The Annunciation of the Lord (March 25th)

As we have observed in previous weeks, the Church commemorates very few saints and celebrates only a relatively few major feast days in the late winter / early spring when the season of Lent is generally celebrated.  Indeed, outside of Sunday, this week the Church celebrates only one special feast day:

March 23rd - THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT (1st Scrutiny for Catechumens) 

March 25th - THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD - Solemnity



Thus one’s choice for a reflection for this week is quite easy:  I’m going to be writing about the Annunciation of the Lord.


Further, the reason why the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord falls at this time ought not to be hard to understand: If the Church has chosen to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord on December 25th, Jesus’ conception would have occurred nine months before, hence the purely mathematical reason for why we celebrate the  Annunciation of the Lord on March 25th.


There are however fascinating invitations for reflection here.  Since the beginning, the Church has always maintained that Easter Sunday rather than Christmas was really the most important Feast Day in the life of the Church.  So even the as we contemplate on March 25th the Announcement to Mary of God’s plan to bring Jesus into this world, this day remains “overshadowed” by the Pascal Mystery of Easter, that Jesus didn’t come into this world as a tourist, instead through the Cross and Resurrection, he came here to redeem us.


Indeed, though it happens rarely, occasionally both Good Friday and Easter fall on this day, March 25th.  I belong to a religious order, the Friar Servants of Mary, who consider their founding year to be 1233 in good part because that in 1233, the Feast of the Annunciataion fell on Good Friday.  So the joy of the Annunciation of the coming of the Lord is / was tempered by the reality of why he was coming – to suffer and die for us, so that all of us may live.


This then is then an important way to understand this Feast Day, and even in good part the role of Mary in our Faith:


In the last chapter of the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, the Second Vatican Council identified the two key roles that Mary plays in the Faith:  


She is important in the Mystery of Christ.  Indeed, we celebrate today her response of “yes” to God’s plan.  


And she is important in the Mystery is also key in the Mystery of the Church: She serves as Jesus’ first and most perfect disciple inviting us to _also_ give our “yes” to God.


Thus then we remember Mary’s yes to God, even though her decision carried with it pain, both for her and for Jesus.  Yet we ask the Lord to be steadfast in our own faith to walk with the Lord and his plan for us and for the world as well.


Holy Mary of the Annunciation, pray for us!

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