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25March

Announcement to Mary

The evangelist Luke [1:26-38) said:

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."

But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God."

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.”

This was how the evangelist told us about the truth of the divine mystery of incarnation, the basis of the Christian faith. The good news of incarnation was the most beautiful one that heaven brought to earth. In the mystery of incarnation, God fulfilled His promise to save the children of Adam, as He said to the serpent in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel." “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” [Gal 4:4].

God had promised Abraham that the Savior shall descent from him. And He said through Moses: "A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen” [Deu. 18:15]. “And the Word became flesh  and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth” [John 1:14]. Many are the prophesies about the incarnation of God in the Old Testament. Isaiah’s words [7:14] offer us a deep sign: “The virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel”. This mystery occurred in the wombs of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, where the Eternal Verb took flesh, while he is always God, he became fully human, with two full, distinct natures. This is how God showed the depth of His love toward us, as the evangelist John explains: “He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” [John 13:1].

May God’s peace and grace rest in our hearts and consciences for good. Amen.