Msgr. Beaulieu – The Annunciation

The Annunciation

Before the development of the Gregorian Calendar, as early as the third century, the spring equinox held special significance. In the period of the Julian Calendar, the vernal equinox was dated as happening on March 25. The thirteenth century Golden Legend (Lat. Legenda aurea) not only identifies March 25th as the day of the Lord’s conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the first day of Creation, but also that it was Good Friday. Once the birth of the Child Jesus was assigned to December 25th, that the date nine months before, or March 25, should be seen as the day when the Word-became-flesh in Mary’s womb made sense.

The Annunciation commemorates the declaration by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that the Son of God would become incarnate and enter into the world by taking root in her womb. The solemnity praises the divine initiative of God, whereby He took on flesh from the Virgin Mary for the world’s salvation. Too easily overlooked, though, is the feast also highlights the human response, whereby Mary freely accepted the vocation offered to her by Gabriel. God elected to become man, and He desired to do this with the willing agreement of Mary whom He chose to be the Mother of His Son. Mary could have refused, for she was not a passive instrument, but an active participant with a free and positive part to play in God’s plan for salvation. It is not just because God chose Mary, from among all women, but also because she herself chose to follow His will that this day is unique. Her reply is classic: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord (Gk. ἡ δούλη Κυρίου). May it be done to me according to your word.”

The teaching of the Church as attested to by Saint Augustine is that Mary “remained a virgin in conceiving her Son, a virgin in giving birth to him, a virgin in carrying him, a virgin in nursing him at her breast, always a virgin” (Sermo 186, 1: PL 38, 999). Thus, with her entire being, Mary is “the handmaid (or doulē) of the Lord.” According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man. In fact, Christ’s birth ‘did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.’ And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the ‘Ever-virgin’” (CCC, n. 500).

Every doctrine about Mary reveals an insight into her Son or something about the Church. Mary’s perpetual virginity demonstrates her purity of heart and total love for God. In the latter part of the fourth century, Saint Ambrose of Milan wrote that Mary’s virginity was “so great an example of material virtue” because it demonstrated her total devotion to Jesus. In Mary, you see an example of the purity heart that every disciple must have for total dedication to God. Mary’s perpetual virginity reveals that the Church, like Mary, is both mother to the faithful and “pure bride to her one husband” (2 Cor. 11:2). The Incarnation, specifically the birth of Jesus, involves a mother (Mary) who conceived without a human father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and a Father (God) who is without a mother.