The Church interrupts Her intense fasts once again today during this Passiontide in order to commemorate the sacred Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, in which we celebrate both our Lord and our Lady. Nonetheless, this solemnity, while it exempts one from the Lenten penances, cannot be considered outside of its Lenten context, as we shall see while meditating upon the Entrance Antiphon.
The Psalms and the Letter to the Hebrews give us many of these meditations upon the Incarnation of God the Son and the communication between God the Son and God the Father as the Son is sent by the Father into the world. This visible procession of God the Son proceeds from the eternal generation of God the Son from God the Father, and the visible mission of the Son is for our salvation, as John says in his Gospel, “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).” Additionally, later in John’s Gospel, before His Passion, Jesus says to the Father, “For this purpose I have come to this hour (John 12:27),” and the hour He was speaking of was the hour of His suffering and death for our salvation.
This communication with the Father, which Jesus has before the crowd before His Passion is but a manifestation of the eternal communication, which is what the Entrance Antiphon conveys to us, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus Christ declares, as He enters the world by taking flesh in the womb of Mary, that He comes to do the will of His Father. This was not, however, just a task for Him, as we may often think of it for us, but it was His very essence, the definition of the life of Christ. In the Gospel of John, once again, Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work (John 4:34).” The Incarnation of Christ and His life were directed toward the Redemption of humanity, to bringing mankind back to God the Father.
Within this earthly mission of Jesus, we may see the reflection of His Eternal Life in the Trinity, for the Son and the Holy Spirit are themselves directed to the Father, the Origin without origin and the Final End of all things. Therefore, all things that exist by God's eternal providence must also be directed to the Father as their Final End. Let us especially call to mind that hymn so often sung during the Christmas and Advent seasons, Veni Redemptor Gentium, and the verse which runs:
"From God the Father He proceeds,
to God the Father back He speeds;
His course He runs to death and hell,
returning on God's throne to dwell."
This feast of the Annunciation is so appropriately situated in the Lenten season, so close to the Triduum, because from the first moment of His earthly life in the Incarnation He was pointed towards the Crucifixion and Resurrection. In fact, the ancient tradition of the Church has always been that this day, March 25, is sanctified because of three events. The first is the belief that this is the day the world was created by God. The second reason is that which we commemorate today, the Incarnation of God the Son, and the third is because it is believed that this is the day upon which Christ was crucified.
While these events are not doctrinally tied to this day and there is no necessity in believing them (and even historical research gives reason not to believe the Incarnation took place on this day), the belief of the Church shows the important relationship these three events bear to one another, and which we may consider in light of the Entrance Antiphon.
The Creation of the world was God exercising His Almighty Power; He calls being into existence from non-being. The world is created ex nihilo - out of nothing. Through His eternal Word, all things were made, "and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:3-4)." Yet, as we have often considered this Lenten season, through Adam and Eve, sin and death entered the world, and the life that was originally bestowed by God was lost. The state of grace was no more.
This state of grace, lost by sin, would once more be seen upon the earth, for the eternal Son of God, becoming flesh in the womb of Mary would be the light that shines in the darkness (John 1:5). Although this light of the life of God was no longer present in the human race, yet God in His almighty power, brought it forth onto this earth once again!
Yet it was not in the Incarnation that this was first accomplished, but in the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lady, and thus this day is given both to the honor of Jesus and Mary. The Western Church has always considered this a Marian feast for the foregoing reason, while the Eastern Church has seen it more as a feast of our Lord, for the Incarnation is the visible manifestation of this light. Our Lady was not a public figure of the Church until the day of Pentecost; hers was a hidden life.
Just as light was created on the first day, so on the day of the Incarnation the Light from Light began to shine in the world. The last event believed to be accomplished on this day though cannot be overlooked, for it is the the culmination of the Incarnation - the Crucifixion. The moment when Christ was lifted up on the Cross is the moment when the Light that had come into the world began to shine for all the world! As darkness covered the earth (Matthew 27:45), Jesus Christ, "lifted up, draws all people to himself (John 12:32)!" On the Cross He is proclaimed "King of the Jews," in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, the languages of the Roman world, signifying that this proclamation was that He was King of all Nations (John 19:19-20). The ministry to the Jewish people would end, and the ministry to the Gentiles and all the nations of the earth was about to begin!
We celebrate this day, then, not simply because it is nine months before Christmas, but because it is tied in with the Paschal Mystery, through which the light of God's eternal life and love is again given to us. For this reason, at Baptism, we are given a candle, to symbolize this light that now shines in our souls through the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. But our nature can only be given this light if God the Son takes upon Himself a human nature, which He does in the Incarnation. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us (521, emphases in original)."
On account of His taking a human nature, the Eternal Son of God is able, then, to say "Behold, I come to do your will, O God," for in His Divinity He is God and His will is one with the Father. He could not do separately. And while it is true that on account of the Hypostatic Union Jesus Christ could not do anything than the will of God, this does not mean He did not have a human will. Rather, it means His human will was perfectly subject to the Divine Will. As God, He shares in the Divine Intellect and Will; as man, He has a human intellect and will. These two are united in perfect harmony in the Incarnation, and thus, as He comes into the world to do the will of the Father, the Son is made Lord, for, "he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:8-11)!"
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