Today’s beautiful feast of the Annunciation will be something that many of us who are here at Mass this morning who last year went to Walsingham. There we prayed at the site of the Holy House. The Holy House believed to be that of the Holy Family.
The medieval mind was not afraid to draw in and as it were to want to touch, taste and see, to have a real connection with sacred things. Hence the extraordinary devotion for pilgrimages to holy places, to shrines and to holy wells and to sacred relics. We have become slightly sniffy about such things as we become sniffy about so much in Britain. Yet images of footballers and popstars and celebrities, so called, draw crowds, whereas the mystery of the Incarnation will barely get a mention in popular culture today.
Yet it is in this moment of human history, when the Archangel Gabriel appears to our Blessed Lady and she consents, “Let it be unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38). That it is in this pivotal moment of human history that the Word takes flesh. It is so very important that we pause in this moment to consider the vocation of our Lady. Anyone who has a problem with our Lady has a big problem because it is in our Lady’s consent, her free consent, to the invitation. It wasn’t a notification, it wasn’t a summons, it wasn’t a speeding ticket, that there was nothing that could be done about it. It wasn’t like that annoying relative or neighbour or friend who arrives and don’t know when to leave. The Angel Gabriel in arriving, in the presence of our Blessed Lady invited her. She could have said no. Of course, being a good Jewess, knowing the Psalms, knowing the prophecies, she recognised, as it were, the signs. She understood what this meant. The words of the Angel were not unfamiliar to her, because they were words hear in the Old Testament.
There is a wonderful image by Fra. Angelico, if you google it, it is a most beautiful image, one of the most famous images of the Annunciation in the world. Where the Angel is shown in slightest reverence of head. He is an Archangel, she is a little virgin, from some unknown village. Yet in this moment the whole of human history teeters on the edge as it were, would this be the moment. It is in the silence of that consent, the words of the gospel, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1:35) Images of the Ark of the Covenant, images of a pillar of cloud leading the Hebrews through the desert, images of creation. In this moment, our Lady says yes. It is because of her “yes” that the immortal and eternal “Yes” of the Father, from the very beginning, with Christ the word in the mind of the Father unfolds. In that moment, the Almighty and eternal God takes on human flesh, becomes a man, so that we men and women may share the life of God.
If we were to pray the Rosary constantly for the rest of our lives, praying Holy Mary, Mother of God, recalling the holiness of our Lady, it would come no where near the praises that are due to her as our queen and our mother and as the first disciple. Our Lady is that first disciple because she is the first one to say yes to Christ. To welcome Him into her soul, before she welcomes Him into her womb. We are called as a Catholic people, like the Orthodox, to honour. We understand the words of our Saviour on the cross, ecce mater tua, behold thy mother. (John 19:27). When we think of those wonderful words of our Lady to all of us at the wedding feast at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5). As we celebrate the Annunciation, we take ourselves spiritually to the Holy House of Nazareth in Walsingham and to the Holy House in Nazareth and ask that our Lady will pray for us and watch over us, grant peace to Ukraine, peace to our world and will bless our families.