Mar 24 2009
Let It Be Done to Me According to Your Word
As we anticipate the great Solemnity of the Annunciation which we will celebrate tomorrow, we recall that salvation entered the world through a woman, and we pray with Pope Benedict that the nations of the world will recognize the value of women and their unique role. Our reflection is from a homily the Holy Father gave on this feast in 2006.
And yet – today of all days we contemplate this aspect of the Mystery – the divine wellspring flows through a privileged channel: the Virgin Mary. St Bernard speaks of this using the eloquent image of aquaeductus. In celebrating the Incarnation of the Son, therefore, we cannot fail to honor his Mother. The Angel’s proclamation was addressed to her; she accepted it, and when she responded from the depths of her heart: “Here I am… let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1: 38), at that moment the eternal Word began to exist as a human being in time. …
In fact, the Angel, “appearing to her”, does not call her by her earthly name, Mary, but by her divine name, as she has always been seen and characterized by God: “Full of grace”, and the grace is none other than the love of God; thus, in the end, we can translate this word: “beloved” of God (Luke 1: 28). Origen observes that no such title had ever been given to a human being, and that it is unparalleled in all of Sacred Scripture.
It is a title expressed in passive form, but this “passivity” of Mary, who has always been and is for ever “loved” by the Lord, implies her free consent, her personal and original response: in being loved, in receiving the gift of God, Mary is fully active, because she accepts with personal generosity the wave of God’s love poured out upon her. In this too, she is the perfect disciple of her Son, who realizes the fullness of his freedom and thus exercises the freedom through obedience to the Father.
Today’s Readings: Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12; Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9; John 5:1-16
