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This day rightly should be known as the Incarnation of Our Lord, for on this day we remember and thank God for the fact that He sent His Son into this fallen world of ours, to redeem us and save us from our sins. This dramatic rescue-operation starts with a visit to the Most Blessed Virgin, Mary, who said, upon hearing the news that she had been chosen to be the Mother of God, “Let it be to me, according to Your Word” and then later, when she visited her cousin Elizabeth, she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Our souls magnify the Lord. Our souls rejoice, along with Mary’s, in God our Savior.
Since the Church from early days observed 25 March as the date of the Annunciation, the celebration of the Christ’s Nativity is observed on 25 December, nine months later. For centuries in vast parts of Europe, 25 March also marked the change to the new year. While it seems somewhat odd and abrupt to change years in the middle of a month, we can imagine that those accustomed to that calendar easily made the adjustment. Furthermore, they could take to heart the reminder that God’s chosen time, that most special time when He sent His Son into human flesh, merited such a “strange” circumstance.
Even though the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth took place six months later (see Luke 1:39-56) — as Elizabeth neared the end of her own pregnancy with the child who would grow to become John the Baptizer — Mary’s song of celebration at that time is also appropriate to remember on the Feast of the Annunciation. In the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) the virgin mother of God celebrated God’s gift to her, to Israel, and to all people.
Martin Luther wrote a commentary on this canticle. About verse 49, he said, "The ‘great things’ are nothing less than that she became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed upon her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among whom she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in Heaven, and such a child.
"She herself is unable to find a name for this work, it is too exceedingly great; all she can do is break out in the fervent cry: ‘They are great things,’ impossible to describe or define. Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God.
“No one can say anything greater of her or to her, though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees, or grass in the fields, or stars in the sky, or sand by the sea. It needs to be pondered in the heart, what it means to be the Mother of God.”
What a joyful/joyous festival the Annunciation is. We rejoice in the angel’s announcement to Mary that she will be the mother of God, and she, the dear and most highly favored Lady, responds in God-given humility, full of God’s grace: “Let it be done to me, even as you have said.” And with the angel’s announcement, the Holy Spirit conceived a son, the Son, within her womb and truly then the Second Adam looked at us and said, “I am flesh of your flesh and bone of your bones.” A great and awesome mystery here, before which finally words end and all we can do is bend our faces to the ground and adore the thrice-holy One who sends Himself to be with us, among us, and one of us us, in order, for us and for our salvation, to go to the cross and there purchase and win us from sin, death and the devil with His holy and innocent and precious blood.
O Lord, as we have known the incarnation of Your Son Jesus Christ by the message of the angel to the Virgin Mary, so by the message of His cross and passion bring us to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
This day rightly should be known as the Incarnation of Our Lord, for on this day we remember and thank God for the fact that He sent His Son into this fallen world of ours, to redeem us and save us from our sins. This dramatic rescue-operation starts with a visit to the Most Blessed Virgin, Mary, who said, upon hearing the news that she had been chosen to be the Mother of God, “Let it be to me, according to Your Word” and then later, when she visited her cousin Elizabeth, she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Our souls magnify the Lord. Our souls rejoice, along with Mary’s, in God our Savior.
Since the Church from early days observed 25 March as the date of the Annunciation, the celebration of the Christ’s Nativity is observed on 25 December, nine months later. For centuries in vast parts of Europe, 25 March also marked the change to the new year. While it seems somewhat odd and abrupt to change years in the middle of a month, we can imagine that those accustomed to that calendar easily made the adjustment. Furthermore, they could take to heart the reminder that God’s chosen time, that most special time when He sent His Son into human flesh, merited such a “strange” circumstance.
Even though the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth took place six months later (see Luke 1:39-56) — as Elizabeth neared the end of her own pregnancy with the child who would grow to become John the Baptizer — Mary’s song of celebration at that time is also appropriate to remember on the Feast of the Annunciation. In the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) the virgin mother of God celebrated God’s gift to her, to Israel, and to all people.
Martin Luther wrote a commentary on this canticle. About verse 49, he said, "The ‘great things’ are nothing less than that she became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed upon her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among whom she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in Heaven, and such a child.
"She herself is unable to find a name for this work, it is too exceedingly great; all she can do is break out in the fervent cry: ‘They are great things,’ impossible to describe or define. Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God.
“No one can say anything greater of her or to her, though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees, or grass in the fields, or stars in the sky, or sand by the sea. It needs to be pondered in the heart, what it means to be the Mother of God.”
What a joyful/joyous festival the Annunciation is. We rejoice in the angel’s announcement to Mary that she will be the mother of God, and she, the dear and most highly favored Lady, responds in God-given humility, full of God’s grace: “Let it be done to me, even as you have said.” And with the angel’s announcement, the Holy Spirit conceived a son, the Son, within her womb and truly then the Second Adam looked at us and said, “I am flesh of your flesh and bone of your bones.” A great and awesome mystery here, before which finally words end and all we can do is bend our faces to the ground and adore the thrice-holy One who sends Himself to be with us, among us, and one of us us, in order, for us and for our salvation, to go to the cross and there purchase and win us from sin, death and the devil with His holy and innocent and precious blood.
O Lord, as we have known the incarnation of Your Son Jesus Christ by the message of the angel to the Virgin Mary, so by the message of His cross and passion bring us to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.