mother of God until the revelation of Easter. But she had already become our mother by the fiat she gave to her dying Son as she stood by his cross. 

Like the servants who shared their master's joy by taking on the governorship of many cities, Mary set out with us from Calvary to experience the sorrows of our life. They seem endless, and might be but for the promise which he has given us. 

And finally, with her we become mediators and mediatrices of God's grace in the compassion we show to others. We too are Vessels of Grace.  Saint Paul pondered this mystery of sorrow qua gift in his Second Letter to the Corinthians and shared his musing with us: 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement,

who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.

For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.

If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement. (1 Cor 1:3-7)