Word to the Wise
Monday, April 8, 2024 - 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 he 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." [Luke]
Mother Nature's calendar must bend to the liturgical calendar. The feast of the Annunciation is usually celebrated March 25th, but this year, March 25th fell in Holy Week, so the celebration was moved to the next available Monday after the Octave of Easter. And, as is well known by Moms everywhere, pregnancies are not always respecters of the OB-GYN predictions or the nine month rule.
The story as recounted by the evangelist Luke is carefully crafted to make a point. Mary's free cooperation with the work of the Holy Spirit is in fulfillment of the prophetic promises of God as given in Isaiah (first scripture for today) and in the Second Book of Samuel 7:11-17 (promises made to David through the prophet Nathan). In case, like Mary, we are wondering how this can all be, the angel Gabriel sums it up wonderfully: "[F]or nothing will be impossible for God."
So, for now, time is suspended and we celebrate the beginning of Jesus' life on earth as well as the end of that earthly life and the beginning of new life for all of us in his resurrection from the dead. We still have his Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit to celebrate. The liturgical calendar is still in charge! AMEN