March 25, 2011 Friday: Feast of Annunciation of the Lord
Click to hear audio homily
"It was an accident." I hear some couples say about an 'unplanned pregnancy'. We know that there can never be a conception and birth without love. Without that profound embrace between a father and a mother, there can never result a beautiful child who is the "flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone" of his parents. Love begets love, and once arrived this little 'love' smiles back and cries after mommy and daddy. The parents may not have directly planned for a child, but the child is eventually accepted and loved by the parents.
In the Annunciation of Our Lord where Archangel Gabriel announced to Blessed Virgin Mary that she will conceive a child by the power of the Holy Spirit, it took love to beget love. It wasn't the limited embrace of a human father and a human mother, but an infinite Love embracing a frail human woman; yet this frail woman was different. She trusted like no other human person did in the history of mankind, trusting the God who was embracing her. Heaven knew that she was different. Archangel Gabriel addressed her not by her name, but by whom she was, "Hail, full of grace." She fully embraced the infinite Love who not only willed this child Jesus, but also the plans for her life to be a gift to the rest of humanity. People throughout history would cry out to her, "Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope." She, being embraced by this infinite Love, shares with others this Love she has received.
Mother Teresa states it beautifully. She said, "Mary, in the mystery of her annunciation and visitation, is the very model of the way we should live, because first she received Jesus in her life; then what she had received, she had to share. In every Holy Communion, Jesus the Word becomes flesh in our life--a special, delicate, beautiful gift of God."
We, who are embraced by this same infinite Love at every Communion, are asked to do the same, to share with others this Love we have received.
