Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Friday, December 20, 2024
Friday of the Third Week of Advent
Jerome Miller, a Catholic theologian, wrote a reflection on the Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli’s depiction of the Annunciation. According to Miller, the artist, like any exegete, has much to teach us about this critical moment in the history of salvation.
All of us are so approached in life with a proposition of divine grace. We are called out of the ordinariness of making a living to sacrifice ourselves for the Lord’s sake. Of course, our consent means that we are opening ourselves to suffering. But we should not shrink from the mission. We like Mary are nothing greater, but nothing less either, than servants of the Lord.
Monday, December 9, 2024
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Genesis 3:9-15.20; Ephesians 1:3-6.11-12; Luke 1:26-38)
Today’s celebration extends beyond veneration of our Blessed
Mother for her sinlessness. It
recapitulates the drama of redemption by telling of primordial human sin and
the coming of humanity’s Savior.
As God predicted in naming “the tree of knowledge of good
and evil,” Adam becomes aware of his sin when he eats its forbidden fruit. Nudity aptly symbolizes sin because it universally
provokes desires that often lead to lustful acts.
Sin might have completely dominated human existence if God
had not intervened. He sent His Son to
strike at the head of sin’s promotor, the serpent in the reading. Mary not only gives birth to Jesus; she is
also his first beneficiary. At her
conception, she received the grace of Christ’s salvation even before the salvific
events take place.
Mary’s sinlessness is demonstrated by her responses to the
angel telling he of God’s plan. She
wisely questions how conception could take place without sinning since she is a
virgin. Assured that it will be the work
of the Holy Spirit, she unhesitatingly submits to the divine initiative.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception conveniently falls
during Advent. It gives added material
for contemplation. God’s Son has come as
one like us. Although innocent of any
sin, he willingly endured the worst of human suffering in our place. His sacrifice enables us to resist evil and
to merit salvation.
Monday, April 8, 2024
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
(Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38)
Pro-life advocates have helped everyone see the importance
of today’s feast. In calling attention
to the fact that an embryo and a fetus is a human being, they make us aware that
the Incarnation took place with the virginal conception of Jesus. Without taking away from the importance of
the birth of Jesus, today we celebrate his becoming human.
Christian theology has always underlined the appropriateness
of this event. God might have decreed
humans free from guilt with the blood of the cross. But if He saved humans in that way, we would
have taken for granted the debt that our sins have created. We would also have underestimated the extent
of God’s love. In God’s becoming human on
this feast of the Annunciation, we know God more intimately than spouses of
sixty years. He has taught us how to
derive the most from life.
Mary responded to the news of the Incarnation with words of
submission. We should do the same. Let us be servants of the Lord and do all
that he tells us. We won’t be
overburdened but will have the joy of knowing Jesus.
Sunday, December 24, 2023
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
(II Samuel 7:1-5.8-12.16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38)
Most Christians have heard the word “Incarnation.” However,
not everyone knows what it means. The Incarnation is the mystery in which the
Second Person of the Holy Trinity became man. Although this concept may not sound
strange to us, some would say that it is a contradiction. “How can it be,” they
would ask, “that God, the author of the millions upon millions of stars in the
universe, can become as limited as a human person? It's like putting a mountain
in a shoe box.”
It is not worth trying to explain the possibility now. But
we have to address the issue somehow because it has to do with the gospel of
the mass today and the great feast tomorrow. The Incarnation gave rise to
Christmas as surely as the sun begins the new day. Some think of the
Incarnation taking place with the conception of Jesus at the Annunciation as
indicated in the Gospel passage today. Others reserve the word for when Mary
gives birth to her child. Anyway, it has to do with the coming of God as a human
person.
Instead of reflecting on how God became man or exactly when
he did it, we would do better to consider the reason for his doing so. What
moved the infinite, eternal, and almighty Spirit to limit Himself as a human
person? The reason can be discovered in the description of God in the First
Letter of John: “God is love.” Divine love – not the passion we feel to unite
with another but the willingness to see the good in another – impelled God to
save humanity in its precarious condition.
By "precarious condition," we mean sin. We can
perceive the effects of sin by opening our eyes to what is happening around us.
Millions of innocent lives are at risk in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip due to
war. The sexual revolution has produced millions more children without mother
and father at home to guide them to maturity. An entire generation is
experiencing loneliness, doubt, and inferiority due to the intensive
fascination with social media. Finally, our culture is about to experience an
immense upheaval due to the rejection of God's first commandment remembered in
the Bible: “Be fruitful and multiply…” (Genesis 1:28).
God became man to teach us how to overcome sin in order to
live as righteous people. Furthermore, by his death on the cross he has freed
us from attachment to pride, greed, and lust. We now live supported by the
community of faith with our hopes fixed on eternal life.
Today we celebrate the beginning of this liberation.
However, there are forces that want to rob us of its meaning. Instead of
remembering Christ, the liberator, these forces would impose gifts as the
center of the holiday. Instead of worshiping God, they would substitute
partying and playing. It's not that gifts and parties have no place in our
Christmas celebration. They do. The joy of having our liberator in our midst
brings with it the desire to share the joy with others by giving presents and dancing.
But these activities must leave room for the adoration of the divine child.
As a counterexample to our deviant times we have Mary as
portrayed in the gospel today. She does not think about her own fame or other
benefit from being the mother of the Savior.
Her concern is the service that she will render to God. To Gabriel's proposition,
she responds decisively: “'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; Let it be to me
according to your word'".
We are sinners but redeemed. We celebrate, but always aware
of who and why we celebrate. Yes, let's have a merry Christmas. But also let us
thank God for becoming human like us.
Friday, December 8, 2023
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Genesis
3:9-15.20; Ephesians 1:3-6.11-12; Luke 1:26-38)
Sin like sewerage
contaminates everything it touches. The
primordial sin of Adam and Eve rejects God’s authority. Its perversion does not end there,
however. Both man and woman proceed to wrongly
cast blame on others. The man accuses
the woman of giving him the forbidden fruit.
The woman says the devil tricked her into eating it.
The pollution of
sin is not definitively arrested until Jesus dies on the cross. Even then, as we know, sin seeps through
cracks in the human make-up. Mary,
however, shows herself in today’s gospel as the one exception to the universal allocation
of sin. Faced with a divine mandate, she
has no concern for herself. Her question
about how she was to conceive and bear a son is a call for orders on what to
do. Despite being given an exotic answer,
she answers definitively. She will do
what God wants.
Today we ponder
the exception of Mary to the universality of sins in human persons. We may see it in two ways. First, we notice that what happens to Mary
happens to us at Baptism. Christ frees
us from sin so that our lives might, as the reading from Ephesians claims, give
him fitting praise. Second, in Mary’s
singular case, sin has not tainted her immaculate beginning. From the start, her will is dominated by her
intellect which, in turn, is fixed on the Holy One. She can tell the angel in today’s gospel without
reservation, “’May it be done to me according to your word.’”
Monday, December 20, 2021
Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent (December 20)
(Isaiah 7:10-14; Luke
1:26-38)
We have all heard of contemporary
“headhunters.” These people are
personnel specialists who seek the right person for an important job. They may want someone with a Ph.D. in
chemistry and skills as a scuba diver to do critical marine scientific research. The angel Gabriel plays the role of a
headhunter in today’s gospel.
Gabriel is looking for
the right person to be the mother of the Messiah. He goes to Mary who is “full of grace.” She has been uniquely gifted to do God’s
will. Further, she has shown herself cooperative
with that grace. As the angel says, she
has “found favor with God.” She again shows
worthiness to be mother of Jesus when she responds to Gabriel. She tells him unequivocally,
“May it be
done to me according to your word.” She will always do God’s will, not her own.
We can be like
Mary. We have been given the necessary
grace at Baptism. We have also
cooperated with that grace by helping a neighbor and coming to church. It’s difficult in today’s narcissistic world
to allow God’s will to take precedence over our own. But we can do it with God’s assistance.
Friday, December 20, 2019
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Monday, April 4, 2016
Friday, December 20, 2013
Friday, March 25, 2011
(Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10; Hebrews 10:4-11; Luke 1:26-38)
A Catholic pro-life activist had an inspiration. In order to raise funds for the diocesan Respect for Life Office he would organize a banquet. The celebration would take place on March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation. His reason for having it today, of course, is that Jesus literally becomes human at the moment of his conception which the Church considers as happening when Mary assents to the angel’s pronouncement.
As important as the Annunciation is to pro-life activities, its deeper significance lies in another realm. In becoming human, God relates to humans in a new way never heard of before or since. He puts Himself in touch with us as one who shares every aspect of our life. We see Him, hear Him, touch Him, and smell Him. To be sure, He is still beyond us but we have incredibly intimate sensations of what He is like. It is like the movie a dozen years ago shot completely from the hospital patient’s perspective. Seeing it, one has a much better idea of what it means to be hospitalized.
As Christmas has turned into a beehive of commercial activity, we may take time today to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation. We want to ponder how Christ’s humanity has affected us personally and how it has changed the world. We will likely come to the realization that we resist it having a very great effect. If so, we want to ask God to open us to His singular offer of everlasting life.
Monday, December 20, 2010
(Isaiah 7:10-14; Luke 1:26-38)
Natural law forbids a military commander to send troops on a suicide mission without their consent. The reasoning for this counterintuitive principle is that soldiers agree to lend their service to a military cause, not their lives. If there is overwhelming probability of death, a commander should obtain the soldiers’ permission before directing them into action.
In the gospel of Mary’s annunciation, God offers the young maiden a similar prerogative to withdraw from His plan of salvation. Although the passage uses the declarative mode “you will...,” the angel waits for Mary’s consent. She is free to refuse to cooperate with the heretofore unheard of plan of conceiving by the Holy Spirit in order that Israel may receive its long-awaited Messiah. In a famous homily, St. Bernard of Clairveaux pictures the world hanging on Mary’s word. “Look how the desired one of all the nations is at your door and calls,” the great medieval preacher pleads to the Virgin in the gospel scene. Of course, Mary does not disappoint but pronounces her “yes.”
As God does not force Mary to participate in His plan, He does not force salvation upon us. We are free to accept or reject it. Although salvation is an entirely gratuitous gift, it can be refused. We have to follow the adult Jesus who will demand of us actions that may not seem easy or pleasant in advance. But once we walk with him, we will experience his commands as not so much burdensome as they are liberating. We may think of them now as directions from a GPS -- the surest way of getting us to where we want to go.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
(Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10; Hebrews 10:4-11; Luke 1:26-38)
The Bible asserts the dignity of all persons by noting that the first humans are created in the image of God. But assuredly human dignity is raised a few notches by the mystery on which we meditate today. Jesus, our Creator whose being we reflect, becomes one of us whose life we are to emulate. We call today’s feast “The Annunciation,” but, as is done in some parts of the world, we can say that it is the Feast of the Incarnation. Today we celebrate the eternal Son of God taking flesh within the womb of the Virgin Mary.
There are myths of gods taking human form in other religions. But what makes Jesus Christ so different is, ironically, his ordinariness. Yes, being virgin-born is certainly unique, and we have marvelous accounts of his power over nature. But there are no fantastic stories of his repelling arrows and slaying armies. Even Jesus’ cures and certainly his standard operation are like those of other Jewish prophets and rabbis. Indeed, in many ways he is just like us.
It is the chain of events at the very end of his life that manifestly separates Jesus from everyone else. He surrenders himself to be humiliated, tortured, and executed even though he is innocent of any crime. Then he is raised from the dead as a validation that his self-sacrifice is neither fatalistic nor quixotic but ordained on High. It demonstrates God’s plan to elevate humans even higher than their exalted status over the rest of creation. Now we can glimpse the reason for our emulating Jesus. Doing so will lead to our sharing in his resurrection from the dead and in his eternal life.
Homilette for Wednesday, March 25, 2009
(Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10; Hebrews 10:4-11; Luke 1:26-38)
In the novel All We Know of Heaven, author Rémy Rougeau, O.S.B., describes how a monk (possibly himself) receives his vocation. It happens literally by a star falling from heaven. Observing the night sky, a boy sees a shooting star land near his home. He is what we might call “a good boy,” but not remarkably more devout than others. When he goes to investigate, the lad finds the fallen meteor. Thinking over its significance, he concludes that the meteor is a sign from God telling him that he has a vocation. A number of years later, he joins a Cistercian monastery.
Luke’s gospel today tells a similar story. Mary has a religious experience. She is devout although the extent of her sanctity is perhaps not evident. An angel tells Mary of her special vocation to be the mother of Jesus Christ. Like the boy pondering the significance of the meteor, Mary questions whether the angel really intends the message for her. After all, she is not married. When the angel assures her that God will provide whatever she lacks, Mary does not hesitate to accept.
We have all probably had an experience that we would call “religious.” Perhaps it was a dream or a conversation with a special person. We probably don’t consider ourselves better than any other person, yet God seems to have shown us His special favor. Like Mary and like the monk in Rémy Rougeau’s novel, let us not fail to ponder what God wants us to do.
Homilette for Monday, December 8, 2008
(Genesis 3:9-15.20; Ephesians 1:3-6.11-12; Luke 1:26-38)
Once in a while in newspapers, Mary’s virginal conception of Jesus is referred to as her “Luke 1:26-38.” Both events are mysteries of faith, but we must be careful not to confuse the two.
We believe that Mary, by virtue of a special grace anticipating her being the mother of Jesus, was immaculately conceived. This means that from her conception in her mother’s womb she suffered none of the effects of the sin committed by Adam and Eve. We remember that the first humans disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. Actually concupiscence – the desire to be like God – caused Adam and Eve to disobey. What to them was a radical decision, to their descendants has become an innate defect. Mary alone, except for Jesus, the “God-man,” was spared of this fate.
The gospel today demonstrates Mary’s innocent nature. Addressed by God’s messenger as “full of grace,” Mary has difficulty understanding that the angel is referring to her. And when told that she will conceive of the long-awaited Messiah, Mary expresses no desire for illicit sexual relations. We can say that Mary possesses neither pride nor lust, two of the graver manifestations of the sin inherited from Adam and Eve. Rather her disposition is one of submission to God’s authority. She responds, “May it be done to me according to your word.”
Of course, Mary gives birth to Jesus who eventually gives himself over to death so that humans might overcome their inclination to disobey God’s commands. We are not conceived, like Mary, with a completely innocent nature. But through Christ’s efforts, we can conquer pride, lust and other forms of sin.
Homilette for March 31, 2008
(Luke 1:26-38)
In the novel All We Know of Heaven, author Rémy Rougeau, O.S.B., describes how a monk (possibly himself) receives his vocation. It happens literally by a star falling from heaven. Observing the night sky, a boy sees a shooting star land near his home. He is what we might call “a good boy,” but not remarkably superior to others. When he goes to investigate, the lad finds the fallen meteor. Thinking over its significance, he concludes that the incident represents a personal call from God. A number of years later as a young man, he joins a Cistercian monastery.
Luke’s gospel today tells a similar story. Mary has a religious experience. She is devout although the extent of her sanctity is perhaps not evident. An angel tells Mary of her special vocation to be the mother of Jesus Christ. Like the boy pondering the significance of the meteor, Mary questions whether the angel really intends the message for her. After all, she is not married. When the angel assures her that God will provide whatever she lacks, Mary does not hesitate to accept.
We have all probably had an experience that we would call “religious.” Perhaps it was a dream or a conversation with a special person. We probably don’t consider ourselves better than any other person, yet God seems to have shown us His special favor. Like Mary and like the monk in Rémy Rougeau’s novel, let us not fail to consider what He wants us to do.
Homilette for December 28, 2007
(Luke 1:26-38)
It is said that a military commander may not send troops on a “suicide mission” without their consent. A society can conscript a person into the army as a matter of the common good. Also, the common good may dictate that the military then order the conscripted soldier to battle with the possibility, but not the surety, that he or, we should add, she may die in action. If, however, there is near certainty that the soldier will be killed, the military should obtain his (her) permission because soldiers are enlisted to give their service not their lives.
In this gospel of the annunciation, God gives to the Virgin Mary a similar prerogative to withdraw from his plan of salvation. Although the passage uses the declarative mode “you will...,” the angel waits for her consent. She is free to refuse to cooperate with the heretofore unheard of plan of conceiving by the Holy Spirit to give Israel its long-awaited Messiah. In a famous homily, the great medieval preacher St. Bernard of Clairveaux pictures the world hanging on Mary’s word. Of course, she expresses her willingness to set in process the Incarnation.
As God does not force Mary to participate in His plan, He does not force salvation on us. We are free to accept or reject it. Although it is an entirely free and gratuitous gift, it does involve some effort. We have to heed the words of Mary’s baby Jesus when he grows up. But his commands are not so much burdensome as they are liberating. We may think of them as directions from MapQuest. They provide us the best possible way to get us to where we want to go.