“THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, YOUR SANCTIFICATION!”
   
    After twenty-five days of Lenten austerity, the Church literally takes a time-out!  The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an opportune time for us to pause and rejoice.

    This key feast of salvation history fills Christ’s Faithful with joy as we commemorate time’s most solemn moment.  The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity becomes man!  The Incarnation!  In exactly nine months, we will kneel once again before the Crib of the newborn Prince of Peace.  Is it any wonder that even the angels marvel at God’s love for us?       
   
    To savor fully the implications of the mystery, we must go back to the beginning.  In an awesome act of love, God created man.  He then showered His children with every good gift. Yet, despite God’s enormous generosity, our First Parents responded to His love by sin.  Adam’s pride and disobedience resulted in man’s fall from grace.  No longer would we be heirs of heaven.  Instead, we became subject to the dominion of Satan, the slavery to sin and the punishment of eternal death. 

    God, however, in His infinite mercy did not abandon us.  He promised to send a Redeemer stipulating that He would put enmity between the woman and the serpent, Satan. There would be a mortal conflict between her seed, the Messiah, and the seed of the evil one, sin.  That woman was Mary.  She would be the New Eve.  The Messiah, the Son of God, would be the New Adam.  God replaced His original plan, destroyed by sin, with a new and far greater one.  Christ the King would conquer!

    From all eternity, the Father knew that Mary, the Sinless Virgin of Nazareth, would be the worthy Mother of the Messiah.  Thus, in the fullness of time, God sent the Archangel Gabriel to bring word to the young Jewish maiden.  When Gabriel stood before the sinless teen, he knew that she was the apple of the Father’s eye.  He marveled at her Immaculate Conception.  Not once, had Mary offended God by the slightest stain of sin.  In an ecstatic swoon, the mighty Archangel fell to one knee. With head bowed, he greeted the Virgin Mary with the royal salutation: “Ave Maria!”  She was about to become the Queen of the Universe.
   
    As Gabriel announced God’s message, the Father awaited her reply.  Gabriel waited! All of creation waited!  The eternal plan of Almighty God hinged on the reply of the young Jewish maiden.  Without hesitation, she responded.  Humbly, Mary united her will with the will of God: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord!  Be it done unto me according to Thy word. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us!”

    Never before or after was our Heavenly Father so completely pleased with one of His children. Mary became the living tabernacle of the Son of God!  Jesus, the Savior of the World, would be born a helpless Babe in the arms of His Virgin Mother.   

    Vatican II captures the Church’s constant faith: “Mary is the Mother of God.  As a result, she is also the favorite daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this sublime gift of grace, she far surpasses all other creatures, both in heaven and on earth.”

    Mary alone is the Sinless One.  Adam and Eve sinned.  Abraham, the great patriarch, once worshiped idols in Lower Mesopotamia.  Moses killed a man in Egypt.  When lost in the desert, he doubted God.  For his lack of trust, he would never enter the Promised Land.  David sinned with Bathsheba.  His evil worsened when he ordered the murder of Uriah, her husband, to cover up his adulterous lust.
   
    Simon Peter said to Our Lord: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”  The Apostle Paul identified himself as the, “Chief of Sinners.” In their youth, Augustine and Francis of Assisi were tremendous sinners.  We have all sinned!  All, but Mary!
     
    My friends, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that God’s will for us is some obscure strategy.  Saint Paul, however, teaches us the simple truth: “This is God’s will, your sanctification”(1Thes 4:3). God wants us, like Mary, to live holy and virtuous lives. 

    God wills that we unite our wills with His. We must begin by keeping His commandments.  Jesus calls us to conversion.  He does not, as some say: “Accept us where we are.”  No! As Saint Paul insists, we must repent and take off the old man of sin and vice and put on the new man, made in the image of God. 

     Our Blessed Mother leads the way. She never did things her way. She always did things, God’s way. In our struggle with sin, let us learn from her.  She is our Mother and our Model.  She is the Refuge of Sinners and the Gate of Heaven. On the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us exclaim with Gabriel and all the angels and saints: “AVE MARIA!”
                                 
                Father Richard J. Rego, S.T.L.