{"id":9703,"date":"2016-03-25T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=9703"},"modified":"2016-03-25T19:52:58","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T18:52:58","slug":"the-two-annunciations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2016\/03\/the-two-annunciations-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ave \u2014 Consummatum est"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n


\nGood Friday falls this year on the feast of the The Annunciation of the Lord\u00a0 to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The two mysteries intersect: the “Ave” addressed to the Virgin, and the “Consummatum est” uttered from the Cross.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cO 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?\u2019\u201d (Rom 11:33-34).
\n\u201cNone of the rulers of this age understood this;
\nfor if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory\u201d (1 Cor 2:8).<\/p>\n

We 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.<\/p>\n

The 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\u201cto a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
\nto a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph
\nof the house of David\u201d (Lk 1:26-27).<\/p>\n

The 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.<\/p>\n

One 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 \u201cbreadth and length and height and depth\u201d (cf. Eph 3:18),
\nand in \u201cthe love of Christ which surpasses knowledge\u201d (Eph 3:19).<\/p>\n

This is the crucifying and glorious knowledge
\nof \u201cthe unsearchable riches of Christ\u201d (Eph 3:8)
\nby which one is \u201cfilled with all the fullness of God\u201d (Eph 3:19).
\nThis is the awareness that, like a sword, pierced the heart of the Virgin Mother,
\n\u201cstanding by the cross of Jesus\u201d (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\u201cas in a mirror dimly\u201d (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.<\/p>\n

\"beato-angelico-annuciazione\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Thirty-three years had passed;
\nit seemed to her like yesterday.
\n\u201cSent by God\u201d (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\u201cHail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee:
\nblessed art thou among women\u201d (Lk 1:28).<\/p>\n

She remembered the shock of it,
\nand how she had \u201cconsidered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be\u201d (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, \u201cin hope believing against hope\u201d (Rom 4:18),
\nhad clung to the wild promises made by God to him:
\n\u201cFear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God\u201d (Lk 1:30).<\/p>\n

To 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\u2019s sharp blade
\n\u201cpiercing to the division of soul and spirit,
\nof joints and marrow\u201d (Heb 4:12).<\/p>\n

Could this be what Simeon meant:
\n\u201cAnd thy own soul a sword shall pierce\u201d (Lk 2:35)?
\nThe Angel had said more:
\n\u201cBehold thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
\nand shalt bring forth a son;
\nand thou shalt call his name Jesus\u201d (Lk 1:31).
\nThis too she remembered, and lifting her eyes, she read \u201cthe inscription over him
\nin letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew\u201d (Lk 23:38):
\n\u201cJesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews\u201d (Jn 19:19).<\/p>\n

For a moment she thought of her Joseph
\nshe still missed him so \u2014 her friend, her comforter, her rock \u2014
\nand she remembered what the Angel had said to him as well:
\n\u201cAnd thou shalt call his name JESUS.
\nFor he shall save his people from their sins\u201d (Mt 1:21).
\n\u201cHe shall be great,
\nand 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 for ever.
\nAnd of his kingdom there shall be no end.
\nAnd of his kingdom there shall be no end\u201d (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?<\/p>\n

Just then the thief crucified beside him spoke,
\nas if in answer to her torment:
\n\u201cLord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom.”
\n“And Jesus said to him:
\nAmen I say to thee, this day thou shalt 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\u201cFor those whom God foreknew
\nhe also predestined to be conformed to the image of her<\/em> Son,
\nin order that he might be the first-born among many brethren\u201d (cf, Rom 8:29).<\/p>\n

With 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 \u201chis mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near,
\nhe said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold thy son!\u2019
\nThen he said to the disciple, ‘Behold thy mother!\u2019\u201d (Jn 19:25).<\/p>\n

This 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, \u201cno word shall be impossible with God\u201d (Lk 1:37).
\n\u201cWoman, behold thy son!\u201d (Jn 19:25).
\nTo this Mary had no answer
\napart from the one she had given the Angel then:
\n\u201cBehold, the handmaid of the Lord;
\nbe it done to me according to thy word\u201d (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 \u201cthe coming generation\u201d and to \u201ca people yet unborn\u201d (Ps 21:30-31).
\nMother of the Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished,
\nthat the scripture might be fulfilled, said: ‘I thirst\u2019\u201d (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 \u201cin spirit and in truth\u201d (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, \u201c’It is consummated,\u2019 and bowing his head,
\nhe gave up his spirit\u201d (Jn 19:30).<\/p>\n

She 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\u201cAnd the angel departed from her\u201d (Lk 1:38).<\/p>\n

Afterwards they took his body down from the cross.
\nStrange that another Joseph, this one of Arimathea,
\nshould 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.<\/p>\n

They 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\u201cSleep, my Yeshua, sleep.
\nSleep my Yeshua, sleep until thou wakest.\u201d
\nShe remembered something he had said:
\n\u201cI will come again and will take thee to myself,
\nthat where I am thou mayest be also\u201d (Jn 14:3).
\nAnd she repeated something he had prayed:
\n\u201cFather, glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee\u201d (Jn 17:1).<\/p>\n

They placed him the tomb.
\nAnd the stone was rolled across the entrance,
\nsealing in her heart with his body.
\nTo John she said:
\n\u201cCome, 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\u2019 (Hos 6:1-2).\u201d<\/p>\n

And 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":"

Good Friday falls this year on the feast of the The Annunciation of the Lord\u00a0 to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The two mysteries intersect: the “Ave” addressed to the Virgin, and the “Consummatum est” uttered from the Cross.\u00a0 \u201cO the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments <\/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":[14,190,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blessed-virgin-mary","category-passiontide-2015","category-sacred-paschal-triduum-2016"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-2wv","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9703"}],"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=9703"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12949,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9703\/revisions\/12949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}