Homily for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

April 8, 2024
Assumption Seminary
San Antonio, Texas

Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10
Psalm 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11
Hebrews 10:4-10
Luke 1:26-38

The section of Luke’s Gospel that immediately precedes the Gospel reading that we have just proclaimed is the annunciation to Zachariah that his wife Elizabeth is to conceive in her advanced age and bear a son, whom he is to name John and who will be known as John the Baptist. Zachariah was unable to speak for the entire time of Elizabeth’s pregnancy after he had experienced the vision of the Archangel Gabriel. The silence of Zachariah was not just a gift that the Lord gave to his wife Elizabeth to assist her in what would undoubtedly be a difficult pregnancy at her advanced age.

Zachariah had longed for a son and he and Elizabeth were unable to conceive. So, you can imagine how excited Zachariah must have become when he heard this news that the Lord had fulfilled his dreams and prayers to be a father of a son! Yet, this is precisely the point, Zachariah required the gift of silence to accept and to understand that the annunciation that he received was not about himself but about God’s plan of salvation that included his son, John the Baptist. Zachariah requires change and conversion of heart according to God’s design and invitation, as does all humanity to become aligned with God’s plans for salvation. It is only with this Grace of silence that Zachariah and all of humanity can truly pray that “the Lord has come to His people and set them free.” Perhaps, this is the reason that our seminary and ongoing formation requires silence, what Cardinal Sarah calls “the Language of God,” that we might first listen and enter more deeply into the mystery of our vocations — the mystery we are called to accept, and not the riddle we are called to solve.

Today on this Solemnity of the Annunciation, we hear the next section of Luke’s Gospel that tells the story of the Archangel Gabriel carrying God’s call to the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the Mother of His Son, Jesus Christ. The response of Mary is slightly different than that of Zachariah. Zachariah asks Gabriel a question, “How will I know this is so?”  It is a question that seeks a type of scientific knowledge demonstrating that God is worth believing. It is a question that seeks to evaluate and to verify God’s ways before he can trust God. It is a question filled with skepticism and tinged with suspicion. It is a question more about Zachariah than about God and His plan for salvation.

On the contrary, Mary with a pure heart offers acceptance of God’s call and reveals Her wisdom in trusting God. Her response is filled with hope. Her response is not filled with skepticism. As Pope Saint John Paul II once noted, “Yet even her question, ‘How can this come about?’ suggests that Mary is ready to say yes, despite her fears and uncertainties. Mary asks not whether the promise is possible, but only how it will be fulfilled.”  

Christ entered the world through this pure “yes” of Mary at the Annunciation. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that the Father does not desire the sacrifice and offering of the blood of bulls and goats because they do not take away sins. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us also that when Christ entered the world, He spoke that the Father prepared a body for Him so that He could offer Himself as a worthy sacrifice of mercy which is accomplished through faithful obedience to the will of the Father that sinners should not die but be converted and live.

Because of the Incarnation, accomplished through Mary’s “yes,” human flesh and human life now have an authentic identity, dignity, and destiny that the pagans could not imagine, that the moderns refuse to accept or to understand, and that the post-moderns reject and cannot articulate. The rejection of human nature — body and soul — necessarily includes the rejection of Christ and the Triune God He fully reveals. Because of the Incarnation the rejection of God is fused with the rejection of human identity and meaning. Thus, we as priests are called to proclaim the Good News of the Incarnation in a world and culture that assaults and exploits human beings by openly rejecting God’s generosity of the Word-made-flesh by which God offers human beings our true identity in His Image and likeness, and instead fills the void with the ideology of self-identity through hammering and gouging human flesh with pronouns, narcotics, and scalpels.

The common ground for evangelization in this post-modern culture is set for us by the docile “yes” of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation. Mary listens, she then acknowledges and answers for us with the innocence that only she can offer, that humanity must change but cannot change itself. She knows that only Her Son can bring about that change. Post-modernity recognizes that there is a need for human beings to change; yet it attempts to do so by replacing God with the idol of the self — that cannot save — while we as priests can humbly offer with Mary the Good News that authentic and lasting change only comes to human beings through listening, letting go of our own will, and accepting God’s will to be configured to Him in His likeness.

A call from God costs us the price of love. A call from God requires us to enter the silence imposed upon Zachariah. In calling us, God shows us that He loves each of us and asks us to love Him and those whom He loves in return. Love shows itself in deeds and in words because of the Incarnate Word’s deeds. The Incarnate Word’s deeds include making Himself small enough to be placed in the Manger at Christmas, lovingly obedient enough to be nailed on the Cross on Good Friday, and united fully to the Father to be raised from the Tomb on Easter Sunday. He calls us to share in this smallness only through the Grace of acceptance and obedience: the Grace and obedience that we see perfectly exemplified and offered to us for acceptance with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is only with this Grace that we can say confidently and act boldly with Mary at the Annunciation, at Calvary, and at the Empty Tomb, “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.”