SOLEMNITY OF THE
ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD
(Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38)
The story of the “Christmas truce of 1914” has been
verified by accounts sent home by the soldiers.
It happened that as the First World War became a miserable reality for
both sides in the trenches, the Germans made an offer to the British to stop
the fighting on Christmas Day. They sent
the message along with a chocolate cake.
The British accepted the offer with a gift of tobacco for the German
troops. Today we take a similar day off
in Lent to celebrate the beginnings of Jesus Christ.
It is exactly nine months before Christmas. Figuring that Jesus had a normal gestation,
the Church has consecrated today as the day of his conception. It proclaims the gospel story of Mary’s
acceptance of God’s offer to be the mother of His Son, Jesus. He will fulfill God’s ancient promise to
Israel of a king who will rule forever with peace and prosperity.
We should not hesitate to have a glass of wine today and
perhaps a sweet roll with coffee. But
beyond breaking our fast, we do well to relate the significance of this day to
our Lenten journey. The Son of God became
human to proclaim God’s love for the world.
Being enmeshed in sin, humans abused the gift and killed him for the
Good News. That story unfolds next week
in our celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death.
