Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord Lk 1,26-38

We have gathered today for the Feast of the Annunciation. Even the Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah’s book catches our spiritual eye on the “God’s promised sign!” In the uncertainty of earthly time. “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son!” This conception is not by human power but by the power of God. It does not happen naturally, but supernaturally. It is like a helping hand given to humanity by its God and Lord.
Today’s gospel shows us the concrete fulfillment of this promise. The sign of “God’s interest in man” is becoming a reality. The Gospel speaks of the greatness and specificity of God’s love for us humans. Our religion’s fundamental truth is that God loves us despite our delusions and has a plan of Salvation ready for us. As we preached, we seem to hear the echoes of the words spoken in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus: “So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life with him in heaven.” loved the world? So! As very specifically as it manifested in the life of the Virgin Mary.
The truth about God’s love is the essence of the Annunciation. This truth must fit deep into our hearts. Each one of us can experience a moment in our hearts, similar to the one depicted in today’s gospel. Something similar to what the Virgin Mary experienced during the Annunciation.
The angel greeted her with the phrase, “Chaire Kecharitomene!” It is literally a call to joy: “Rejoice full of grace!” These words contain good news. And this proclamation is to become the property of each one of us. In the Virgin Mary, God intercedes for every human being, for this greeting has been uttered for all of us. All of us, in the gift of this just conceived child, find grace with God. Through the adoption of this child, we also become children of God. In Jesus, there is the possibility of pardoning the exiles. We are the exiles who live in exile, far from the Lord, but in this child and his acceptance, we are offered the grace of amnesty for all. Possibility to return to the Father. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Everyone who accepts it knows the way finds the truth, and receives life. Through the acceptance of Christ, our souls begin to grow into the form in which the Father has his delight. If there is no Christ in us, then we do not like God at all. We have nothing to do with him. If we do not live the Word of Christ, if we do not receive his body and blood, we are not children of God but children of evil.
Maybe after everything we said, we had a desire to have this life in us. But how can we receive Christ into ourselves? We do this with every holy communion, but not perfectly. Only that communion is truly holy and life-giving, which is permanent and which takes place in the environment of Mary’s soul. St. Ambrose advises us, “If you want to receive Jesus into yourself, first beg for something of Mary’s beautiful soul.” Holy is the communion that takes place in the Holy Spirit in the air of Mary’s soul. Mary’s soul is the soul completely surrendered and therefore completely embraced by grace. Let’s watch the Virgin Mary begin by the Holy Spirit. First, God’s Word is heard to her. Without the love of God’s Word, it is not possible to receive the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine calls God’s Word: “Sacramentum audible” – the sacrament of hearing. We sanctify ourselves by listening to the Word if we unite with it in the will, in the thought, in the emotions. Our father, St. Francis of Assisi, says that through God’s Word, our Creator’s greatness penetrates deeply into us. He cannot count on a Spirit who does not love the Word.
We are to receive God’s Word with certain faith, not as the word of man, but as the word of God. But he does not remain in our head, for his true place in the heart of man. “Mary, deep in her heart, protected the heard Word of God.” No matter how great the Word of God is and beyond our power, we are to pray over it, like the Virgin Mary: the power of our Creator. Through the Word of God thus received, the Holy Spirit enters us. Without love for the Word of God, without receiving the Word, God’s Spirit cannot fully enter us. The Holy Spirit enters us only when we want him. When we deny our sinful will, inclined to evil, and choose the Good. The Holy Spirit is the essential goodness of the Word of God. What Jesus reveals and proclaims in the Word is appropriated by the Holy Spirit to anyone who truly desires it. The Holy Spirit causes the Word to begin to live in your heart and become the engine of your life.
Virgo Maria stands before us as the first Christian because Christianity begins where one accepts Christ. She is the model and mother of our spirituality, so let us greet her in the words of our Father St. Francis: “Hail, Holy Lady, Blessed Queen, Mother of God Mary, you are forever the Virgin, chosen from the Blessed Father from heaven, sanctified you by your Most Beloved Son and Comforter Spirit, in you was and is the fullness of grace and all good. Hail his house. Hail to his booth. Hail his abode. Hail his robe. Hail his maid. Hail his Mother and be greeted, you all holy virtues, which, by the grace and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, are poured into the hearts of believers so that you may not believe believers to God.