Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
There are only two days within the penitential season of Lent, when the Church permits a liturgical pause in the otherwise normal liturgical limitations and permits the singing of the Gloria during Mass and the Te Deum during the Office of Readings, and that is, the Solemnity of St. Joseph which we celebrated last week, and the Solemnity of the Annunciation of Mary which we celebrate today.
The origins of this feast are rooted in divine revelation itself as we hear St. Luke’s narration of this story in the very 1st chapter of his gospel. The God of surprises sends his messenger to a young Jewish maiden with the astounding invitation to share in God’s great plan for the definitive redemption of the world and entire cosmos. The question is set before her to be the mother of the eternal Word of the Father. Trusting completely in God’s will for her and without hesitation, Mary replies, “May it be done to me according to your word.”
Mary, down through the Christian ages, remains the icon of the perfect Christian. Ever attentive to the will of the Father and bringing forth the eternal Word to a waiting world, she models for us what being an authentic Christian entails – openness to our Father’s will for us and carrying Jesus to our world by what we say and do.