Reflection for the Vigil of the Annunciation of the Lord

Behold, in his loving Kindness, the Lord shows us the way to Life.

Behold in God’s loving kindness, God sent the angel Gabriel to deliver a message to a young Jewish woman named Mary in a simple town called Nazareth. After a greeting that startles and perplexes Mary—a greeting given to prophets before Mary—the messenger Gabriel says: Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. Expanding upon the disclosure of God’s mysterious message the angel says Behold: Your cousin Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy!

Confused, besought by questions…Mary engages with Gabriel about this message. She takes in this incredible invitation. It takes a lot of pondering on our part to see her transformation from bewilderment to inward pondering to outward declaration:  Behold! I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to God’s will.

The Greek word idou, meaning Behold, appears over 200 times in the New Testament. It means: stop, look, listen—God is effecting big change for the good.

Gabriel is sent by God to deliver the invitation to Mary to play a key role in God’s plan for big change.

Of the three synoptic gospels, only Luke records Mary’s interaction with Gabriel. Following Gabriel’s message, Mary, perplexed, regains her equanimity and questions the invitation from God—How can this be? I do not know man. Gabriel gives a response about the Holy Spirit….and Mary responds: Behold! (You, Gabrielle, stop, look, listen) I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to God’s will.

Handmaid is used in tonight’s translation for the Greek word doule, meaning “slave”. To interpret Mary’s response as one of servitude, however, is misguided and harmful.  There is another interpretation which says that Mary uses her agency as a free, active participant in God’s invitation. Perhaps Mary’s self-identification as handmaid is her way of saying she wants to fully and wholeheartedly respond to the request of the God she knows loves her. Love for love.

Annunciations continue to happen. Think of the ways in which God has intervened in your life. Or ways in which you have beheld the mystery of God. Where has that beholding led you?

Gabriel tells Mary it is the work of the Holy Spirit that will effect God’s action. The Holy Spirit is living, active, and effective. When I was young I was attracted to prayer and service. In college I admired the sisters who taught me…Ultimately it is the Holy Spirit that led me here—the prayer that we have prayed weekly in our faith gatherings on the Beatitudes is the prayer I prayed for many years prior to entering this monastic community—come, holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, kindle in us the fire of your love. …God’s entrance into the ordinariness of our lives happens often. Annunciations invite us to open ourselves to the healing power of the Holy Spirit—to forgiveness, to hope, to the trust and reliance on God that those who are poor in spirit possess. To the belief that God desires to repair the world and desires our full agency as we like Mary, grapple with what we feel the Spirit is calling us to, as we engage in questioning, personally and as a community, and as we, in faith, respond to the invitation of change, however that looks.

Archbishop Shawn’s invitation to faith sharing this Lent has been centered on the Beatitudes. Those of us who were able to participate began by sharing with one another what it means to be poor in spirit, to know one’s dependance on God, to trust God. Jesus began his Sermon on the Mount with this beatitude- He learned this from his mother. We see how this beatitude was alive and active in Mary. 

. Tomorrow we sing at morning prayer and at Mass, “Here am I Lord. I come to do your will.” Let us learn from Mary’s poverty of spirit, her trust in God, nurtured, most probably, by the words of the psalms. Let us be nurtured in the practice of beholding—stopping, looking, listening, and expecting change for the good. In doing so, we can offer hope to one another, to our guests and loved ones, and to the world—the hope expressed in Mary’s own annunciation—her Magnificat. Let us open our eyes to the Light that comes from God to us each day, calling us to share in that Light.

Behold, the Lord in his loving kindness shows us the way to life.