By Fr. Roy Cimagala
A NUMBER of precious considerations can be drawn when we consider the significance of this Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, when the Son of God gets conceived as man in the virginal womb of Mary.
One is that God always takes the initiative to come to us, to be with us to redeem us. The Solemnity highlights the great love of God for us, a love that is full of mercy that goes all the way to assuming all our sins and conquering them together with their ultimate consequence of death through Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.
That divine initiative brings to the surface our true identity and dignity. We are not just one more creature of God, but rather his most beloved ones, who are made to be his image and likeness. No matter how much we distort and damage that divine image in us, God will never forget us and will do all to bring us back to him.
This consideration brings to mind the amazement we can feel about ourselves, as once expressed in one of the Psalms: “What is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and had has crowned him with glory and honor…” (8,4ff.)
Another consideration is that this Solemnity highlights this basic truth of our faith that God and man share the same life and nature without erasing the distinction between God, the Creator, and man, the creature. And this is made possible due to the great faith of Mary who simply said, “Be it done to me according to your word,” when she was told to be the Mother of the Son of God, a proposal that simply is way beyond human understanding.
In other words, God wants to be born in us so we can be like him in Christ through the Holy Spirit. And we, on our part, like Mary should be as receptive as we can to that proposal. We should never dare to say No to that proposal.
We should learn how to react to this tremendous love God has for us. We have to learn how to repay love with love. And that means that we should try our best to identify ourselves as completely as possible with God’s will and ways. That’s how love works.
If we have to repay God’s love with love, then we have to do our best to identify ourselves with him, by getting to know and to live his very own will and ways as revealed to us in full by Christ and made perpetual through the Holy Spirit.
That is why we have to come up with a plan of life that would effectively capture and put into action this truth about us in our relation with God. We need a time for prayer. We need to study the doctrine of our faith. We need to undertake ascetical struggle, given our weaknesses, limitations and the enemies of God and our soul as well as the spiritual and supernatural goal that we have to pursue.
We need to become true contemplatives even while immersed in the things of this world. That means that our temporal affairs should be no hindrance in our abiding relationship with God. In fact, they should become the occasion and the means to keep us with God. Even the unavoidable negative things in our life should be a reason to go and to be with God.
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