Annunciation Gospel: The Herald Of Good Tidings
Saturday, 25 March 2006
Today, the universal church celebrates the Annunciation to the blessed Virgin Mary, an event which in the Gospel of Luke heralds the coming of the Messiah for the Jewish nation. In the Quran, it is also an epic event, in which the Prophetic Traditions explain that God's Word created the nabii Isa (prophet Jesus, to the Muslims), in a miracle birth which marks the immaculate conception.
To Christians, it is not merely the miraculous nature of the event, where God has sent one of his own angelic messengers named Gabriel, to announce the birth of one to come. This has happened before, where angels took human form to mingle among the Children of Israel, and make specific revelations. To Abram, as visitors from the heat of the desert, who enjoyed his hospitality and promised the birth of his son; and in another instance, the story of Gideon, who was to lead the Israelites.
Yet in none of these instances, did the angelic messenger seek the willing participation and acknowledgement of the individual they were sent to as heralds. And yet, the message they were deliver did not speak of the one promised to come, namely, the Messiah or the Annointed of David, and of Isaiah, of King and Prophet.
In contemplating the story which is told to us in the Gospels, particularly Luke, and from a point of view of a theophany, John's, we are asked to consider a few essential elements in our meditation:
1... This is a promise fulfilled by God
2... This enjoys the fiat or free participation of humanity, through a maiden's consent
3... This involves the direct power or overshadowing of God in humanity, through this maid
4... This is about God's Word, pre-existing Creation and through which all of Creation comes into being, literally "pitching His tent among humanity"
5... This is an assurance of the miracle of truth of the immaculate conception of the promised one (as Isaiah was to foresee) as opposed to the miraculous conception of John in the household of Zachariah and Elizabeth, in their old age.
This simple event would set about the whole other chain of happenings which we will come to know as the Christian story of "good news" to all nations: that God has become as one of us, among us, who lived the law faithfully to the end, and offered his own life out of the same faithfulness, and therefore proved that the love of God for his people is greater than sin, and death, by rising from the tomb after a humiliating crucifixion, and commissioning his followers to hold sway over all Creation by the power of the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In the Annunciation, we sense already the Trinity is being revealed to us as a mysterious drama: God sents the angel, God's own Son to become Man, God's own Spirit overshadows Mary. At the end of Matthew's Gospel, the risen Jesus blesses his disciples as he brings them several miles outside the walls of Jerusalem, "as far out as Bethany", and there reveals to them plainly the very NAME by which God is to be addressed, and which the apostles are to hold sway over all creation: the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This doxology is very unique. The evangelist did not write "in the names of"..., no, he specifically reveals the very name by which God is to be addressed from now on.
This great revelation, which finds its root in the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus, which we celebrate today, must be the fulcrum by which the Christian faith is formed.
It must hold up against those who deny, and prefer to hide in the darkness of another age where these promises are yet to be fulfilled. And it must hold up to all the other heresies and false proclamations that deny the unique natures present in Jesus, his teaching and his authority. Plainly, it makes demand of those who hold the tanakh and abrogates the Islamic revelations which it anticipated. For the Apostles and early church Fathers staunchly defended the confession of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son, and the mystery of the Trinity, and of the authority and fidelity by which this Faith is safeguarded and preached.
It is not surprising therefore that many independent protestant Christians find themselves more close to the Islamic proposition and teaching, having lost their understanding of the magisterial traditions of the Catholic Faith and its fidelity to the Apostolic teaching. Many protestant churches themselves cannot explain the very creeds of Nicea upto the five early great Church councils, and hence today, are more Arian, Gnostic, or Nestorian than the catholic they try to profess to be.
It is easy therefore to say, that as the Church prays, so it believes. Hence, the Catholic Church celebrates the Incarnation of Jesus as the Divine Word made flesh, to dwell among us as the fulfilment of the eternal promises of the Most High. It is in this simple story that sparks off the whole great good news that is to happen to humanity, of the conception of God within the womb of a simple virgin who believed the word that was presented to her, who was obedient to the grace that was given to her, and was willing to cooperate with the whole economy of salvation that was pre-destined by God for all eternity. Yes, those who celebrate this event which preceeds the birth of Jesus at Christmas and his Epiphany to the Magi and the gentiles, are found to hold the simple Truth, of the faith of the Gospel, that Jesus is truly God's Son, and Man.
Just as the readings of the Fourth Sunday of Lent (26 March 2006) have Jesus explain to Nicodemus the pharisee in John's gospel, he is the Light that was to come into the world, and
those who sin, hide from this light, which is the Truth that he is to bear witness to: that is, that he is God's Son, the Word made Flesh, to suffer and die, and rise from the dead, with full authority of the one who sent him.
Jesus, to all who confess he is Lord, is the Light, the Truth, and the Way. He is God's Son, Incarnate for our sake (the Truth), his teaching will shed "Light" on all the promises (Covenants and Prophecies) of God, and his commission with give his church the authority to show all men the "Way".
This is the Good News, which the Catholic Faith professes and celebrates, this great feast day, for those who believe, and now rejoice.
Today, the universal church celebrates the Annunciation to the blessed Virgin Mary, an event which in the Gospel of Luke heralds the coming of the Messiah for the Jewish nation. In the Quran, it is also an epic event, in which the Prophetic Traditions explain that God's Word created the nabii Isa (prophet Jesus, to the Muslims), in a miracle birth which marks the immaculate conception.
To Christians, it is not merely the miraculous nature of the event, where God has sent one of his own angelic messengers named Gabriel, to announce the birth of one to come. This has happened before, where angels took human form to mingle among the Children of Israel, and make specific revelations. To Abram, as visitors from the heat of the desert, who enjoyed his hospitality and promised the birth of his son; and in another instance, the story of Gideon, who was to lead the Israelites.
Yet in none of these instances, did the angelic messenger seek the willing participation and acknowledgement of the individual they were sent to as heralds. And yet, the message they were deliver did not speak of the one promised to come, namely, the Messiah or the Annointed of David, and of Isaiah, of King and Prophet.
In contemplating the story which is told to us in the Gospels, particularly Luke, and from a point of view of a theophany, John's, we are asked to consider a few essential elements in our meditation:
1... This is a promise fulfilled by God2... This enjoys the fiat or free participation of humanity, through a maiden's consent
3... This involves the direct power or overshadowing of God in humanity, through this maid
4... This is about God's Word, pre-existing Creation and through which all of Creation comes into being, literally "pitching His tent among humanity"
5... This is an assurance of the miracle of truth of the immaculate conception of the promised one (as Isaiah was to foresee) as opposed to the miraculous conception of John in the household of Zachariah and Elizabeth, in their old age.
This simple event would set about the whole other chain of happenings which we will come to know as the Christian story of "good news" to all nations: that God has become as one of us, among us, who lived the law faithfully to the end, and offered his own life out of the same faithfulness, and therefore proved that the love of God for his people is greater than sin, and death, by rising from the tomb after a humiliating crucifixion, and commissioning his followers to hold sway over all Creation by the power of the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In the Annunciation, we sense already the Trinity is being revealed to us as a mysterious drama: God sents the angel, God's own Son to become Man, God's own Spirit overshadows Mary. At the end of Matthew's Gospel, the risen Jesus blesses his disciples as he brings them several miles outside the walls of Jerusalem, "as far out as Bethany", and there reveals to them plainly the very NAME by which God is to be addressed, and which the apostles are to hold sway over all creation: the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This doxology is very unique. The evangelist did not write "in the names of"..., no, he specifically reveals the very name by which God is to be addressed from now on.
This great revelation, which finds its root in the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus, which we celebrate today, must be the fulcrum by which the Christian faith is formed.
It must hold up against those who deny, and prefer to hide in the darkness of another age where these promises are yet to be fulfilled. And it must hold up to all the other heresies and false proclamations that deny the unique natures present in Jesus, his teaching and his authority. Plainly, it makes demand of those who hold the tanakh and abrogates the Islamic revelations which it anticipated. For the Apostles and early church Fathers staunchly defended the confession of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son, and the mystery of the Trinity, and of the authority and fidelity by which this Faith is safeguarded and preached.
It is not surprising therefore that many independent protestant Christians find themselves more close to the Islamic proposition and teaching, having lost their understanding of the magisterial traditions of the Catholic Faith and its fidelity to the Apostolic teaching. Many protestant churches themselves cannot explain the very creeds of Nicea upto the five early great Church councils, and hence today, are more Arian, Gnostic, or Nestorian than the catholic they try to profess to be.
It is easy therefore to say, that as the Church prays, so it believes. Hence, the Catholic Church celebrates the Incarnation of Jesus as the Divine Word made flesh, to dwell among us as the fulfilment of the eternal promises of the Most High. It is in this simple story that sparks off the whole great good news that is to happen to humanity, of the conception of God within the womb of a simple virgin who believed the word that was presented to her, who was obedient to the grace that was given to her, and was willing to cooperate with the whole economy of salvation that was pre-destined by God for all eternity. Yes, those who celebrate this event which preceeds the birth of Jesus at Christmas and his Epiphany to the Magi and the gentiles, are found to hold the simple Truth, of the faith of the Gospel, that Jesus is truly God's Son, and Man.
Just as the readings of the Fourth Sunday of Lent (26 March 2006) have Jesus explain to Nicodemus the pharisee in John's gospel, he is the Light that was to come into the world, and
those who sin, hide from this light, which is the Truth that he is to bear witness to: that is, that he is God's Son, the Word made Flesh, to suffer and die, and rise from the dead, with full authority of the one who sent him.Jesus, to all who confess he is Lord, is the Light, the Truth, and the Way. He is God's Son, Incarnate for our sake (the Truth), his teaching will shed "Light" on all the promises (Covenants and Prophecies) of God, and his commission with give his church the authority to show all men the "Way".
This is the Good News, which the Catholic Faith professes and celebrates, this great feast day, for those who believe, and now rejoice.
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