Unborn

Scripture: The Annunciation of the Lord, A.D. 2015 B

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Welcome to the Annunciation, the most important day of the year.

Tonight is the night that the angel Gabriel appeared in glory to the Blessed Virgin Mary proclaiming the fulfilment of all that the prophets had promised of old: that God Himself would come to earth as Immanuel, “God-With-Us,” the Messiah and heir of King David, to inaugurate the New Covenant of God’s Kingdom and to bless all the peoples of the world through the family of Abraham. God had chosen to become human, to become one of us. And He had chosen Mary, of all people, to be His Mother.

This was to be the New Creation, with God Himself Incarnate as the new Adam and His Mother Mary as the new Eve. And they would inaugurate this new Kingdom, this New Covenant, not to do away with the old order but to save it, to redeem it, to sanctify it. “Behold,” says our Lord, “I make all things new.” But as we must so often stress, love cannot force. Love cannot coerce. Love requires free consent, the reciprocity of a relationship desired and chosen by the beloved. So in order for all of this to happen—Mary had to say yes.

This was the moment of truth, as it were. Would this young teenage girl accept this bizarre, overwhelming, terrifying responsibility brought to her by an alien messenger of unimaginable power from on high; or would she choose, as our first parents chose, to try and work out a more sensible salvation of her own? Creation stood upon the razor’s edge. Then: “Behold,” quoth she, “I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.”

That was the night, the very moment, when God became Man and the Atonement began. At that moment our Lord took upon Himself all of our weakness, our limitations, our brokenness, and He subsumed that within His own divine mercy and love. In this glorious exchange, Man gained all the glories of Almighty God in Heaven, and God took upon Himself all the wounds of our fallen human race. And it began so silently, so quietly, not with the rending of the heavens and the descent of cosmic armies, but within the body of a poor, brave young woman willing to carry the infinite Architect of the universe inside her own small womb.

It is indeed right and salutary that we should rejoice with wise men and angels at our Lord’s Nativity nine months hence, when Jesus Christ was born into the world. It is yet more fitting that we should cry for joy next week when our Lord bursts forth triumphant from the tomb. These are the public victories, the public glories of our God given for us. But it began with a single woman, carrying a single fragile child, entrusted to nurture and nourish, protect and provide, the hidden Savior and Redeemer of all humankind.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.