25/03/2026
March 25 | ๐
๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ง๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
The feast of the Annunciation, now recognized as a solemnity, was first celebrated in the fourth or fifth century. Its central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized. The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death: โNo one has greater love than this, to lay down oneโs life for oneโs friendsโ (John 15:13).
Mary has an important role to play in Godโs plan. From all eternity, God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that Godโs decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation. Because Mary is Godโs instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is Godโs grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by Godโs grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.
Mary is the virgin-mother who fulfills Isaiah 7:14 in a way that Isaiah could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38).
Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.
---
Let us pray!
O most holy Virgin Mary,
to whom God sent the Angel Gabriel to announce
that you should be the mother of His Only-Begotten Son,
pray for us who have recourse to you.
Holy, lovely Mary
We give our all to you
What is past and present,
And the future, too.
Blessed be the holy and Immaculate Conception of the most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.