Reflections on the readings for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25, 2019): IS 7:10-14;8:10; PS 40:7-8,8-9,10,11; HEB 10:4:10; LK 1:26-38
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
Today we celebrate an extraordinary event for the well being of the whole world – the annunciation of the incarnation of our Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit with the cooperation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The failure of Adam and Eve to love, respect, and obey Almighty God meant that all human beings who ever were or are or will be had rejected Him. But our Creator would not give up on us – even though it meant that atonement must be made to His justice. And the only sacrifice adequate to save us was the suffering and death of His Son. Whatever high opinion we human beings tend to have about ourselves, we could never “make up” for the original sin that afflicts every person. Only God Himself could become the sacrificial lamb to save the human race.
God chose Mary from all eternity to be the mother of His Son – the Divine would truly become human in Jesus through the willing assistance of this holy young virgin. She was herself born without sin according to the design of the Eternal Father. Besides Jesus Christ, Son of God and Mary, she is the most perfect of all persons. And when the time was right for our Lord to be conceived in her womb, “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27). So Mary gave her body, her mind, and her spirit back to God. She had always belonged to the Almighty and whatever He wanted of her, He had only to ask. Today, we might ask ourselves if we unhesitatingly return to God all we are, all He gives us. We know Mary’s answer. What is ours?