The Annunciation

By Lou Occhi

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121220.cfm
Zechariah 2:14-17
Luke 1:26-38

The gospel today starts with the Archangel Gabriel appearing to Mary. The first words of Gabriel to Mary are “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Luke goes on to say that Mary “was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.”

It is no wonder that she was confused with what was said. Here we have an angel of the highest order greeting her as someone very special. Mary, among all her virtues, was very humble and this had to be a shock to her. I would have been paralyzed with fear.

So, to start, we should dissect this greeting a bit. Last year I had the same gospel and we talked about the use of the word Hail. You may recall that the word is more of a salute than a simple hello. When I think of the word hail it is in the form of “Hail Caesar” or our presidential song “Hail to the Chief”. 

Then that is followed with “full of grace. The Lord is with you.” The Merriam-Webster definition is “a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance”. We have no idea whether Mary had any idea what full of grace means. “The Lord is with you” may have had more meaning to her although she probably had no idea why an Archangel would appear and greet her in this highly respectful manner. After all, she was in her mid-teens and certainly didn’t think anything like this would ever happen to her.

As you already know, the gospel then relates that Mary was told she would become the mother of the most high and she would call her child Jesus. Without hesitation she submits herself to the will of the Father. When you think about the ramifications of what was about to happen you have to be amazed at her complete faith in God. There is not a single question about what she needs to explain to Joseph, or that people would accuse her of adultery and stone her to death.

The phrase I want to talk about today is the second thing that was spoken by Gabriel. That was “full of grace”. When you think about it, it means that Mary was without the least stain of sin, not even the stain of original sin. She was the Immaculate Conception. She was the new Eve. She was perfect in every way just as Eve was. The only difference is that Mary never sinned. There were many moments in her life that she could easily have sinned. She could have rejected Gabriel and the Holy Spirit, and she could have begged Jesus not to go to Jerusalem knowing that he was walking to his execution. Those no’s in her life could have been “get thee behind me Satan” moments but they never happened. She had faith and courage that would make Navy Seals look like sissies.

The word grace comes from the Greek word charis, which means gift. In Jesus time it was customary to give gifts. The recipient was expected to give a gift of similar value in return. It was considered to be in bad taste to give a gift to someone who could not return a gift of equal value. God turns this upside down. In the spiritual sense, grace is a gift from God where no return is expected. Paul talks about us having faith as a result of grace from God. Without that grace we would have no faith at all. It is up to us to accept that grace and be thankful for the gift. The more open we are to the reception of His grace the more he wants to give us. In order to open ourselves to these graces we have to simply follow what we already know and believe.

Baptism is the beginning of our spiritual life. At Baptism we are cleansed of all our sins, including the original sin we are born with. At that point we are a clean slate capable of receiving all the gifts that Holy Spirit has to offer. Unfortunately we still have the capacity to sin and God is well aware of that so He provides us ways of re-cleansing ourselves and opening ourselves back up to receiving His multitude of graces.

When we go to confession the priests forgives us our sins. The thing that frequently skips our mind is that through confession, all of the sins we have committed in our lifetime are forgiven. The sacrament of confession is a tremendous gift from God. We can ask God for forgiveness without going to confession. However, being assured that we are forgiven of all out sins is wonderful consolation. In addition, we have the counsel of the priest to help us through our difficulties. If we want those graces what better way to receive them than to have our life cleansed of sin.

Of course, when we go to mass and receive the Eucharist we are worshipping as millions of Christians before us have done. We start with the penitential right by acknowledging that we are sinful and that we desire God’s help in overcoming our weaknesses and praise the glory of God. Then we hear God’s word spoken to us and a reflection to help us grasp its meaning. Following that we profess our faith with the Apostle Creed and pray for the intentions of the parish. After that is the highlight of mass, the Eucharist. It takes a lot of faith to believe that what we are about to receive into our body and soul is Jesus. When we read John’s gospel there is no doubt that the Eucharist is exactly what we have always been told. The woman who was healed by touching the fringe of Jesus’ cloak does not even compare to our reception of the Eucharist. Finally we are told to go out and serve the Lord. What an extraordinary way to open ourselves to all God has to offer us.

We know the Lord loves us but we also have to love him back. We cannot love someone we do not know. When we read the bible we learn who Jesus really is. There are many inspirational books that you can read, but none of them compare to reading the bible. What is important to know is that we do not have to read the whole thing in one short period of time. We can read a chapter, a verse, or just a few words and then ponder on what we read during the day. Not only are we learning about who our savior is, but we are now begin to be able to start loving the One who died on the cross so that we would have eternal life. The more we know about Jesus the more we will crave being close to Him and thirsting for the graces he wants to give us.

Fasting is another activity that helps us open ourselves to God’s graces. Traditionally fasting is thought to be giving up food. Certainly that is one way of fasting, but that is not the only way. We can turn the radio off in the car while driving and think of all the blessings we have received in our life. As a matter of fact we can deny ourselves of any little thing that we would like to do or have and, instead, offer it up to Jesus. We know that Jesus spent forty days in the desert and fasted. If He felt that He had to fast, then we should realize that we must follow His example in whatever way we can.

Finally there is prayer. Prayer should be a discussion with our Lord. There are many ways to pray. One way is just to thank the Lord for listening to us and then discuss our joys, sorrows, disappointments, and difficulties to the Lord. Then, in silence, wait for His response. It could be in the form of an actual voice, a feeling, a sudden insight or any other number of ways that the Lord can respond to us. There is also traditional prayers, the best being the recitation of the rosary. This form of prayer is very repetitive and we should not simply click off Hail Mary’s without a second thought. Instead, we should ponder the mysteries that precede each decade. It is a powerful meditative form of prayer that goes to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, His mother. Remember that Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces. That is, all graces come from the Holy Spirit and are channeled through His blessed spouse.

Finally, the graces that God showers us with is what will drive us to know, love and serve the Lord. It is the fuel that makes us strive to imitate our Lord and desire to spend eternity embraced in His love.