8th April - Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings (Inc. Luke 1:26-38)for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord: ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. (2024)

8th April - Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings (Inc. Luke 1:26-38)for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord: ‘Let what you have said be done to me’.

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Gospel (Except USA)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.

Reflections (5)

(i) Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

The gospel reading we have just heard has often been depicted by artists down the centuries, whether on canvas or in glass. It is as if artists recognize the great significance of this scene. God had a purpose for the world but if that purpose was to come to pass it needed the consent of a young woman, named Mary, from a small village in the region of Galilee in Northern Israel. A great deal depended on the consent of this young woman to what God was asking of her. God wanted her to be the mother of the one through whom God would work for the wellbeing and final salvation of all humanity. The son whom Mary would bear would have such an intimate relationship with God that he could be called ‘Son of the Most High’. Because of the unique identity of Mary’s son, he would be conceived in a unique way, through the power of the Holy Spirit. This was a great deal for a young woman to comprehend and consent to. It is not surprising that the gospel reading says she was ‘deeply disturbed’ and was left with many questions, including the question, ‘How can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ God was drawing very close to Mary and it left her with many questions. When God draws near to us and we draw near to God, we too will find ourselves asking many questions. We come to realize that the answers we have given to our questions about God are not adequate. God is so much more mysterious that we imagined, so much more wonderful. The gospel goes on to declare that, in the end, Mary consented to what God was asking of her, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me’. She gave herself over to God’s purpose for her life, even though she didn’t fully understand it. She surrendered in faith and trust to God. Because of her act of trusting faith, God’s purpose for all humanity came to pass. Mary is a wonderful model of trusting faith in God, when all is not clear, when we have more questions than answers. She also shows us that our faith, our trusting relationship with the Lord, will always have life-giving consequences for others. Because of our faith, God’s purpose, not just for our own lives but for the lives of others, will come to pass.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord

The feast of the annunciation celebrates the moment when Mary said ‘yes’ to God’s call to be the mother of God’s Son. The gospel reading suggests that her ‘yes’ did not come without a struggle. When God first approached her through the angel Gabriel, Mary was ‘deeply disturbed’. When Gabriel went on to announce God’s purpose for Mary’s life, Mary was full of questions, ‘How can this be?’ It was only when Gabriel spoke for the third time that Mary surrendered to what God was asking her through Gabriel, ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. The gospel suggests Mary’s ‘yes’ to God’s call did not come effortlessly; it was not a foregone conclusion. Yet, because of her ‘yes’ we have all been greatly blessed, and, so, today, on the feast of her annunciation, we give thanks for her generous response to God’s call, which has been a source of grace for us all. The portrayal of Mary in this morning’s gospel reading suggests that our own response to the Lord’s call will never be easy; it will always involve something of a struggle. The reading also suggests that, as in the case of Mary, our saying ‘yes’ to the Lord will be a source of blessing for others. My relationship with the Lord may be personal, but it is never private. It always has consequences for others. When I am generous in my response to the Lord’s call, as Mary was, others are helped to come to the Lord. Mary has been described as the first and the model disciple of the Lord; we look to her to inspire us as we seek to take to Lord’s call to heart; we ask her to pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

And/Or

(iii) Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord

In the gospel reading this morning Mary is portrayed by Luke the evangelist as someone whose initial response to the call of God was to raise questions. After she was greeted by the angel Gabriel as ‘highly favoured’, Luke tells us that she was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean. Then when Gabriel announced that she would give birth to a child who would be called Son of the Most High, she asked, ‘How can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ Mary’s questioning did not cease when her child was born. When the shepherds came and told her all they had seen and heard, Luke tells us that Mary treasured their words and pondered them in her heart. When her twelve year old son went missing and was eventually found in the Temple, Mary questioned him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this?’ When Jesus answered her question by saying that he must be about his Father’s business, Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph did not understand what he said to them and that Mary, in particular, treasured all these things in her heart. The picture Luke gives us of Mary is of a woman who is full of questions, who ponders deeply on all that was happening in her life so as to understand it more fully. She models for us a reflective faith, a faith that seeks to understand. Theology has been described as faith seeking understanding. Mary was a theologian in that sense. Indeed we are all called to be theologians in the sense in which Mary was one. Like her, we too ask questions about God and Jesus and about what it means to respond to God’s call to us in Jesus; like her we are invited to ponder the great mysteries of our faith so as to grow in our understanding of them. As people of faith, we are to be searchers after truth, like Mary. In our searching we have the encouragement of the Lord’s promise to us, ‘Seek and you will find’.

And/Or

(iv) Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord

There is a lot of very concrete information at the beginning of this evening’s gospel reading: Galilee, Nazareth, Joseph of the house of David, Mary. There is reference to a very particular place, Nazareth in Galilee, and to a very particular couple in that place, Joseph who was betrothed to Mary. It was that particular couple in that particular place at a particular moment in time whom God chose in a special way for the sake of all of humanity. It was to that couple in that place at that time that God’s Son was entrusted for all of us. The gospel reading concludes with the confident declaration, ‘Nothing is impossible to God’. Yet, the one thing that God cannot do is to force our consent. God’s purpose for our lives was dependant on the consent of this particular woman in this particular place at a particular time, and, also, on the consent of her spouse, Joseph. Mary’s consent to God’s messenger allowed God’s purpose to come to pass for all of us. In a certain sense, at the moment of the annunciation, Mary represented us all; we all waited for her to say ‘yes’ to God on all our behalves. All of humanity’s deepest aspirations were focused on this particular woman, place and time. At the annunciation, God’s call met with the complete human response, ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. Luke is presenting Mary here as the exemplary disciple, the one who hears the word of God and keeps it. Because of her exemplary response to God, she became a source of blessing for all of humanity. If we can enter in some way into her response to God’s call, we too will be a source of blessing for others.

And/Or

(v) Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord

The gospel reading this morning portrays Mary as saying ‘yes’ to God’s call on her to become the mother of God’s Son. The gospel suggests that her response to God’s call did not come easily to her. Initially she was ‘deeply disturbed’ by the greeting of the angel. She was full of questions in response to the further words of the angel. ‘How can this come about?’ she asked. She eventually arrived at the point where she could say, ‘Let what you have saidbe done to me’. However, she only came to that point after a lot of struggle. Weamreminded of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. His prayer eventually brought him to the point where he could say, ‘Not my will but yours be done’. However, that was only after a great struggle, in the course of which he had prayed, ‘Remove this cup from me’. The experience of Mary and of Jesus remind us that responding to God’s call, remaining faithful to God’s will for our lives, will always involve a struggle of some kind. The nature of that struggle will be different for each of us. We engage in that struggle knowing that we are not alone in it. The power of the Most High will overshadow us; the Holy Spirit will come upon us, as it came upon Mary. In our struggle to be faithful, we are also encouraged by the words of Gabriel to Mary, ‘nothing is impossible to God’. In the words of Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica, ‘The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this’.

8th April - Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings (Inc. Luke 1:26-38)for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord: ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. (2024)