Lady Day is the traditional name for the feast of the Annunciation as Google explains:
25 March is Lady Day, Feast of the Annunciation and the first quarter day of the year….. Lady Day was also the first day of the calendar year in England and Wales until 1752.
Google also gives a good starting point for our reflection: From the earliest recorded history, the feast has been celebrated on 25 March, commemorating both the belief that the spring equinox was not only the day of God’s act of Creation but also the beginning of Christ’s redemption of that same Creation. Christian antiquity held 25 March as the actual day of Jesus’ death.
This year, the Annunciation was in Holy Week and so we are celebrating the feast after Easter. Yet the Annunciation then would have been a pointer towards the events we remembered later that week and into Easter Week. The events of our salvation began with the Annunciation and come to a climax at Easter. “Behold I come to do your will” from the psalm is the saying associated with this feast. It is applied to Jesus himself but it is also true of Mary his mother and indeed for all of us.
Traditionally, the feast has been celebrated as the Annunciation to Mary but today out focus is on the Lord and the beginning of the Incarnation. Reflecting on the scene of the Annunciation in the Gospel we will hear about both Jesus and Mary.
We begin with Mary whose acceptance of the angel’s message is well known. Only with her free agreement could God’s plan to send his Son into our world begin to be fulfilled. The scene of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke comes in the story known as the infancy narrative. This is a complete story alternating the annunciation and births of John the Baptist and Jesus, with the two coming together at the Visitation. The reference to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy links the two annunciations. They are a contrast, especially as that of John is in the Temple in Jerusalem while that of Jesus in an obscure village called Nazareth.
The visit of the Archangel to Mary reminds us of the prophetic calls to Isaiah and Jeremiah. The angel is sent by God to a virgin named Mary; this recalls Isaiah where a young woman is with child.
In the Greek Old Testament, the young woman is a virgin and this is the understanding of the Gospels. Modern translations which use the Hebrew “handmaid” may not make this point clear. Mary is more troubled by the angel’s greeting than was Zechariah though without his fear. There are those in the OT who voiced their concerns about their mission, notably Jeremiah. The angel then gives her his message, promising a child. Mary not surprisingly asks a question and the angel tells her more. Reassured, Mary accepts and agrees to what God is asking of her. “Servant” is better than the traditional “handmaid” as it captures the sense better.
Today, we would call this discernment, the process of making a choice. Mary gathered all available information from the angel before she took the risk of agreeing. The risk of the choice became only too evident as events unfolded but we are also told several times that Mary pondered and reflected in her heart on what was happening. That is the continuing role of discernment which is important for us too. The angel therefore tells Mary about her child and so tells us as well. He first says the child is to be named Jesus. He will be son of the most high and inherit all the promises made to David. The reference to the house of David makes the encounter between David and Nathan in 2nd Samuel a key to understanding this scene. That episode revolves around various meanings of “house”. David having built a house, a palace, for himself, wants to build a house, a temple, for God. The God of Israel being a God of the desert does not want to be tied down to a Temple but then he does promise a house, that is a dynasty, for David. Joseph of the house of David therefore becomes the heir to the promises made to David. These are also the great messianic prophecies of Isaiah. “The kingdom without end” appears in the late prophecy of Daniel when there was much interest in future expectations. This has had enormous influence on Christian thinking.
After Mary’s first response, the angel then tells her how this will come about which much the same message as the Gospel of Matthew. The two evangelists agree that conception would be by the Holy Spirit. John would be great in the sight of the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus however will be conceived by the Holy Spirit and so be the Son of God as well as the Son of Mary.
Besides Mary’s openness to the will of God, the Annunciation is important because it gives us who hearer the Gospel all we need to know about Jesus as we follow the unfolding story.
Fr Patrick Lombard O.Carm
