Handmaid of the Lord

Mary is the focus of today's liturgy. And that is quite in order. As we are immersed in awe and overpowered with joy before the great event of Jesus' birth on Christmas Day, we are liable to forget his mother and concentrate all our attention on the son who has been born to her.

This is particularly true today, in contrast with the old liturgy which, especially in eastern Christianity, clebrated the mystery of the Incarnation on March 25 with much greater solemnity than the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.

And today's Gospel is in fact the commemoration and a most simple description of the Incarnation, of God becoming man for our salvation. Martin Luther himself was quite right when he wrote: "The day when the angel came to Mary and brought her the message from God may be fittingly called the feast of Christ's humanity, for it was then that began our deliverance."

God, of course, in His infinite power and wisdom, could have done without Mary to bring about our salvation. But He wanted His Son to become a human being without losing His divinity: made of flesh and blood and born of a woman. He wanted to be entirely like us, except for sin, so that we may be enabled to become like Him.

Through Mary, if we may say so, we human beings have somehow made our contribution to the mystery of our own salvation. And this attitude of ours should be manifested throughout our whole lives for, as St Augustine put it: "He who created you without you, will not save you without you."

"Behold the servant of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word!" The request made to Mary by God through an angel, so impossible as it must have seemed to her, was soon taken quite seriously by her. She only wished to know in what way it could have been realised, as she was still a virgin and not yet married. All Mary needed was the assurance by the angel that God, being all-powerful, could nonethless make it possible somehow. Hence Mary's prompt submission to God's plan: "I am only the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me as you say."

To help us reflect on the great mystery of the Incarnation, I find no more suitable words than those written by John Henry Newman. "Mary is the pattern of our faith. She does not think it enough to accept, she dwells upon it; not enough to possess, she uses it; not enough to assent, she develops it; not enough to submit to the Reason, but she reasons upon it; not indeeed reasoning first, and believing afterwards, yet first believing without reasoning, and then reasoning after believing."

We have no idea what God would accomplish through us, no matter who and what we are if, like Mary, we make ourselves at all times available to Him. We are all God's children. Whatever our status in the Church or in society may be, we are all invited to share in Christ's redemtive mission.

Through Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, God's Good News that we are all his children and are called to salvation has reached us, and it is now our turn not only to go on living it with joy, but also to proclaim it with courage to the world around us: to our families and friends, in our place of work and in social life.

The mystery of the Incarnation has been announced to each one of us as well, and it is now our turn to proclaim it to others.