Today’s feast is celebrated on March 25th, but
since this year that day fell in Holy Week, which takes precedence; and since
the following week was the Easter Octave, which again takes precedence, we had
to wait till today, the first available day, to observe this feast.
We call it the Feast of the Annunciation because the
Archangel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary her awesome vocation to
become the Mother of God. But God needed
her free “yes,” and the moment she gave it, the Son of God, the second person of
the Trinity, became incarnate, took on flesh, was conceived by the power of the
Holy Ghost in her virginal womb.
Just as the First Adam was formed from this earth, which
was, in a sense, “virgin” soil since there was no man yet to till it, farm it
nor pollute it in any way, the Second Adam also had to take His human flesh
from a virginal womb, undefiled in any way.
We read in the Letter to the Hebrews (chapter 10, verse 5) :
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith:
Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest not: but a body thou hast fitted to me.” God the Father was not perfectly pleased with
the blood of bulls and goats (sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest not), but He
was perfectly pleased with the sacrifice of His sinless Son (but a body thou
hast fitted to me). But the Son would
not have had a body to sacrifice had not the Virgin Mary conceived Him in her
womb. Thus, hers was also the body
prepared for the Lord. Just as God
created this world for the sake of Adam, and called it good, the Lord prepared
a mother for the Second Adam, and she was immaculately good!
The problem all started when the
first virgin, the First Eve, who as yet did not have relations with Adam,
entered into conversation with the wrong person – the serpent. Today, that problem’s solution began when the
second virgin, the New Eve, Mary, entered into conversation with God’s Angel.
And we see that the solution is
taking place already; redemption has already started, for the unfortunate First
Eve heard these words from God, “I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy
conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children…” but the New Eve, Blessed Mary, hears these
words from God’s Angel, “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with
God. You will conceive and give birth to
a son, and you are to call Him Jesus.”
How different the two sentences!
One was punishment, the other liberation!
What was it like to be a person completely free of all sin,
original and personal, from the moment of one’s conception? How would their personality and character
be? We don’t meet people like that; we are
all born in Original Sin and suffer its effects. But how was Mary, in her customs and habits,
even before she received this joyful news of her divine election?
We know from the Church Fathers how she was; how Our Lady
behaved and acted from birth. We get a
picture from them how a person, conceived without sin, acts in this world. These Church Fathers aren’t making things up,
either. They are writing in the early
centuries of the Church. The tradition
about Our Lady had been passed down from mouth to ear, from one generation to
the next.
In terms of her relationship with God, we can simply say
that Mary was a person of deep and strong prayer. Her every waking moment was a contemplation
of the divine presence. Even in her
sleep, says one of the Fathers, she dreamt of divine things. She constantly read the Scriptures, which
would have been the Old Testament, and she meditated on them. We can see a glimpse of this when the Gospels
tell us that Mary saw and heard the things Jesus said and did, and “kept them
in her heart.” She preferred to stay in
the home, where she prayed and worked in the presence of God. She was never less alone than when she was
physically alone, because in those contemplative hours, she was accompanied by
hosts of angels in the mystical presence of the Almighty.
In terms of her virtuous life, one can simply say that the
chaos of uncontrolled passions, a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve, of which
we are all too familiar, had no place in her life. Free of original and personal sin, her
passions were always in control under the rule of reason. She ate and slept only as necessary. She spoke only when useful, and then with all
grace and pleasure. She was indeed “full
of grace,” and this grace spilled over into her speech and movements. She never spoke too loud; her steps were
measured and graceful. She was in
complete composure, even when her heart was torn with grief at the sight of her
Son’s passion, there was never anything unbecoming or undignified in her
sorrow; no hysterics. She was a model of
modesty and simplicity. One the Fathers
mentions that, in his day, perhaps now long gone, there was preserved one of
Our Lady’s veils, and it was simple, without adornment.
Concerning her relations with her fellow man, we can simply
say she had perfect charity towards all.
She never spoke about other people’s defects, but rather covered their
shame. She was respectful and courteous to
all, and treated even the humblest person in society with dignity. What little she had left over in the home,
she gladly shared with the poor.
As one of the Fathers put it, we can simply say that Our
Lady was a beautiful statue carved by God.
But the difference between her and any of these beautiful statues here
in the chapel is that these statues of wood could not say yes or no to
God. But Mary had her free will, and she
freely said yes to God. She allowed God
to chip away and carve a masterpiece, unsurpassed in beauty. And why should Mary be so beautiful? Because God deserves only the best. So when He went about preparing a mother for
the Son, He created a work of art.
Now God deserves only the best from us. We cannot give it on our own. But Mary can help us. Let us try to give our best every moment. Not an hour ago; not even ten minutes
ago. Now. What are we doing now, and are we doing it as
best we can. Let us ask Mary to help us
to do that. She will win for us graces
from her Son that will make up for what is lacking in our efforts, and bring
those efforts of ours to greater fruition, all for the glory of God, the good
of our neighbor and the salvation of our souls!
( We made our Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary at the end of Mass)
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