Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 25, 2023 - March 25: The Annunciation of the Lord (tranferred if 3/25 is a Sunday, or if it falls during Holy Week or Easter Week - see the table below)
[Isa 7:10-14; 8:10; Heb 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38]"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end......."Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." [Luke]
Exactly nine months before the celebration of Jesus' birth, we celebrate his conception in the womb of Mary by the action of the Holy Spirit. Catholic liturgical tradition can be quite precise! But that precision is "book-ended" by events that have world-shaking significance! God becomes human inside a human and is born a human in the midst of humanity. Given the absolute transcendence of God, how could this be? One simple answer is that God can do whatever God wants, whether we like it or believe it or not! But why do this? A simple answer to the simple question is LOVE. God did this as a matter of love for you and me. The Gospels According to Luke and Matthew tell us the story (Luke from Mary's perspective, Matthew from Joseph's) of the conception/annunciation. but those stories contain enormous theological consequences not just for the people immediately involved, but for all of us. We retell this every time we say the NIcene or Apostles' creeds!
The great Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart, once wrote: We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time when the Son of God is begotten in us." Meister Eckhart was echoing the Church fathers, Origen and St. Augustine. But the challenge is there as we celebrate the annunciation of the Lord. AMEN
–