Coming up on March 25th
will be the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. This feast commemorates the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to the
Virgin Mary to announce that she has been chosen by God to be the Mother of our
Lord. Once Mary said her “yes” (or “fiat”), the Holy Spirit descended upon her and
she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. You can find this great story in
the gospel of St. Luke, chapter 1, verses 26 to 38.
This feast not only
commemorates Jesus becoming part of our human condition, it also commemorates
Mary’s willingness to be open to the Will of God in her life. When Gabriel
explains that she will become pregnant with a son, and that he will be the Son
of the Most High, she was confused! She says, “How can this be since I have no relations
with a man?” (Luke 1:34). Once Gabriel finishes the explanation to Mary, she
very openly responds, “Behold, I am the handmaid of
the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
This story of Jesus coming into
to the world is also very important from the aspect of the sanctity of human
life. In our society today, under the guise of “freedom of choice”, a woman can
choose to abort her child in the early stages of the pregnancy. The child has
no rights and is not considered to be fully human. When the Holy Spirit
descended upon Mary, at the very moment of conception, the child in womb was
fully Jesus Christ!
A little further along in the
gospel of St. Luke, we see Mary visiting her aged cousin, Elizabeth, the mother
of St. John the Baptist. At that meeting we hear that Elizabeth, upon hearing
Mary’s greeting, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and said to Mary, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb.” (Luke 1: 42)
This narrative from St. Luke of
the Annunciation tells us of the importance of life from conception. It teaches
us that God is involved in all stages of life, from the point of conception to
natural death.
A good way to support the
sanctity of life is to support the Sisters of Life. The Sisters of Life is a contemplative/active religious
community of women founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor for the protection
and enhancement of the sacredness of every human life. To find out more about
how you can support them and their work to support life, go to http://www.sistersoflife.org/ or by calling the Family
Life, Respect Life Office Archdiocese of New York at (646) 794-3185 (9am-5pm EST)
Praise be Jesus Christ,
now and forever!
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