The Annunciation of the Lord

In a happy convergence of dates, we pause on this Thursday before Palm Sunday to celebrate the day on which the Word, who will be offering his flesh and blood as our food and drink and his bodily death on the cross for our salvation next week on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, became flesh, took on our human nature and human body so that we might be redeemed from our sinfulness and rise with him to eternal life. W0w! That sentence reads like one of St. Paul's, filled to the top and overflowing. This day represents so much, it cannot be given justice in one sentence nor one paragraph. The Son of God becomes human: "To do your will is my delight" (Ps 40:9). The divine becomes human so that the human might partake of the divine. And so we do in our life of grace, in the Eucharist, and finally in union with God in heaven. And Mary's "Fiat", "Let it be done to me", echoes the Fiat of Jesus, and serves as an example of what our stance with God should be: always at his disposal, ready and willing to do his will. Not always easy, if we look at Mary's life, and especially along the Via Dolorosa and at the foot of the cross.
"Oh all ye that pass by the way stop and consider if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Mine eyes have failed with weeping as I behold the cruel death of my son." (cf. Lam 1:12). How our woes and sorrows pale in comparison to those of Jesus and Mary. And yet, "by his bruises we are healed" (Is 53: 5). When we face overwhelming and apparently unresolvable situations, we are prone to say, "Well, somehow, it will all work out", and it does. We are implicitly expressing the faith and trust in God's providence that enabled Jesus and Mary to do God's will. I suggest a slow praying of the Angelus throughout this day...now, as you finish this, at noon, and this evening. It succintly expresses what I've just written, as well as the whole mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption. "that we to whom the mystery of the Incarnation was made known by the message of an angel, may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurection, through Christ, our Lord. Amen."
Bro. Rene
P.S. I will be on an Encounter (retreat) with students and then on an Prayer Workshop till next Wednesday. No new slices of daily bread until the 31st.