I Come to Do Your Will: Reflections on the Readings for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10
Psalm 40
Hebrews 10:4-10
Luke 1:26-38

Bishop Sheen, in his book, Life of Christ, notes that Jesus is the only person Who claimed to be from God Who was pre-announced. “Reason dictates that if any one of these men (e.g., Buddha, Mohammed) actually came from God, the least thing that God could do to support his claim would be to pre-announce his coming.” Not only was He pre-announced but prophesies about Him and His coming were plentiful. Sheen goes on to say, “Yet if one searches out the various Messianic currents in the Old Testament, and compares the resulting picture with the life and work of Christ, can one doubt that the ancient predictions point to Jesus and the kingdom which He established?”

The first reading is one of those prophesies about the Savior. Ahaz, who was a leader of Israel (and not a very good one – 2 Kings 16:2-4) is told to ask the Lord for a sign. The sign could be unlimited, “deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!” But Ahaz refused, afraid to ask anything of the Lord. So Isaiah tells him the Lord Himself will give a sign.

And what a sign: “the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us!’” We shall see later in the Gospel reading what Emmanuel truly means.

The responsorial gives more insights into the nature and being of the Promised Emmanuel. “Here I am Lord, I come to do Your will.” Think of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) But the responsorial not only applies to Jesus but also to His Blessed Mother, for the Lord’s law was in her heart.

In the Gospel reading we will see Mary’s willingness to do God’s will, as the psalm says. “To do your will, O my God, is my delight.” She did not object but merely asked how God would make His will come to pass.

In the Letter to the Hebrews we learn more about Jesus’ willingness to do the will of the Father. “As is written of Me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.” In this letter we also see how Jesus’ sacrifice does away with “holocausts and sin offerings” as they were ineffective in taking away sins. But that was the purpose of Jesus’ mission on earth, salvation and redemption, and he accomplishes this “through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.” As St. Paul says in the Letter to the Philippians, “he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

He does this by taking away the holocausts and sin offerings and, in accordance with the will of the Father, offers Himself instead. “He takes away the first to establish the second.”

In a similar way we see the obedience of Our Blessed Mother when the angel Gabriel, “sent from God,” addresses the “virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David.” His appellation is profound and full of meaning, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

What does it mean to be “full of grace?” Grace is a gift from God. We can do things that make us open to grace, but grace itself is a gift, freely given by God. To be full of grace means that there is no room in our souls for anything else (i.e., sin). By this very statement the angel is acknowledging and announcing Mary’s immaculate character. Note that he does not use her name initially as her being full of grace explains everything.

The angel then tells Mary of God’s plan and her part in it. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David His Father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of His Kingdom there will be no end.”

Unlike Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist (who had also been visited by Gabriel, see Luke 1:11-20), Mary did not question what was to be done but asked for understanding of how it was to be done, as she had no relations with a man. This is especially important because becoming pregnant could incur the wrath not only of her betrothed (Joseph, of the House of David) but could make her subject to stoning in accordance with the law. And yet, recognizing that this was God’s will, as the angel had told her he had been sent by God, she accepted his explanation, saying, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

This beautiful statement, known as Mary’s fiat, was the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah in the first reading as well as the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. As the angel noted that she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (God) the Babe would be called the Son of God, thus being truly Emmanuel, God with us.

Reflecting on these readings, foundational for all Christians, even though some downplay the role of our Blessed Mother, we learn of the prophecy of the Virgin Birth, Emmanuel (God with us), the fulfillment of the promise, the importance of obedience to God’s will and how it benefits us, including the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, once for all.

And God is still with us as Jesus told us, “... behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)