25^th March – Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

General. This feast precedes by nine months the manifestation of Our Lord to mankind. It is through the Angel’s announcement to Mary, and her acceptance of God’s Will, that Jesus came to earth to save us. In various Marian feasts, a connection is made to her motherhood to her son Jesus. In the Byzantine Liturgy, Mary is invariably known to be the Theotokos – Qeotokos, or Child-Bearer. It is a fitting theme for anyone attending the Eucharist and bearing Jesus in him after Communion. The Christian can now claim sonship and truly call God, Father and Mary, Mother of humanity. See Profile.

Isaiah. God’s people had long been expecting knowing and seeing God in a different way other than merely through His doings. They had long attributed to Him strong powerful adjectives and now their belief was waning and they wanted to see an image of Him, perhaps incarnate in a way. God promised to do this through an inexplicable event in human eyes, as after all His actions always were. In demeaning circumstances, a spinster was to become mother and through her God-with-us was to assume flesh and blood.

Psalm. Early in the Old Testament sacrifice had an important role in itself. Yet Yahweh, or the Living God whose name is I-am-who-I-am (this name compares well with God-with-us), also wanted us to be living sacrifices. Jesus, His Son, opened the way for us, asking the Father to send him to do His Will. So do we, in fulfilling the living vocation and mission God has given us.

Hebrews. The unknown writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was a converted Jew who kept the Torah as the basis of his knowledge. He shows, however, that the Law has now only found its fulfilment in the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus and places Christ’s salvific mission in a central position within it. Humanity was made whole again and sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus for our redemption.

St Luke. The recount of the Angel’s annunciation to Mary instils hope in us who are constantly loved by God. He casts His eyes on the humble and lowly, looking for graceful persons above all. Mary’s obedience to God’s Will, notwithstanding the social problems she knew she would encounter, shows that she was a justified Jewess, walking in God’s ways and fulfilling the Law in her flesh. She was now to bear the True Law in her body, to whom she was to give the first teaching in humble fealty and praise to the Father. No wonder God works in mysterious ways, choosing a socially precarious family, however staunch in faith where to implant His Son. Hence mother’s importance in the family and the evil of present-day attacks against its unity and value.

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