In praying the Angelus, we quote the Gospel of John: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. The Annunciation is the celebration of that moment in history. But what can we learn from it, what does God want to teach us?
The first thing to learn is the fact that the Word became flesh.
In both the hymn, Only Begotten Son and in the Creed, we affirm this - He became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. Before this, man was trapped in his sins. There was no real hope of escaping this. David says in the psalms, “In sin my mother conceived me” - not that the act of conceiving was itself sinful, but that she was a sinful creature, and he was a sinful creature. Such was the lot of all humanity.
But the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. St Athanasius said, “God became man, that man might become god”. As Paul tells us, He is the New Adam. He has created a new humanity, and the birth into that humanity comes through baptism. The food of that new humanity is the Eucharist, and the healing room, the doctor’s office of that new humanity, is the confessional.
When we think of Adam, our first father, we naturally think of Eve, our mother. And, from the Cross, Christ, the New Adam, gave His mother to the new humanity. He said to John, “Behold your mother”.
Mary is, indeed, the New Eve. One virgin, Eve, brought death to the old mankind by one act of disobedience. In the same way, one virgin, Mary, brought life to the new mankind through one act of obedience.
As our Catechism says, The Lord God chose the Virgin Mary from Nazareth and through the Archangel Gabriel he announced to her that she would become the mother of the Son of God: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High” Giving her consent—“I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” —Mary offers herself to God, and the Holy Spirit descends upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadows her. “We confess the holy Virgin to be Mother of God [Theotokos]; because God the Word was incarnate and became human.”
In the Annunciation, we see not only the fact that Mary obeyed and that God became man, we also see an affirmation of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. The Greek word that we normally translate as “full of grace” is kecharitomene. It doesn’t mean “filled with grace”. Rather, it means “female for whom the reception of grace is complete”. It means that, unlike any other woman since Eve, she came into being without being touched by Original Sin. Like you and me, like her Son, she was tempted. But, unlike you and me, she didn't give into the temptation; she had the Original Righteousness with which man had been created, the Original Righteousness which was lost when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the Fruit.
In Mary, God the made a perfect vessel to bear His Son. And then, in His Grace, He gave her to us as a mother.
The third person involved in the narrative of the Annunciation is Gabriel. One of our Vesper hymns perfectly expresses his mission and his reaction.
“The archangel Gabriel was sent from heaven to bring to the Virgin glad tidings of her conception. When he came to Nazareth, he marveled at the miracle and thought to himself: How is it that He whom the angels cannot comprehend is now being born of a virgin? The One who has heaven for a throne and earth for a footstool is being enclosed within a virgin’s womb. He, upon whom the six-winged Seraphim and the many-eyed Cherubim cannot gaze, wills to become incarnate of her by a single word. The Word of God is at hand. Then why do I stand by and not say to the Virgin, Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with you! Rejoice, O pure Virgin and maiden bride! Rejoice, O Mother of the Life! Blessed is the fruit of your womb!”.
So, my brothers and sisters, I say to you
- Rejoice, God has become man, creating a new humanity, freed from the chains of sin.
- Rejoice, For for are called to be a part of that new humanity.
- Rejoice, For you have the Eucharist as food and the confessional as a healing room
- Rejoice, for you’ve been given a mother in Mary, a mother who will love you and protect you if you ask.
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