SOLEMNITY
OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD
(Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10; Hebrews 10:4-10;
Luke 1:26-38)
The unlikely story of the “Christmas
truce of 1914” has been verified by accounts sent home by the soldiers involved. It happened that as the First World War
became a miserable standoff in the trenches, the Germans offered the British a
resolution 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 of
Mary’s acceptance of God’s offer to be the mother of His Son. That Son, Jesus, will fulfill God’s ancient
promise to Israel of a king who will rule forever.
We should not hesitate to have a glass
of wine today or a bar of chocolate. We
do not have to abstain from meat today either.
But beyond breaking our Lenten customs, we do well to relate the
significance of this day to our Lenten journey.
God shared with humans His Son who showed us the Father’s love. Being enmeshed in sin, we crucified the Son for
his goodness. But the cross on which he
died became the source of our redemption.
The story unfolds in three weeks in our celebration of Jesus’ victory
over sin and death.
