YOU WILL BEAR A SON AND SHALL NAME HIM JESUS

Is 7,10-14; Ps 39; Heb 10,4-10; Lk 1,26-38
9 APRIL
About a thousand years before this time the Lord had promised David a king with the eternal, endless kingdom. About six centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah had announced that the virgin would have give birth. They are words, both of them laden with mystery. St. Paul reveals that the fullness of time comes with the Virgin Mary. That is, times are mature, ready, to welcome the Son of God that comes into the flesh.

Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever'” (2 Sam 7,16). Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel (Is 7,14). I mean that as long as the heir is not of age, he is no different from a slave, although he is the owner of everything, but he is under the supervision of guardians and administrators until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were not of age, were enslaved to the elemental powers of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God (Gal 4,1-7).

Even if the fullness of time has come, since in the work of incarnation, it needs the yes of the woman – alone he can upset heaven and earth and the distant galaxies, he can create a thousand new worlds and infinite universes, but alone he cannot make of his Only Son a son of Adam to redeem the sons of Adam – that is why he sends his Angel Gabriel. This comes, first he reveals to Mary who Mary is according to the most pure celestial vision. Then he announces her what the Lord wants from her: that she allows him to be able to fulfil in Her, through Her, in his Only Son, which will be born for Her, from Him, as a true man, all his words uttered to the Fathers since the creation of the world. Knowing the purity of the heart of the Virgin Mary, the Angel does not ask for anything from her; he tells her what will happen in her, for her. Then she will be the one to have to accept the will of the Lord manifested and let it be done without any obstacle on her part, even at the price of a full consecration to God, renouncing every human project. From this moment on Mary will have to be all of her Lord and for her Lord. She will have to be the “heaven of God” on our earth.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

As soon as the Angel finishes his speech, confirming that God asks only for the gift of herself, then He will be the one to do everything else, she must be with her Lord as the dust, without any resistance either of will, or of heart, either of mind, or of body; without even a moment of interval, immediately comes her answer: “Behold the servant of the Lord: come to me according to your word”. In this fraction of a second the Eternal Word, the Son of God, in her virginal womb, becomes the Son of man. The Incarnation of the Only Begotten of the Father upsets every mystery. Even the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is upset. Humanity is now part of it.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us part of the mystery of Jesus.