Important Feature
Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, to people of good will. We praise You, we bless You, we worship You, we glorify You, we give You thanks for Your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, Almighty God and Father; Lord Jesus Christ, only-Begotten Son of the Father: and You, O Holy Spirit. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father: You take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us. You are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer. For You alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Annunciation 2009
Homily of His Eminence, Archbishop Stephen
The Feast of the Annunciation
Tuesday, March 25/April 7, 2009
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Welcome my brothers and sisters in Christ to today's celebration of the Divine Liturgy that commemorates the Annunciation of the Lord. This special feast commemorates the moment when the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would give birth to the Child Jesus. (Isaiah. 7:14; Luke 1:26-38) It was the moment when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that the incarnation of God would be fulfilled through her. This was the official announcement that the Word of God would become man.
For centuries prior to the birth of Christ, God's chosen people had been waiting for the promised Messiah. As we heard during the First Reading, (Isaiah. 7:10-4, 8:10) around the years 742 to 715 B.C., God spoke to king Ahaz through Isaiah. King Ahaz was told to ask the Lord God for a sign, any sign that he wanted to have. But king Ahaz refused to ask God for a sign, indicating that he would not put God to the test. Consequently, the Lord God chose a sign of His own to give. God said, "Look, the young woman, is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel." (Isaiah. 7:14) "Immanuel" (Matthew 1:23; Isaiah. 7:14) means "God is with us."
In the Douay English Translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible of 1609 A.D., it states, "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." This older version of the Holy Bible uses the words "a virgin" versus the words "the young woman" that are found in many newer versions of the Holy Bible.
This promise of God that was made to king Ahaz came to its fulfillment at the Annunciation to Mary. The Annunciation to Mary was the formal beginning of "the fullness of time." (Galatians 4:4) It was the moment when Mary was invited to conceive Jesus in whom the "whole fullness of deity" would dwell "bodily". (Colossians 1:19; 2:9]
The apparition of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary took part in a small town in the mountains of Galilee. There, Gabriel came to Mary, a descendant of the royal blood of king David. At the time, Mary who was living in her mother's house, was engaged to be married to Joseph who also was of the same royal blood.
When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." When Mary heard these words, she was confused because she did not know who the angel was, why he had come, or the meaning for this kind of salutation.
The exact meaning of the word "grace" in Greek implies more than "fullness"; it implies "instrumentality." It was a calling to the Blessed Virgin Mary to become an instrument of the Lord God. It was a calling that demanded a "Fiat," total submission, unconditional trust in the Divine Providence.
The angel told Mary not to have any fear for she had found grace (favor) with God. Behold, she would conceive in her womb and bring forth a Son who shall be called Jesus. As foretold in the Scriptures, He shall be great. (Luke. 1:32; Psalm. 86:10; 96:4) He will be called the Son of the Most High. (Luke. 1:32; Genesis. 14:19; Sirach. 24:2) The Lord God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David. (Luke. 1:32; Isaiah. 9:7) He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. (Luke. 1:33; 2 Samuel. 7:12, 13, 16) And of His kingdom there will be no end. (Psalm. 24:7, 10; 97:1; Genesis 21:33; Daniel. 12:7) History tells us today that all these things have come to pass for the glory of God.
From these prophetic words, the Virgin Mary understood the message to mean the announcement of the coming Redeemer. But how could this be since she was a virgin who had vowed her virginity to God? Why should she be chosen among all women to be the mother of the Messiah?
To remove Mary's anxiety and to assure her that her virginity would be preserved, the angel Gabriel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High shall overshadow her. To further support the birth of the Child, the angel informed Mary that her cousin Elizabeth who was of old age, was presently pregnant and also would have a child. In response to the angel's Annunciation, Mary gave her "Fiat" by saying, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word."
As was said earlier, the Name Immanuel means, "God is with us." Also, in Hebrew, the name Jesus means: "God saves." When the angel gave the Name of Jesus at the Annunciation, he gave the Lord His proper Name that expressed His identity and His mission. (Luke. 1:31) For God alone can forgive sins. It is God who, in Jesus His eternal Son made man, "will save His people from their sins." (Matthew. 1:21)
Through Mary at the moment of the Annunciation, Jesus entered the world in His human nature. Through Mary, He became a member of the human race. Through Mary, Jesus was given to the world for the salvation of mankind.
Through Mary, a Virgin pure, holy and faithful, Jesus received His human form to become the perfect sacrifice and sin offering according to the Divine Will of God the Father. Through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus came an end to the imperfect sacrifices and sin offerings of bulls and goats. For these, offered according to the law, were imperfect in nature.
Now that the former law, the Covenant of the Law, has been permanently abolished, the second, the Covenant of Grace, has been established. And so, by God's will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For it is not by our own doing or the doing of our best friends, nor by our works or the works of our best friends, that we are saved. Salvation is a free gift that has been given to us through Jesus Christ.
Today's message also deals with the vocation of Mary. This double revelation about the mystery of Christ and the vocation of Mary is for us a cause of holy rejoicing and fervent acclamation. Let us rejoice and acclaim our Savior and His Mother in the Spirit and with the lyrics of the Akathist Hymn, which was originally composed for the Annunciation out of reverence for the Incarnation of the Son of God. The first stanza reads as follows:
Rejoice (or: Hail), through you joy rings out again.
Rejoice, through you sorrow is put to flight.
Rejoice, O resurrection of fallen Adam.
Rejoice, O redemption of the tears of Eve.
Rejoice, O sublime peak of human intellect.
Rejoice, O profound abyss even for Angel eyes.
Rejoice, for in you the King's throne was elevated.
Rejoice, for you bear the One Who sustains every thing.
Rejoice, O star that go before the Sun.
Rejoice, O womb of the incarnate God.
Rejoice, for through you all creation is renewed.
Rejoice, for through you the Creator became a baby.
Rejoice, O Virgin and Bride!
Unfortunately, today our joy is not unperturbed–-or at least not unchallenged. The Episcopal “bishop”, John Spong, in his book, "Born of a Woman," enthusiastically espouses Jane Schaberg's thesis of Jesus' illegitimacy. Was Jesus the child of adultery–he asks–the product of seduction? Was Mary a violated woman, the victim of rape? Could the Holy Spirit be perceived - he suggests - as validating a child conceived in either rape or seduction as a life chosen by God for the accomplishment of God's will? Spong concludes his thoughts, saying: "Given the status of women and the moral climate of the first century, would not that kind of birth and that kind of affirmation be perceived as a miracle far more stunning than the so-called Virgin birth?"
While 83% of Americans want to believe in miracles–-real miracles–- Mr. Spong draws the line at the Virgin birth. This may not sound like much of a theological argument. And, in fact, it is not. However, reading some of the literature mentioned, one gets the impression that the miracle of the Virgin birth is looked upon as a slur on sexual intercourse and that sexual intercourse is the one thing still venerated in this un-venerating age. If such a line of thought is true and accurate, then why not look upon the feeding of the 5,000 as an insult to bakers and fishermen, too!?
The Virgin birth is a doctrine plainly stated in the Nicene Creed that Jesus had no physical father, and was not conceived as a result of sexual intercourse. The exact details of such a miracle - an exact point and mode through which a supernatural event enters this world - are not part of the doctrine.
In the normal act of generation the human father is a carrier, sometimes an unwilling carrier, always the last in a long line of carriers that stretches back far beyond his ancestors into pre-human and pre-organic times, back to the beginning of creation itself. That line is in God's hand.
Once, only once, and for a special purpose, God dispensed with that long line which is His instrument. Once, His life-giving hand touched a woman without passing through the ages of interlocked events. Once, the great glove of nature - as C.S. Lewis says - was taken off His hand. There was, of course, a unique reason for it. That time, He was not simply creating a human being, but the man who was to be Himself: He was creating man anew. He was beginning, at this divine and human point, the new creation of all things.
This is the point, however, where the Virgin birth has to be resituated in the broader context of the Annunciation Event. Only thus can we understand and participate in Mary's own confrontation with the miracle of the Virgin birth.
Mary lives in faith whose very essence is expansive, a seeking faith that finds much without ever concluding its perusal. With God a final vision is never possible. Even in eternity we will not see exhaustively, for all discovery only provokes renewed seeking. God is beyond measure. St. Augustine says, “He is so much beyond measure that even when discovered He may be further sought.”
So that we may eternally investigate the depths of deity, the Spirit of God who searches the depths will be placed in our hearts (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12). Yet because this spirit is already placed in our hearts (Romans 5:5), together with Mary as our model, we can begin our research - securely believing, though not understanding everything, that God always opens Himself up, even here on earth, to the one who contemplates and prays to Him unceasingly.
There is a good reason why the Annunciation occurs during Great Lent. Two good reasons, actually. Of course there is the rather cute little device of the calendar. This day, the day that Mary finds out that she is pregnant, occurs just exactly nine months before the Nativity of the Lord in December. But, there is a deeper, subtler reason.
In Great Lent, we talk about the way in which God decided to save the world. It happens through the death and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And, so it seems fitting that we pause for a moment to remember the very first moment when Jesus was introduced onto the stage of salvation history, that moment when He began His life within the womb of His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we honor with the title Theotokos.
The Annunciation is one of those events which points to the human nature of Jesus. The Church has traditionally taught that Jesus is both God and human, and today we consider the implications that He was born of an earthly mother, conceived in a unique way, but conceived nevertheless.
Pope St. Leo the Great, who was the Bishop of Rome in the fifth century, wrote about the mystery of the dual nature of Christ in these words: “He who is true God was therefore born in the complete and perfect nature of a true human being, whole in His own nature, whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from the beginning and took to Himself in order to perfect it.”
It is that last line to which I want to refer today. The human situation that Leo describes is like this: Our nature is holy in that God created us, it is flawed, in that we have abused and distorted it, and it is to be restored by being taken to God. God fixes the human situation by taking us to Himself. That is my point.
The Annunciation is in part about the way that God gives humanity a compassionate embrace. Remember what Leo said: “God took us to Himself in order to restore our human nature”.
The Annunciation is the first step in the drama of God taking us to Himself. The Annunciation speaks of a God who, like a father stirred by his child's pain, scoops the child up and holds it to closely to his chest, where pain will be eased, loneliness assuaged, and fear washed away.
As truly as God speaks to us as the Lord of History, the one who emerges victorious over death, the one who will rule and reign in glory at the end of time, God also speaks to us as the one who takes us tenderly into His arms, nurtures us as a mother nurses her children, and takes us to His own self when we are in the pain of loss, guilt, sin, and death.
In the Church's great prayer, we pray that Mary the virgin mother of the Lord will pray for us to the Lord our God, and as we say that prayer, remember too that the God to whom she prays is still the God who takes us to Himself in order to restore us to the Glory which He originally intended for us.
Amen.