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The Southern Cross, Page 4
Thursday, March 25, 1999
The Annunciation of the Lord commemorates
the beginning of our redemption
The grace that enabled Mary
to respond “yes” to God, the
grace given in her Immacu
late Conception, is the same
grace made available to
everyone through faith and
baptism.
L uke 1:26-38 (“The angel of the Lord
announced unto Mary...”) is read on the
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
(March 25, nine months before Christmas), a
feast celebrated in the Catholic and Orthodox tra
ditions. Pope Paul VI wrote of this feast as the
“commemoration of the salvific ‘//af’[“be it done
to me according to your word”] of the Incarnate
Word, who, entering the world, said: ‘God, here I
am! I am coming to obey your will.’” Here the
pope is quoting Hebrews 10:7, which echoes
Psalm 39:8-9, to make the point that it was the
eternally begotten Son of God who first said
“yes” to his Father’s plan of salvation.
The Annunciation of the Lord thus commemo
rates “the beginning of the redemption and of the
indissoluble and wedded union of the divine
nature with human nature in the one person of the
Word,” who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, the
Annunciation is a solemnity (“high feast”) of our
Lord and not of our Lady.
With regard to Mary, Pope Paul VI points out
that her fiat echoes that of God’s eternal Son, who
is the one Mediator between God and man. As
Pope John Paul II has affirmed, “The maternal
role of Mary towards people in no way obscures
or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but
rather shows its power”; Mary’s mediation is,
after all, mediation in Christ.
The earliest event in the life of Mary of
Nazareth attested in the Scriptures is the annunci
ation to her by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-38).
Luke’s emphases in his annunciation account
keep us from concentrating on Mary’s fiat exclu-
Blessed Mother and Divine Son
sively, that is, without emphasizing the role of the
Holy Spirit, who not only overshadowed her, but
graced her in the first place to enable her to say
“yes” to God’s call.
The event of the Annunciation involves both
God’s call to Mary and her response. The primary
message of this passage is centered on the con
ception of Jesus as Messiah and God’s Son and
what he will accomplish by way of salvation for
those who depend on God.
Nevertheless, exhibiting true Christian instinct
that the Gospel is not good news unless there is
someone to hear it, the late Father Raymond E.
Brown pointed out that Luke presents Mary as the
first to hear and accept the Gospel and then to
proclaim it. Thus he holds her up as the first and
model disciple. The vocation of the disciple is not
the primary message of this scene, but a neces
sary corollary to that message.
DCCW Notes
As John Paul II states, “Mary is definitively
introduced into the mystery of Christ through”
this event. The classic pattern, found in the
prophets, of God’s call provoking a graced human
response is found here. God takes the initiative;
he has in fact graced Mary so that she can
respond positively, in faith, to his call.
Mary’s graced act of faith is the source of her
blessedness. Saint Augustine asserted that “Mary
is more blessed for accepting faith in Christ than
for conceiving his flesh. Her nearness as a mother
could not have profited Mary, had she not given
birth to Christ in her heart in a more blessed man
ner than in the flesh.”
The angel’s annunciation is an anticipation of
the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Mary’s response is a faith-filled “yes.” By the
logic of Romans 1:16-17 (“For I am not ashamed
of the Gospel: it is the power of God for salvation
of every one who has faith, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of
God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is
written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall
live’.”) Mary, through faith, is righteous and shall
live. She is justified, made upright, by grace
through faith. And because her graced act of faith
resulted in the Incarnation, it is redemptive not
only for her but for all humanity. As redemptive,
it is also “eschatological”because the end and
goal of her existence and ours have been affected
by it.
As Christ’s first disciple, Mary’s response in
faith to God’s choice or election, expressed at the
Annunciation, is a model for the response of all
believers, for it mirrors Christ’s own response to
his Father’s will. The grace that enabled her to
make this response, the grace given in her
Immaculate Conception, is the same grace made
available to everyone through faith and baptism.
God called Mary to bear Christ into the world,
as Theotokos (“bearer” or “mother” of God). So
God calls believers to bear Christ into their
worlds, as theotokoi, “God-bearers”, indeed as
mothers as well as brothers and sisters of Christ.
—DKC
Prepare for the Lord's coming
By Rose Cisick
C hrist has died! Christ is risen! Christ will
come again! In Rev. 22:12-13, it is written,
“Listen!” says Jesus, “I am coming soon. I will
bring my rewards with me, to give to each one
according to what he has done. I am the first and
the last, the beginning and the end.”
God our creator, blesses us with life. “God made
us to know him, to love him, and to serve him in
this world and to be happy with him forever in the
next.”
Jesus died on the cross to save us all from sin.
When we accept God in our hearts, he makes us
part of his body, which is the church. We will be
united with God and with Christians everywhere.
There’s suffering and tragedy in the world. We
need to do our part in spreading the kingdom of
God. Through the Holy Sprit our eyes are open,
we can be witnesses to our families and all our
brothers and sisters in the Lord. Once we have
opened our hearts to receive God, the challenge
then is to live so that the words and practices of
Jesus as reflected in his ministry are reflected in
our own lives. In so doing, we prepare for the
Lord’s coming.
At every moment of our lives the kingdom of
God is close at hand. We need to set aside our
worldly derres and learn to value what really mat
ters. We must confess our sins and reform our
lives continually. God is beside us to strengthen,
encourage, accepting us where we are at and give
us grace and mercy.
Each time we receive the Eucharist, let us invite
Jesus to come into our hearts that others would see
him in our lives, for in doing so, we prepare the
way of the Lord. If we live as children of God,
producing every kind of goodness, justice and
truth, we can be the light for the world and be pre
pared for the coming of Christ.
We need and are urged to stay awake, to stand
ready, to conduct ourselves as if Jesus were to
knock on our door at any moment. We are not to
get side tracked by distractions but to be alert. We
need to prepare our lives, our hearts and yes, even
our homes, for the coming of the Christ child.
Rose Cisick is a member of Saint Mary on the Hill
Parish, Augusta.