The Annunciation (Advent)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman” (Gal. 4:4).

“And she was to say, ‘Be it done unto me according to your Word’” (Luke 1:38).

Our Lady was chosen from all eternity. We are now very close to Christmas. The prophecy of Isaiah is about to be fulfilled: “The maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God with us’” (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23).

The Hebrew people were familiar with the prophecies which singled out the descendants of Jacob, through David, as bearers of the Messianic promises. But they could not imagine that the Messiah would be God Himself made man.

St. Paul says to the Galatians, “But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman.” And this woman, chosen and predestined from all eternity to be the Mother of the Savior, had consecrated her virginity to God, renouncing the honor of counting the Messiah among her direct descendants.

And she is prefigured in the book of Proverbs: “Ages ago,” we're told, “I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth” (Prov. 8:23).

We can obtain great benefits at this particular time by keeping close to Our Lady and showing our love for her. She herself tells us, “Like a vine I caused loveliness to bud, and my blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit. I am the mother of all love, all reverence, all true knowledge, and the holy gift of hope.”

The Book of Sirach continues, “Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill with my produce. For the remembrance of me is sweeter than honey and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb” (Sir. 24:17-20, 24).

Our Lady appears as the virgin Mother of the Messiah, she who will give birth to Jesus and will give all her love to Jesus, with an undivided heart, as the prototype of that self-surrender that Our Lord will ask from many souls.

In the fullness of time, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth where Our Lady dwelt. In popular devotion Mary is represented as recollected in prayer while she hears, most fervently, of God's plan for her and learns her vocation. The angel said to her, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.”

She gives her full consent to the divine will: “Be it done unto me according to your Word” (Luke 1:26-28, 38).

From this moment on, she accepts her vocation and begins to put it into practice. Her vocation is to be the Mother of God and the Mother of men.

Unknown to anyone, the hub of human history and the center of all mankind is now the little village of Nazareth. Here lives the woman most loved by God, she who is to be the most loved human being in the whole world, the most frequently invoked and called upon of all time.

In the intimacy of our heartfelt prayer, we can say to Our Lady on her journey to Bethlehem: “Mother! Blessed are you among women” (cf. Luke 1:42).

In the exercise of her Motherhood, she was adorned with all the graces and privileges which made her a worthy abode for the Most High. God chose His Mother and put in her all His love and power.

He did not permit there to be in her the least taint of sin, neither original nor personal. She was conceived Immaculate, without any stain at all.

And He granted her so much grace that under God, it would be impossible to conceive of anyone greater than her: such was to be her state that, as Pius IX says in a document called Ineffabilis Deus, “no one apart from God could even begin to comprehend it.” Her dignity is almost infinite.

All these privileges and graces were given to Our Lady so that she could carry out her vocation. As with each individual, her vocation was the central moment of her life.

As we accompany the Holy Family along their journey to Bethlehem, we see Our Lady living out her vocation to the full, facing the future with faith, with hope, with trust, with abandonment.

She was born to be the Mother of God, chosen by the Blessed Trinity from all eternity. She's carrying the Light of the world.

A four-year-old little girl at her Christmas play in her school was given a few lines to say, but she forgot her lines. Her mother was sitting in the front row and tried to prompt her. The mother whispered, ‘I am the Light of the world.’ The little girl said, ‘My mummy is the light of the world!’

Mary was carrying the true Light that has come into the world. She is Our Mother too, a fact that in this Advent season we want to keep constantly in mind.

There's an ancient prayer, which we may have made our own. It says, “Remember, O most holy Virgin Mother of God, that when you stand in the presence of God, to say good things about me.”

Like Our Lady, for each one of us, our vocation is the central theme of our lives. It's the axis around which everything else turns: the will of God for us, what He wants us to do day by day, and in what way. Everything, or almost everything else in our life depends on our knowing and carrying out what God asks of us.

To follow and to love one's own vocation is the most important and joyously fulfilling thing in life. And all of this we see manifested in that journey of Our Lady to Bethlehem.

In spite of its being the key that opens the door to happiness, there are many who do not want to know what their vocation is. They seem to prefer to do what pleases them, to do their own will instead of God's will, to remain in a state of culpable ignorance instead of seeking in all sincerity the road that will lead them to happiness and enable them to reach heaven in safety, as well as to bring this same joy to many others.

Just as Our Lord called Our Lady by her name, He calls each one of us by our name, today as much as ever. He doesn't need us, but He wants to need us. And He calls each one of us to a holy vocation, a vocation to follow Him in a new life whose secret He alone possesses: “if any person would come after me, let them...take up their cross and follow me” (cf. Matt. 16:24).

Through our Baptism we've all received a vocation to seek God in the fullness of love. We see what that fullness of love means in the life of the Holy Family as they make this journey.

“For the ordinary life of man among his fellow beings is not something dull and uninteresting. It is there in that ordinary life that God wants the vast majority of his children to achieve holiness. It is important to keep reminding ourselves that Our Lord did not address himself to a privileged set of people; he came to reveal to us the universal love of God” (Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 110).

“Tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people” (Luke 2:10).

“God loves all men. He wants all men to love him—everyone, whatever their personal situation, their social position, their work. Ordinary life is something of great value. All the ways of the earth can be an opportunity to meet Christ, who calls us to identify ourselves with him and carry out this divine mission—right where God has placed us” (ibid.).

Every step of this journey to Bethlehem has a message for us: the changing of plans, the uncertainties, the leaving things behind, the trusting the future to God, going forward to live out our vocation to please God by fulfilling His Will.

“God calls us through what happens in the ordinary course of our day: through the sorrows and joys of the people we live with, through the human interests of all our colleagues and the things that go to make up our family life. He also calls us through the great problems, conflicts, and challenges of each period of history, the portentous events that attract the interest and idealism of a large part of mankind” (ibid.).

The call of Our Lord urges us to a greater self-giving, because, among other reasons, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matt. 9:37). And there are harvests which perish daily because there's no one to gather them in.

Our Lady says, “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). She gives God a blank check, right there. Whatever you want. It’s a total self-giving.

We contemplate Our Lady, radiant with joy. As we raise up our minds and hearts in prayer, we can ask ourselves: Am I seeking God in my work or in my study, in my family, or out in the street, in the sport I play, in this Advent season, in everything? Am I daring in doing apostolate? Does Our Lord want more of me?

We can particularly these days try to imitate Our Lady in her spirit of service to others. In the face of God's will, Our Lady has but one reaction: to love it. If this is your will, Lord, then it's my will also (cf. J. Escrivá, The Way, Point 762).

When she proclaims herself “the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38), she accepts His plans without any reservations whatsoever.

“The handmaid of the Lord.” In the world of antiquity, in which slavery, the lot of the servant, was a common condition, this expression of Our Lady can be seen in all its force and depth. The slave did not really have a will of their own. The handmaid did not have a will of her own. That person could not have any desire independent of their master's.

Our Lady agrees with the greatest joy and with all her heart to have no other wish than that of her Master and Lord. She gives herself to Him unreservedly, without any conditions.

In our personal prayer we can renew our own self-giving. Lord, am I placing conditions on my self-surrender? Maybe I gave you that blank check once, but maybe you want another one from me again and again.

I learn how to begin again each Christmas when I look at the self-giving of Our Lady. Like her, we can tell Our Lord we do not want to have any other will, or any other plans, other than those that God has for us.

And we want this in the things that are obviously of great importance to us, that is, in our vocation to holiness, and also in everything that immediately relates to it in the ordinary things of every day, the mundane details of our work, our family life, and our social relations. Our acquisition of virtue. Our following a Christian lifestyle. Our taking care of our spiritual life and practices.

One of the mysteries of Advent that we meditate on, including this week, is the Second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, namely, the Visitation.

We can focus in our consideration of it on one aspect of service to others which is part of our vocation: the order of charity. The visit of Our Mother to her cousin Elizabeth presents one outstanding manifestation of the order of charity.

We must love everybody because all of them are, or can be, children of God. But in the first place, we must love those who are closest to us, those with whom we have special ties, such as members of our family, immediate and further removed.

That charity must be shown by deeds, not only by affection or fondness. We could think now of our dealings with our family, of the numberless opportunities that come about our way of exercising, quite normally and naturally, our love and spirit of service, to which these days and hours give particular opportunity—days of less pressured interchange.

We could try to live these days in preparation for Christmas with the same spirit of service as Our Lady had during her time of expectant waiting. One aspect of that journey, where she goes to visit Elizabeth and comes to occupy center stage, is that when Mary herself at this time was with child.

Supported by the humble self-giving of Our Lady, we could ask her, like good children, to help us, so that when Our Lord comes our hearts may, with complete generosity, be ready to receive His commands, His counsels, His suggestions.

The Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God are a most wonderful and extraordinary events. They comprise the mystery of the enormous love that God has for mankind; it is the mystery which has had the greatest bearing on the whole of mankind's history. God becomes man once and for all!

In that little, tiny village of Nazareth that was scarcely known to the outside world of its day, this great event takes place. Mary says yes.

“At one and the same time, Our Lord preserved the totality of the essence that was proper to Him,” says St. Leo the Great, “and He assumed the totality of our human essence...in order to restore that totality” (Leo the Great, Letter 28 to Flavian).

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27).

We can address the words of the angel to Our Lady with special affection these days: “Hail Mary, full of grace.”

Mary was very familiar with the Scriptures. She understands the message of the angel, but not fully.

“You have found favor with God, and you will conceive in your womb.” But what does all of this mean? “Behold, the shadow of the Most High will overshadow you and the Holy Spirit will come down upon you” (Luke 1:30-31, 35).

We're told we should try to enter into the scene and to contemplate Our Lady as with loving piety she embraces God's holy will.

In the Furrow, we’re told, “The scene of the Annunciation is a very lovely one. How often have we meditated on this! Mary is recollected in prayer. She is using all her senses and her faculties to speak to God. It is in prayer that she comes to know the divine Will. And with prayer she makes it the life of her life. Do not forget the example of the Virgin Mary” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 481).

The Responsorial Psalm of Psalm [40:8] says, “I delight to do your will, O my God.”

The Blessed Trinity had traced out a plan for Our Lady, a destiny that was quite unique and exceptional: she was to be the Mother of God-made-man. But God asked Mary for her free acceptance.

She points out the incompatibility between her decision to live perpetual virginity and the conceiving of a son. “How can this be since I know not man?” (Luke 1:34).

It is then that the angel announces to her in clear and sublime terms that she is to become a mother without losing her virginity (cf. Marie Dominique Philippe, The Mysteries of Mary).

Mary listens to these words and ponders them in her heart. There's no resistance in her intellect or in her heart; everything in her is open to the divine Will.

This abandonment of hers to God is what makes Mary's soul good soil, capable of receiving the divine seed. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”

She joyfully agrees to having no will or desire other than that of her Lord and Master. She surrenders herself joyfully and freely.

Lumen gentium of the Second Vatican Council says, “Thus the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the Word of God, became the Mother of Jesus. Committing herself wholeheartedly and impeded by no sin to God's saving Will, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the Person and work of her Son, under him and with him, serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of almighty God.

“Rightly, therefore, the Fathers of the Church see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience.”

Our Lady's vocation is the perfect example for any vocation. We understand our own life and the events that encompass it in the light of our own calling. It's in our endeavor to fulfill this divine plan that our way to heaven and our own human and supernatural fulfillment lie.

Vocation is not the choice we make for ourselves so much as that which God makes of us through the thousand and one events in which we're involved. Our vocation sheds a light on every decision and every breath we take, every step forward we make.

We need to know how to interpret those very circumstances with faith, and with a heart that is at once pure. “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16).

One writer says, “Every vocation is in itself a grace that encloses within it many other graces; it is a grace, a gift, that is given to us, that is bestowed on us without our having deserved it, without being evoked by any merit of ours, and with no right to it on our part.

“It is not necessary that the vocation, the call to fulfill the plan of God, the assigned mission, be great or splendid. It is enough that God has wanted to employ us in his service, that he wants us to aid him, that he trusts in our cooperation.

“The fact that he wants our cooperation is in itself so extraordinary and magnificent that an entire life spent in thanksgiving is not enough to repay him for such an honor” (Federico Suarez, Mary of Nazareth).

We would please God in our prayer today if we thank Him for the many times that He has given us the light by which to see the path along which He is calling us.

We should thank Him through His most holy Mother, who corresponded so faithfully to what God asked of her.

St. Josemaría says, “Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to make us contemplatives, to teach us to recognize the constant calls from God when he knocks at the door of our heart. Let us ask her now: Mother, you brought into the world Jesus, who reveals to us the love of Our Father God. Help us to recognize him in the midst of the cares of each day. Stir up our minds and our wills so that we may listen to the voice of God, to the calls of grace (J. Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 174).

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

OLV