The Moment It All Became Real

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38

I remember when my marriage became a concrete reality to me. It wasn’t on our wedding day or our honeymoon. It was the moment I held our first child in my arms.

Until then, marriage was many things – vows, love, commitment — all very real and very good, but in a way you couldn’t really touch.

Not that there weren’t signs of something big to come. There were. After all, my wife was pregnant. And over time, we could even feel and see the baby moving.

That was all wonderful, but then, suddenly, there she was. Our daughter. Flesh and blood; a living, breathing sign of our love. What had been invisible, or looming in our imaginations, became visible. What had been a promise became flesh.

That’s what we celebrate today in the Annunciation. For centuries, God spoke of One who would come. For example, Isaiah prophesies thata virgin shall be with child, and bear a son (Isaiah 7:14). In the psalm, we hear a mysterious voice say, Behold, I come (Psalm 40:8). Finally, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews cites the Greek version of the same psalm, speaking of ‘a body you prepared for me.’ Beautiful words — hopeful, evocative. Still… only words.

But then, suddenly, unexpectedly, an angel appears to the Virgin Mary and, with her “Yes,” the Word literally takes flesh: the Son of God himself, conceived and growing in her womb, comes to dwell among us.

Just as a child makes a marriage visible and tangible, Jesus makes the invisible God visible and tangible. In him, God doesn’t just speak to us, He becomes one of us.

You can hear about love your whole life, but when you hold it in your arms, everything changes. That’s why God isn’t content to simply let us hear about His love. Like marriage, it’s meant to become real. Concrete. Visible. Lived. And that’s why He comes to meet us in the Sacraments, most especially in the Blessed Sacrament, and why He gives us the grace we need to bring Christ to others, and to be ‘little Christs’ in service of them.

It all begins in our lives just like it did for the Virgin Mary. Every day, God comes to us in many ways, through many faces; often surprisingly, unexpectedly. He doesn’t ask to be fully understood, only to be received.

In just a few moments, He will come again through the power of the Holy Spirit in the Consecration. Let us renew our ‘yes,’ and ask for the grace not only to say what the Blessed Mother said… but to live it: ‘May it be done to me according to your word.’”

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

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