FEASTS such as this get lost in the week when everybody is busy. A few find their way to Mass to honour the Blessed Mother. The liturgy for December 8 wants us to prepare for Christmas, now at the door, by inviting us to meditate on the Angel’s Annunciation to Mary. The angel reveals to Mary that she is to become the mother of the Lord: “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus”.
When we fix our gaze on this young Jewish girl from Nazareth, at the moment of the message, her response is a fiat, a ‘yes’ to God. One central aspect of this surrender help to prepare us spiritually for Christmas. First of all her faith, her attitude of faith, which consists in listening to the Word of God in order to abandon herself to this Word with a full mind and heart.
Responding to the Angel, Mary says, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” In this ‘behold’ filled with faith, Mary does not know what lies ahead, she must risk all in following the path. But she is aware that it is God asking and she entrusts herself totally to God; she abandons herself to God’s love. This is the faith of Mary.