Miguel Augusto
The Universal Church celebrates today, the 25th of March, as the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. The Diocese of Macau together with PEAM (Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Movement) has organised for this day, in the Se Cathedral, 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will have a night period, which will take place from 8pm until 7am on Saturday. For this nocturnal period, it is necessary to register with the number given by the diocese: 28373643. Masses will take place at the usual times.
Regarding the liturgical feast, the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Dehonians) recall that the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is the celebration of the great Christian mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. The date ‘25 March’ is significant in relation to the birth of Jesus, which is celebrated exactly nine months later. The Dehonians emphasize that catechesis has always maintained the correlation between the Annunciation and the Incarnation. They record in their daily liturgy that these mysteries began to be celebrated liturgically, probably after the building of the Constantinian basilica over Mary’s house in Nazareth in the fourth century. It is also mentioned that “The celebration in the East and West dates back to the seventh century. For centuries, this solemnity was mainly Marian in character; but Paul VI gave it back its title of ‘Annunciation of the Lord’, restoring its predominantly Christological character”.
St Luke, “Mary’s Evangelist”
In the first chapter of the Gospel of St Luke (Luke means “light-bearer”), we have the narrative of the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel to Mary Most Holy. Professor Curtis Mitch of the Saint Paul Centre for Biblical Theology, in reflecting on this passage of Sacred Scripture, tells us that God, at this moment, reveals to Mary her vocation. The unique role that she will carry out in the history of salvation: to be the mother of the long-prophesied and long-awaited Messiah. Mitch emphasises that the Blessed Virgin Mary is no ordinary mother, but a unique one – she will be the virgin mother of the Messiah. Since the conception of the child is the result of a miracle, a supernatural action.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states that in Hebrew Jesus means “God saves”. “At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel gave him the name ‘Jesus’ as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his mission. Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man, ‘will save his people from their sins.’ in Jesus, God recapitulates all of his history of salvation on behalf of men. […]
With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: ‘For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man’” (CCC, 430; 456).
The Catechism takes note of the greatness of Our Lady, who, despite her immense humility, by her “yes” to the Lord, becomes unmistakably the Mother of God Incarnate: “Called in the Gospels ‘the mother of Jesus’ [Jn 2:1; 19:25], Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as ‘the mother of my Lord’ [Lk 1:43]. In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly ‘Mother of God’ [Theotokos]” (CCC, 495).
Deepening the mystery of the Incarnation
On Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic journey to Mexico and the Republic of Cuba (23-29 March 2012), the Holy Father spoke of the great mystery of the Incarnation on the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. He delivered his homily at Santiago de Cuba, Plaza Antonio Maceo, during the Holy Mass on the occasion of the 400th Anniversary of the discovery of the image of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, patroness of Cuba.
Benedict XVI stressed that the Incarnation of the Son of God is the central mystery of the Christian faith, and in it Mary occupies a focal position. In his reflection, he posed two questions, leading us to delve deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation: “But, we ask, what is the meaning of this mystery? And, what importance does it have for our concrete lives?”
First of all, let us see what the Incarnation means. In the Gospel of Saint Luke, we heard the words of the angel to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” [Lk 1:35]. In Mary, the Son of God is made man, fulfilling in this way the prophecy of Isaiah: “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, which means ‘God-with-us’ [Is 7:14].”
The Pontiff gives “light” to the prophecy – given about 700 years before the Annunciation – and quotes the Apostle John, who expresses it in the following way: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).
The Pope also praised the example of Our Lady’s trusting surrender to God with her “yes” given without reserve – “For this reason, contemplating the mystery of the Incarnation, we cannot fail to turn our eyes to her so as to be filled with wonder, gratitude and love at seeing how our God, coming into the world, wished to depend upon the free consent of one of his creatures.”
God awaited the Virgin Mary’s “yes”, and Benedict XVI emphasizes that it was only, “From the moment when the Virgin responded to the angel, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be unto me according to your word’ (Lk 1:38), did the eternal Word of the Father began his human existence in time. It is touching to see how God not only respects human freedom: he almost seems to require it. And we see also how the beginning of the earthly life of the Son of God was marked by a double ‘Yes’ to the saving plan of the Father – that of Christ and that of Mary.”
In his message, the Holy Father highlighted that this obedience to God is what opens the doors of the world to the truth, to salvation. God has created us as the fruit of His infinite love; hence, “To live in accordance with his will is the way to encounter our genuine identity, the truth of our being, while apart from God we are alienated from ourselves and are hurled into the void. The obedience of faith is true liberty, authentic redemption, which allows us to unite ourselves to the love of Jesus in his determination to conform himself to the will of the Father. Redemption is always this process of the lifting up of the human will to full communion with the divine will [cf. Lectio Divina with the parish priests of Rome, 18 February 2010].”
Image: Eucharistic Adoration Chapel in the Se Cathedral Church of Macau. Photo: Miguel Augusto
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