By Leon Bent –
The Annunciation (from Latin annuntiatio), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Catholic celebration of the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Feast of the Annunciation, one of the principal feasts of the Christian church, is celebrated on March 25 (Lady Day), nine months before Christmas.
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. It is a great feast day which celebrates the salvific mystery of Our Lord taking on human flesh through Mary’s fiat, but also her profound role in the Kingdom of God. The Annunciation is the beginning of the fulfilment of all that God promised in the redemption of mankind.
The Annunciation and the Liturgy
The story of the Annunciation has produced three important liturgical texts, the Ave Maria, the Angelus, and the Magnificat.
• The angel’s greeting to Mary, which is traditionally translated as “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” (in Latin Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum) is the opening of the Ave Maria, and a part of the Rosary prayers.
• The Angelus consists of three Ave Marias, together with some additional material. It is said three times a day in the Roman Catholic Church.
• The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) is the poem with which Mary responds to the Annunciation and celebrates the power of God.
The Annunciation is a key topic in Christian art in general, as well as in Marian art in the Catholic Church, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance and Boroque Art. Annunciation is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio, dating from circa 1472–1475. … The painting has since been attributed to different artists, including Leonardo and Verrocchio’s contemporary Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Everything in this work is of a high poetic and stylistic quality: the handling of the figures and their attributes, the spatial construction, and the distant trees and watercourse, which attests to the artist’s enduring love of nature. Many changes were to come in the painting, for Leonardo da Vinci was a tireless innovator, but this picture would suffice to rank him among the greatest classical artists of all time.
It’s no secret that the Annunciation has been one of the most influential passages in the history of Christian spirituality.
These conditions, as taught by Fra Roberto Caracciola de Lecce, are as follows:
• Conturbatio (Disquiet) – This is the state Mary is in when scripture tells us she is greatly troubled
• Cogitatio (Reflection)– This is the state Mary is in when she listens to the words of the Angel
• Interrogatio (Inquiry) – This is the state Mary is in when she responds
• Humiliatio (Submission) – This is the state Mary is in when scripture tells us she offers herself as handmaid of the Lord.
• Meritatio (Merit) – This is the state Mary is in when she lives in humble acceptance of God’s call: “Fiat!”
These are spiritual states that the faithful should strive to emulate by God’s Grace. I have decided to try out this practice of spirituality for the rest of the month to see if it helps me develop a better awareness of God’s movement in my life and heart.
Mariology
A great deal about what the Church teaches in regards to Mary can be found within the words, “Hail, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” Other translations change the wording to “full of grace” or something similar, but the meaning is the same. In the next section of Luke Elizabeth refers to Mary as “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42).
At her conception, Mary already shared in the salvific and sanctifying grace of her Son. She is blessed because she was preserved from original sin and its effects for her entire life. She is the chosen one and the sign to the world of God’s desire for communion with all of mankind.
Christology
The Annunciation is the announcement that Christ has come to his people and God will dwell among us. Mary is not only “full of grace” because of her Immaculate Conception, but also because she will bear the fullness of grace who is Jesus Christ in her womb. Mary is to be the Mother of God, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
In her fiat Mary agrees to submit and follow God’s mission and plan for humanity and that means giving herself entirely to her Son’s mission. Mary can only be understood in the light of Christ. By God’s election, she will give humanity to the Son of God so that his divine Person of the Son can be unite his divine nature to a human nature. The Annunciation is the announcement of the God-man entering into history for the salvation of his people.
Ecclesiology
Mary is the model for bringing sons and daughters to a new life in Christ and she is the “model and figure of the Church” (Redemptor Hominis, 44). Mary is the example of maternal love for the Church, “If the Church is the sign and instrument of intimate union with God, she is so by reason of her motherhood, because, receiving life from the Spirit, she ‘generates’ sons and daughters of the human race to a new life in Christ” (RM, 42). It is precisely through Mary’s role as Jesus’ mother that she becomes the mother of the Church. Her spiritual motherhood is transformed and she is united to her Son’s mission of bringing all peoples to the Father as adopted sons and daughters.
Lumen Gentium states: “By reason of the gift and role of divine maternity, by which she is united with her Son, the Redeemer, and with His singular graces and function, the Blessed Virgin is also intimately united with the Church.”
Now, this gold nugget! Mariology, Christology, and Ecclesiology are all intertwined through the actions of the Annunciation. As we celebrate this solemnity during the season of Easter, let us grow in a deeper understanding of Christ and His Mother, as we continue our own journey to communion with the Most Holy Trinity.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.