THE ANNUNCIATION

Mary had left the Temple and was now betrothed to a man called Joseph, although the final stage of the marriage had not yet happened.   Mary was probably still asking God to let her see the Messiah who was according to the writings of King David expected to arrive at this particular time..   Perhaps she also still wanted to serve the chosen Mother of the Messiah which was what she had prayed for in the temple.    Whatever her thoughts were they were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a young man.    He bent or knelt before her.  "Hail, full of grace".    He did not say "Rejoice, highly favoured one" a recent modern corruption of Luke, he said as scriptures faithfully translated for just less than two thousand years "Hail,full of grace, the Lords is with you?"   He could have said "Hail Saintly One" because the reason he was there was not because God had chosen Mary from a short list suitable candidates, but because she had been fashioned and born without the weakness of Original Sin and her soul was Immaculate as was befitting one who was to be the Mother of the Holy One Himself.    No angel or man was so specially created by God as Mary was and so the Angel knelt.

We are then told that Mary was disturbed at his saying and wondered what this salutation could mean.  Mary was a humble young lady who thought little of herself in the eyes of God, and to suddenly have an angel appear and fill her head with praise had her really confused.   "Fear not Mary" Gabriel went on "you have found favour with God".   He then went on to tell her she was to be the Mother of Jesus.   She, Mary, who had wanted to serve the Mother of the Messiah, found that she was being asked to be that Mother.     It is accepted by scholars that there would have been much more discussion between Mary and the Angel than is revealed in Scripture.    Mary was an intelligent young woman and would have asked many questions about what was being asked of her.   At length she faced up to the reality of what was being asked of her, and as Heaven stood still awaiting her consent or perhaps her refusal the future and salvation of humankind was in her hands.  

"Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy Will"   What beautiful words!   The Angels in Heaven rejoiced.   But notice the humility.   There was no phrases like "Well, if I am  the one you need then I guess I will go along with it"   There was no self in her answer.  What she said showed little change in her humility.   She was the servant of the Lord before the angel came and she was still the servant of the Lord when he left.    Nothing had changed as far as her relationship with God was concerned.   She was still his humble servant.

But can we really believe that Mary was just an arbitrary choice to be the Mother of Jesus?   That God the Father would just look for anyone to be the Mother of his beloved Son?    Who but this beloved daughter could have faced all the trials of the Nativity, the thought that Herod wanted his death, the knowledge that he was born to die on a Cross, and her own martyrdom of the heart which was pierced by the sword.   No, only one specially created by God to be that Mother could have been faithful to the Father and the Son.   Yet how little thanks we give to God for her, and how little thanks we give to Mary herself for her faithfulness.    She was given to us as a Mother by Jesus when he hung on the Cross.   Can we not please Jesus at least, by trying to love her as much as He did.