Fausto Gomez OP
The Church celebrates every March 25 the Annunciation of the Lord, the Annunciation to Mary, the Mother of Jesus the Son of God, and our mother. One of the loveliest texts of the Bible is on the Annunciation (cf. Lk 1:26-38): the Virgin Mary is with child by the power of the Holy Spirit.
What is the meaning of the Annunciation? We may speak of a double meaning: the Annunciation proclaims for us the Incarnation of Christ, and the Motherhood of Our Lady.
MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
The Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ means: “And the Word was made flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14). The Incarnation of Christ signifies God’s infinite love for us: God so loved the world that He sent his only-begotten Son to save it. God’s Only-Begotten Son was born for us and died for us – for the salvation of all.
The Motherhood of Mary means that she is the Mother of God, of the Second person of the Blessed Trinity: “You will conceive and bear a son by the power of the Holy Spirit.” St. Paul underlines: “When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman…” (Gal 4:4-5). God chose Mary to be the Mother of his Son. How can this be? Mary is deeply surprised: she is disturbed; she does not understand; she listens; she believes, and gladly obeys: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” she says. “Let it be.” Lovely words from Saint Augustine: “The angel announces, Mary listens, believes and conceives.” Mary said to the angel: “Let it be done according to your word,” and the Holy Spirit descended upon her. Thus, “before conceiving Jesus in her womb, she conceived him in her soul” (PCP II, Manila).
The motherhood of Mary is the source of all her privileges and graces: she was conceived without original sin (she is the Immaculate Conception); she was taken up to heaven in body and soul (the Assumption of Mary); she is Virgin and Mother. As Vatican II tells us: “Mary is the Mother of God and the Redeemer, and, therefore, she surpasses all other creatures in heaven and on earth.” In the Church, “she is the highest after Christ and yet very close to us” (LG, 54).
MARY, OUR MOTHER
Because Mary is the Mother of Jesus, Our Lady is also our Mother: How come? Mary is the Mother of the Redeemer and of the redeemed. She is the Mother of the Church, and therefore, of all the members of the Church. Christ is our brother: “I” – Jesus said – “go up to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God.” Marvelous words: “The Son of God is born in eternity without mother; in time, without father and becomes our brother” (Tauler). From the cross, Christ, the Crucified Lord gave to us – in John – the great gift of the motherhood of Mary. This represents the second annunciation to Mary at the foot of the cross (J. L. Martin Descalzo). The Father asked Mary through his Son, crucified on the cross, to be our Mother, too. Jesus pronounced the third word from the cross: “Woman, behold your son,” he said to Mary. “Behold your mother,” he said to John. Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, looked at her Son and responded silently: “Fiat, let it be.” Hence, Mary is the Mother of all the redeemed – of all.
What kind of motherhood is Mary’s motherhood? Saint John Vianney, a lovely soul, said that the Blessed Virgin is better than the best mothers. Mary, then, is really out of this world, because our own mother, the mother who bore us in her womb, taught us to walk and to smile and to love and to pray is the best person in the world.
Mary is our spiritual Mother. She is our Mother in the Spirit: she helps us grow in the life of the Spirit, in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s maternity is a maternity of grace: she is the “full of grace.” Her mission is the mission of Christ: He is the one and only Mediator. Mary, the closest to Jesus, is traditionally called Mediatrix – always subordinated to Christ: “In her we have a great and faithful Mediatrix before Christ” (Luis de Granada).
OUR RESPONSE: DEVOTION TO MARY
Mary is our Mother. We have to be her good children, that is, we ought to love her with filial love, which entails to imitate her life and virtues. Saint Bernard said: “The reason for our love of Mary is the Lord Jesus; the measure of our love for her is to love her without measure.”
Mary Our Lady, the disciple of disciples is our model in following her Son, Jesus our only Way of life. She reminds us of the words she said to the servants at the Wedding at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.”
Mary is, moreover, our best intercessor before Christ, her Son. We all remember what she did at the wedding at Cana: at her request, Jesus turned water into wine! As at Cana, she is now in heaven before Christ presenting our needs to him: They have no wine; They need peace in their family; They ask for your grace to bear illness with patience, to carry the cross perseveringly, to forgive the offending neighbor, to pray for our enemies….
Let me recount a lovely story in the life of Saint Hyacinth of Poland (+ 1257). The Tartars invade Poland. They are very near Cracow, where Saint Hyacinth is prior of the Dominican Convent. The humble Polish saint rushes to the Church to get the Blessed Sacrament. As he is leaving the Church, a big statue of Mary tells him: “Take me, too.” The image is too heavy and tall. Our Lady tells brother Hyacinth: “Do not worry, I will lighten your load.”
Mary, our dear Mother, make our cross light, and our love strong.
(Image: Icon of the Annunciation from the Church of St. Climent in Ohrid, 14th century. Wikimedia Commons)
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