Word to the Wise
Monday, March 26, 2012 - March 25 - The Annunciation of the Lord
[Isa 7:10-14; 8:10; Heb 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38]"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..."
The feast of the Annunciation of the Lord might be called "annunciations" - in the plural! Every statement of the angel in this account seems to be an annunciation of some sort, beginning with "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!" Each statement also seems packed with a lot of profound theology. One can only wonder how much of that kind of statement could have been understood by an overwhelmed Jewish girl in a small village in Palestine! It is not just her life that is turned upside down, but the whole world's future! It is a humble story with a powerful message.
Scripture scholars write big books about this scene but we don't need to untangle all the threads to gain some wonderful benefits. Our imagination can help us. We can take each statement of the angel and spend a minute or two with it. Ultimately we must come to the end of the passage and ask ourselves if we could say the same thing that Mary said: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Our response may not change the history of the world, but it could very well change our lives. AMEN