{"id":2697,"date":"2012-03-26T08:48:25","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T08:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2012\/03\/the-two-annunciations\/"},"modified":"2012-03-26T08:48:25","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T08:48:25","slug":"the-two-annunciations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2012\/03\/the-two-annunciations\/","title":{"rendered":"The Two Annunciations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Annunciation of the Lord is being celebrated today on the Monday of Passion Week; Friday will be the Commemoration of the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows. The juxtaposition of the two feasts — and of the two mysteries — is extraordinarily rich. In 2005, when Good Friday fell on March 25th, I reflected with the Poor Clares in Barhamsville, Virginia on the intersection of these same two mysteries. Here is the homily I preached:<\/em>
\n\"annunc.jpg\"<\/a>
\n“O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
\nHow unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
\n‘For who has known the mind of the Lord,
\nor who has been his counselor?’” (Rom 11:33-34).
\n“None of the rulers of this age understood this;
\nfor if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8).
\nWe find ourselves today at the intersection of two mysteries,
\nor rather, at the heart of the One Mystery,
\nindivisible, and yet too rich to be taken in all at once:
\nIncarnation and Redemption,
\nAnnunciation and Crucifixion,
\nConception and Death.
\nThe Western tradition, seeking clarity in distinctions
\nand respectful of chronos<\/em>, the ordered time of the universe,
\nseparates, fixing her gaze today on the wood of the Cross,
\nand promising to return in ten days time
\n“to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
\nto a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph
\nof the house of David” (Lk 1:26-27).
\nThe Eastern tradition, spiraling into kairos<\/em>,
\nthe ever-present immediacy of the God who is, who was, and is to come,
\nintegrates, even liturgically,
\nthe mysteries of the conceiving Virgin
\nand of the crucified Fruit of her womb.
\nOne might argue as convincingly from one perspective as from the other,
\nbut we are here not to debate but to contemplate.
\nThe mute prostration at the beginning of this solemn liturgy,
\n— all of humanity flung down before the face of God in the person of the priest —
\nwas an act of utter and unconditional surrender to the Mystery,
\nnot to the Mystery as we see it,
\npoor myopic creatures, straining to transcend our limited perceptions,
\nbut to the Mystery as it is
\nin its cruciform “breadth and length and height and depth” (cf. Eph 3:18),
\nand in “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:19).
\nThis is the crucifying and glorious knowledge
\nof “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8)
\nby which one is “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19).
\nThis is the awareness that, like a sword, pierced the heart of the Virgin Mother,
\n“standing by the cross of Jesus” (Jn 19:25).
\nEven she watched him in the painful spasms of death,
\nshe remembered his first stirrings in her womb,
\nand somehow sensed obscurely,
\n“as in a mirror dimly” (1 Cor 13:12),
\nthat he would stir again beneath the shroud.
\nBut for now, she saw the fruit of her womb
\nbecome the fruit of the tree
\nThirty-three years had passed;
\nit seemed to her like yesterday.
\n“Sent by God” (Lk 1:26), that bright, majestic, creature had come to her,
\n–exquisitely courteous he was, and awful and lovely all at once —
\nand his greeting still astonished her:
\n“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you:
\nblessed are you among women” (Lk 1:28).
\nShe remembered the shock of it,
\nand how she had “considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be” (Lk 1:29).
\nNow his voice came to her again, and how she needed to hear it,
\nto lean on it, to steady herself against it, to cling to it
\neven as Abraham, “in hope believing against hope” (Rom 4:18),
\nhad clung to the wild promises made by God to him:
\n“Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God” (Lk 1:30).
\n\"cuore%20doloroso%20di%20maria.jpg\"<\/a>
\nTo see what she was seeing —
\nher Child stretched naked on the wood,
\nhis hands and feet pierced,
\nhis whole body bloodied,
\nhis sweet face beneath a cruel crown of thorns —
\nto see this and yet believe in the word of the Angel
\nwas to feel the two-edged sword’s sharp blade
\n“piercing to the division of soul and spirit,
\nof joints and marrow” (Heb 4:12).
\nCould this be what Simeon meant:
\n“And your own soul a sword shall pierce” (Lk 2:35)?
\nThe Angel had said more:
\n“And, behold, you shall conceive in your womb,
\nand shall bring forth a son;
\nand you shall call his name Jesus” (Lk 1:31).
\nThis too she remembered, and lifting her eyes, she read “the inscription over him
\nin letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew” (Lk 23:38):
\n“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (Jn 19:19).
\nFor a moment she thought of her Joseph
\nshe still missed him so — her friend, her comforter, her rock —
\nand she remembered what the Angel had said to him as well:
\n“You shall call his name Jesus,
\nfor he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21).
\n“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High;
\nand the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father;
\nand he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever.
\nAnd of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Lk 1:32-33).
\nTell me, O Gabriel, is this bitter abjection his greatness?
\nIs this cross of execution his throne?
\nIs this defeat the inauguration of his kingdom?
\nJust then the thief crucified beside him spoke,
\nas if in answer to her torment:
\n“’Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’
\nAnd Jesus said to him: ‘Amen I say to you,
\nthis day you shall be with me in paradise’” (Lk 23:42-43).
\nFor an instant, she turned from the face of her Jesus
\nto the face of the thief,
\nand she felt herself a mother to him.
\n“For those whom God foreknew
\nhe also predestined to be conformed to the image of her Son,
\nin order that he might be the first-born among many brethren” (cf, Rom 8:29).
\nWith that, her Jesus spoke,
\nhis gentleness like the breeze in the cool of the day,
\nhis authority undiminished by the scourging, the mockery, and the taunts.
\nSeeing “his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near,
\nhe said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’
\nThen he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’” (Jn 19:25).
\nThis was a new Annunciation, the second one:
\nthe first, thirty-three years ago by the mouth of the Angel Gabriel;
\nthis second one by the mouth of her Son,
\nlifted up with bloodied arms spread wide in place of shining wings.
\nThen, as now and forever, “no word shall be impossible with God” (Lk 1:37).
\n“Woman, behold your son!” (Jn 19:25).
\nTo this Mary had no answer
\napart from the one she had given the Angel then:
\n“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord;
\nbe it done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
\nShe was to be mother, mother again and again.
\nMother to John, to Dismas, to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, and to James,
\nmother to “the coming generation” and to “a people yet unborn” (Ps 21:30-31).
\nMother of the Church.
\n“Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished,
\nthat the scripture might be fulfilled, said: ‘I thirst’” (Jn 19:28)
\nand she knew in herself the torment that is the thirst of God
\nand tasted in her mouth the bitter vinegar,
\nand knew too that this new motherhood was given her
\nin this new annunciation
\nto quench the thirst of God with the children of her sorrowful heart:
\nadorers “in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:23).
\nAnd as she recalled how at Nazareth the Holy Spirit had come upon her
\nand the power of Most High had overshadowed her (cf. Lk 1:35),
\nhe said, “’It is consummated,’ and bowing his head,
\nhe gave up his spirit” (Jn 19:30).
\nShe lifted her face to receive the breath of his mouth,
\nand remembered that the Angel too,
\nhaving accomplished that for which he was sent from God left her,
\nleaving God in her womb.
\n“And the angel departed from her” (Lk 1:38).
\nAfterwards they took his body down from the cross.
\nStrange that another Joseph should be there helping.
\nA strong and tender man.
\nAnd she remembered her Joseph, also strong and tender,
\nlifting that tiny newborn body in his calloused hands
\nto place it in the manger.
\nAnd she wept.
\nThey placed his lifeless body in her arms.
\nHe seemed so tired, so spent, so in need of his Sabbath rest.
\nBits of a lullaby she used to sing to him went through her mind.
\n“Sleep, my Yeshua, sleep.
\nSleep my Yeshua, sleep until you wake.”
\nShe remembered something he had said:
\n“I will come again and will take you to myself,
\nthat where I am you may be also” (Jn 14:3).
\nAnd she repeated something he had prayed:
\n“Father, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (Jn 17:1),
\nThey placed him the tomb.
\nAnd the stone was rolled across the entrance,
\nsealing in her heart with his body.
\nTo John she said:
\n“Come, son, take me home.
\n‘He has torn, that he may heal us;
\nhe has stricken, and he will bind us up.
\nAfter two days he will revive us;
\nand on the third day he will raise us up,
\nthat we may live before him’ (Hos 6:1-2).”
\nAnd John, saying nothing, looked into her eyes,
\njust as Jesus had earlier in the day,
\nand like Jesus, he believed her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Annunciation of the Lord is being celebrated today on the Monday of Passion Week; Friday will be the Commemoration of the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows. The juxtaposition of the two feasts — and of the two mysteries — is extraordinarily rich. In 2005, when Good Friday fell on March <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,24,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blessed-virgin-mary","category-lent-2007","category-passion-of-christ"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-Hv","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}