The Annunciation
From the earliest times, the church, throughout the world, have professed the faith they received from the apostles that Christ "was born of a virgin and became man." That the Son of God was born of a woman and became man is the greatest mystery ever revealed to the world. This mystery was first announced by God through the prophet Isaiah during the reign of King Ahaz, who was of the house of David. In a time of great national distress, the Lord announced hope and salvation both to a floundering king and the people of Israel: a sign that God had not abandoned them but would come among his people and comfort them:
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isa 7:12). And today, on March 25th, we, with the whole church, commemorate the day that heaven announced salvation for Israel, even the whole world. Salvation to be born of a virgin whose name was Mary, of whom the angelic messenger hailed, saying, "Blessed art thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."
But why a virgin birth? Why did Immanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ, have to be born miraculously of a virgin? The most important reason to hold the belief in the Virgin Birth concerns Jesus' identity as God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. If Joseph were His true father, then Jesus would merely be human. He could not be the Son of God, as Scripture clearly states. He would have had His beginning in time rather than eternally existing.
A second and important reason concerns the sinless character of Christ. If Jesus had a human father, He would have inherited a sinful nature as the rest of us have. Scripture says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, . . . thus death spread to all because all sinned (Rom 5:12). On the contrary, St. Peter testifies that Jesus "committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth (1 Pt 2:22). And St. John testifies, "And you know that he [Jesus] was manifested to take away our sins, and in him, there is no sin (1 Jn 3:5). If Jesus were the Son of Joseph, His perfect sinlessness would be nothing but a myth.
But there is another answer to "why a virgin birth?" which we find when we open the Old Testament and see that salvation history prepared the world for the mystery of the virgin birth through Mary. It begins with Sarah, the mother of Isaac, who had been barren, but when she was well on in years and had lost the power of giving life, became, by the power of God, the mother of Isaac and so of the chosen people.
Then Anna, the mother of Samuel, who was likewise barren, but eventually gave birth; with the mother of Samson, or again with Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptizer. All these events mean the same: that salvation is of the Lord not by the will of man but solely as an act of Divine grace.
"Mary fear not, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS....and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David...and of his kingdom, there shall be no end." The angel pronounced unto Mary that the time had come for God to act and do His good work of salvation that he had promised from the very beginning.
In the fourth chapter of his epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes, when "the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (Gal 4:4). Of all the women on earth, Mary found favor with God and was elected by Him to bear The Holy Seed, to bring forth God incarnate.
And why? Paul continues, "To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." What the Angel Gabriel pronounced to Mary are the words that all of creation had longed to hear, hoped for right from the beginning! For the time had come for God to act, to bring fulfillment to the prophecy of Isaiah "the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isa 7.11), one born of a virgin, THE sign of ALL signs, signifying in Mary, that God was about to set in motion, the fulfillment of the covenantal promise He first pronounced in the Garden. To the serpent, God said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." While pronouncing curses upon the serpent, the woman, and the man, God announces a promise of salvation to reverse the curse which fell upon humanity, the creation, and the entire cosmos.
Genesis 3:15 is known as the proto-euangelion (first Gospel), foreshadowing the mystery of the Incarnation, a prophecy directly tied to the first Eve who succumbed to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (John 2:16): her husband neither protecting nor stopping her joined in her rebellion). But this first prophetic utterance of the Gospel is also intrinsically connected to the Second Eve (Mary), a virgin who would conceive and give birth to the second Adam, Jesus, who by His unfailing redemptive love would lower himself, and humbly be "made of a woman, made under the law… To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." In the words of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, "The one lying in wait for the serpent's head is the one who was born in the likeness of Adam from the woman, the Virgin. Paul spoke of this seed in the letter to the Galatians: The law of works was in force until the seed should come to whom the- promise was made" (Gal. 3:19).
"And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." Where the failing of the first Eve ushered in sin and death, Mary, the new Eve, triumphed. Eve, seduced by an angel's word, fled from God after disobeying his command. Mary, in turn, was given the good news by the pronouncement of an angel and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, Mary was persuaded into obedience to God. The Venerable Bede writes, "it was fitting that as by the pride of our first parent death came into the world, so by the lowliness of Mary should be opened the entrance into life."
God looked upon Mary's lowliness and humility and showed her great favor. For in her, the pride of the first Eve was not found but rather submission and humility, "be it unto me according to thy word." From the sin of Eve are born the living whose end is eternal death. From Mary, come the sons and daughters of eternal life, for Mary is the mother Jesus Christ, the second Adam, For "if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many" (Rom 5:15).
The lowliness of Mary was made the heavenly ladder by which God descended upon earth. Her humble obedience, her 'yes,' was the same humble obedience found in her Son, who on the tree of the cross, reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden; the good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin subject to a husband, undid the evil lie that seduced Eve, a virgin espoused to a husband. Thereby, she is our mother, the mother of us all, of all who love the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mary's example to us is not bound to any particular ethnicity, age, or gender. In her is found one who is to be exemplified and honored by all. She desires to make room for God, desiring to 'Magnify the Lord', not herself. She is lowly: her only desire is to be the handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1.38, 48). She knows that she will only contribute to the salvation of the world if, rather than carrying out her own projects, she places herself completely at the disposal of God's initiatives.
Mary is a woman of hope: only because she believes in God's promises and awaits the salvation of Israel can the angel visit her and call her to the decisive service of these promises. Mary is a woman of faith: "Blessed are you who believed," Elizabeth says to her (cf. Lk 1:45). She is consumed with God's word, The Magnificat—a portrait, so to speak, of her soul—is entirely woven from threads of Holy Scripture, threads drawn from the Word of God. Here we see how completely at home Mary is with the Word of God; with ease, she moves in and out of it.
But first and foremost, she is the example of womanhood. For she is a woman, fearfully and wonderfully made by God. She is made to endure the pain of childbirth. Made to nurture and to love. To feed and care, given keen wisdom, for correcting and teaching. Serving without reward, suffering this world and yet not losing hope; empathizing and sympathizing with the downcast. To be there to the very end, faithful and strong, all that God has uniquely made women to be. At this time of social and cultural confusion, we should embrace the God-given diversity of creation, his ordering of the thing, instead of re-ordering and re-defining what God has made. "Male and female, he made them." And, he made them different, uniquely male, uniquely female; he endowed each gender with certain qualities, natures, inclinations, talents, and purposes. So let us not shy away from celebrating the wonderful gift of womanhood and her vital role in God's redemptive plan.
To the woman, God appointed the role of child-bearer: from her, a Son would be born. And to the man, God appointed that he should be born to die: to be sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins: the sins of men and women. The fruit of salvation had to come from the woman's womb, without whom, we would remain the sons and daughters of Eve. Let us give thanks for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, who is the first fruit of Christ's saving work, a work which overcomes sin and death. And let us remember that God made our salvation possible by Her "yes," a word pregnant with hope and filled with the promise of everlasting life. So, with Mary, we too say unto the Lord, "be it unto me according to thy word," for we know full well the reward that awaits the lowly and faithful handmaidens of the Lord. Amen+
