The Annunciation Then and Now in Your Life

Today’s Gospel, Luke 1: 26-30, proclaims the Annunciation, giving us the dialogical exchange between the angel Gabriel and Mary.  The story  goes something like this:“Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you!”

Startled, first at the appearance of an angel and then his message. What kind of a statement is this, Mary must have wondered. She’s deeply troubled and Gabriel notices her fear.

“Don’t be afraid, Mary.”

Hear the tenderness and the respect in that phrase.

“You have found favor with God.”

God says the same to you and me. “Don’t be afraid, _(your name)_________________. You, too, have found favor with God. That is why you were conceived into the womb of a faith-filled mother or a mother struggling with her faith or lack of it. God was there. God overshadowed your parents, whether they knew it or not. He willed your coming into this world to carry out a special mission determined by God. He needed you as much as the world needed Jesus but in different ways.

With Mary, the angel goes on to say: “Behold, (the angel is excited to announce Good News), you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and shall be called Son of…God …God will give him the throne of David, his father, and…his Kingdom will…[have] no end.”

Recall that at your birth, also, good news was announced to your family, your parish community, your relatives, your neighbors!  Are you still good news?

Back to Mary:  Mary  asks Gabriel how this will ever happen that she will conceive. She’s never had a sexual encounter with a man.  The angel comes back with the answer that this child will not be conceived by a man but by God. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…[T]he child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God…Nothing is impossible with God.

Mary, a young woman filled with unshakeable faith, responds: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

And the angel of the Lord says to you and to me:    your name,   do you believe?

“Yes, Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief!”