The Annunciation

Catholic presentation

The first joyful mystery

Behold!  The very moment when the perfect plan of the Almighty hung in the balance.  And make no mistake about it, His plan was vital for our future.  No plan, no future.  No salvation, no eternal joy.  God had made all of creation for you, for me, and after the first human mistake, that of Adam and Eve saying we can do without Him, His people started heaping up more mistakes.  It became clear that His peole weren't going to succeed on their own.  Their only chance was to get back to God.  But God was out of their reach.  They were lost with no-one to guide them.  Yet the Father was there, and he was determined to help them come home.  God our Father had a plan, and it wasn't a 'go get a map' kind of plan either.  That's not His style.  God puts His feet and hands where his heart is.  Not just feet and hands, but His whole being.  And where is His heart?  Where but with you!  As the following pages will tell..

Our faithful God doesn't give up on us, but every time he helps us, and gives us a chance, we have a choice.

And so it was: He would come and wash us clean, carry our faults, fish us out of our self-made hopeless wishful lives, and win us a chance to be made fit for the greatest hope there could be - the expectation of Heaven itself!

Now for the bad news.  Being fit first requires you to get fit first.  It's a rarely mentioned fact of revelation, that only the really spiritually fit can hack it in Heaven.  Sorry about that, there's no dodging this exercise plan!

As with physical fitness, you have to have two key qualities if you're going to succeed, and they've little to do with what you wear!

• the first is to simply make a start sometime, somewhere, and
• the second is to follow through with commitment.

Of course it helps to know what you're doing, but with God, we can take that as read.  To put His plan into action, God needed one person to commit in particular.  Why?  Well, because Eve had messed up in the Garden of Eden..

I know, a bit of a leap in the narrative, but bear with me.  Who was Eve?  Well, in one respect she was just a woman, like Adam was just a man.  But what Eve (and Adam) did, had repercussions.  It mattered.  And God wants you to know that what you do matters too.  Lots.  And it affects more than just you.  Just like Adam and Eve lost us paradise, so one woman and one man were to win us a way into Heaven.  Really what one person does can matter a great deal.  I started by saying that 'the perfect plan of the Almighty hung in the balance'.  Don't take my word for it.  The Orthodox have long said of this scene:

"all creation held its breath, wondering what her answer would be."

The point is, if Mary says yes to the Angel, then the plan can proceed, but if she says 'no', then you and I and everyone else just can't have God's plan put into action.  And God chose a young girl for this.  Admittedly, she was a girl he trusted, the Angel says to her "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God", but if he tells her "Do not be afraid", then we know she is not yet in on the plan.  So what chance is there of her committing to the out-of-this world stranger's offer?  Was God wise to hinge everything on her choice?

We like choice nowadays, but do we like God to put our future in the hands of one young girl?  And if so, do we like God to drop it on her like this?  Doesn't sound like earthly wisdom, but it is one of those tell-tale signs of the things of God, that at first sight they appear a bit back-to-front.  If you trust that He is God and wants what is best for you, then you don't ask 'was this wise Lord'!  Rather you look at what He says, and try to draw out some advice from it.  The Angel is God's messenger, and he said to Mary, "Do not be afraid".  In other words, God knows what He is doing, so it's OK to trust Him.  See what happened next..

..the young girl gave her answer: "Here I am, the servant of the Lord." adding, "Let it be with me according to your word", just in case anyone wasn't sure she had the commitment!

If "all creation had held its breath", and even the Angels had stopped in their tracks, then at that moment, imagine the relief: the girl had agreed!  God had made a good choice - did anyone doubt it?  God is not a gambler!  Stand back and be amazed: clearly, even a young woman's free will matters the world to him!  And so does yours.

So take a moment now to look at the image, and meditate on how this young girl gave her 'yes' to the Word of God.  How in saying yes she was covered by the Holy Spirit who is God.  How God honoured her by making her His spouse.  Together they conceived your Saviour and mine.

At that moment of His conception, Jesus was a tiny single cell embryo: truly unique, living and human, fully God and fully (male) man.  As a single cell, He had the same full complement of genetic information, as would one day hang on the Cross as a once-for-all sacrifice.

Mary's choice was not the only 'thin wire' that Jesus walked to fulfil the Father's plan.  Life in the womb can be precarious, especially in the early days.  Could our Lord have been lost to us before the plan really got under way?  Might Mary have reversed her choice?  Perhaps you'd rather I didn't mention it, but choices can matter.