Today on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of our Lord, let us reflect a little more deeply on what the annunciation is about and how it relates to us.
The annunciation to me is not simply an announcement of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ to Mary our Mother which was only the start or rather the beginning. It is the response of our Blessed Mother when she said Yes! Yes Lord I am totally yours, do with me as You will. If we reflect a little more deeply we can see the same response given by Jesus, first to be born as man then to carry His cross and die on it in total obedience to God our Heavenly Father; for love of us. Yes Father I am totally yours, do with me as You will.
What has our answer been to His call for us? Did we pretend we were not called? Did we make excuses? “Oh I rather be in the background of things rather than the forefront.” “Charity begins at home and so I have no time for Church work or community, I have my domestic Church to care for” “Why is it always a select few to do the heavy lifting? If they are not going to get everyone involved then count me out!” “We give with our hearts and of our time that is all that matters, not the weight, quantity or quality.” Really? By all these and more are we not saying, that to carry our cross to follow after our Lord is too heavy for us to bear, too inconvenient?
Change my heart Oh Lord, make me more like You. Amen
First reading
Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10 ·
The maiden is with child
The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’
Then Isaiah said:
‘Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of my God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel,
a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’
Second reading
Hebrews 10:4-10 ·
God’s will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what Christ said, on coming into the world:
You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,
prepared a body for me.
You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;
then I said,
just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book,
‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’
Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
Gospel
Luke 1:26-38
‘I am the handmaid of the Lord’
The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.
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