REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 1 - THE ANNUNCIATION

As we prepare to enter Holy Week, this long week of temporary sadness, on this day traditionally kept as Our Lady of Sorrows, when our Blessed Mother contemplates the fulfilment of the prophesy of Simeon that a sword will pierce her soul, and sees, within that loving heart, these events of her Son's Agony in the Garden, of Calvary, of Golgotha, leading to the joy of His Resurrection on Easter Day, we would do well to meditate again upon the first event of our Salvation, namely the Annunciation, the incarnation in her virginal womb of that Son who will hang upon the Cross a week from today. Her "Fiat", her "Yes", was a Yes to Calvary, and also a Yes to Easter and to our Redemption.

Accordingly we are extremely grateful to our Chaplain, Monsignor John Armitage, Rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, for the opportunity to study again the homily preached at the Shrine on the feast of the Annunciation last week, amidst the joyful celebrations of the Re-consecration of the Dowry of Mary. Let Mary lead us to her Son.

This is the first of a series of Meditations for Holy Week and Easter. The next will be on Palm Sunday, by Father Christopher Colven.

SOLEMNITY OF THE ANNUNCIATION 2020

“Here are the questions to which I should like every reader to give his close attention: ….let him note how, with the gradual relaxation of discipline, morals first subsided, as it were, then sank lower and lower, and finally began the downward plunge which has brought us to our present time, when we can endure neither our vices nor their cure.”

“When we can endure neither our vices nor their cure.”

These words were written by the Roman Historian Livy around the time of the Annunciation. It teaches us two vital truths, first that there is nothing new under the Sun, history is there to teach us so that we may learn, this is called wisdom; secondly that in the midst of the sometimes painful events of history amidst the chaos and fear “The Word became flesh and lived among us”.

In the midst of turmoil, we seek news, we want to know what is going on, we are glued to our radios, televisions and the internet waiting announcements. These are important because they give us information, that may save our lives and the lives of people around us.

But today we celebrate another type of announcement that is called the Annunciation. It is the encounter between God’s messenger Gabriel and the Virgin Mary...

The story is actually a story of two announcements, the first from God and the second is Mary’s response, her yes. God’s messenger announces God’s will and God’s creature, Mary announces her Yes! Such an encounter is much more significant than messages that simply impart information, these are announcements of encounter, where an exchange takes place, information simply presents us with the news, which can be false and misleading. An exchange between two people is a relationship, a call and response. When Mary experienced this news, she was ready to hear it, open to what God wanted of her, her heart was ready, because she had freely in her short life sought to do God’s will in the ordinary everyday things of life. The pathway to a radical response to God’s will, whatever it may be will be to do small things with great love; because of this St Augustine was able to say  of Mary “that she conceived him in her heart before she conceived him in her womb.”

Let ask ourselves if we too wish to conceive the Lord in our heart, are we willing to offer our life as a dwelling place for the Lord, or are we afraid that the presence of God may somehow place limits on our freedom,  where we want to reserve a part of our life in such a way that it belongs only to us.  The poet Francis Thompson reflects “yet I was sore afraid that in having him I must have nought else besides” 

Only God can free us from being closed in on ourselves and the spiritual disaster of “gaining the whole world but losing our very self.” In our relationship of encounter, we discover that the finding of God and the finding of self is the same event. He opens us up to the gift of self, of unconditional love, which in turn becomes service and sharing, where  we find our true selves in the encounter with another. 

We have come to that moment in history “When we can endure neither our vices nor their cure.”It might be said that the growth of the individualism of recent decades, which has led to the excessive individualism of our present times has found a dead end in the isolation that is being imposed on us at this moment. Now we want freedom, we are fighting for our lives, we want to meet, to share to encounter. 500,000 have signed us as volunteers to help those most in need!  We find that Netflix is not enough!

We need an announcement not simply of information but of Good News, and this is the heart of the feast of the Annunciation that we are celebrating today. 

Thousands of people recently have been preparing to open their lives to Jesus through the example of Mary, through the  consecration first given to the Church by St Louis de Montfort, and updated today in “33 Days to Morning Glory”  by Fr Michael Gaitley MIC. 

“Consecrating ourselves to Mary means accepting her help to offer ourselves and the whole of mankind to her Son Jesus who is holy, infinitely holy; it means accepting her help—by having recourse to her motherly heart, which beneath the cross was opened to love for every human being, for the whole world—in order to offer the world, the individual human being, mankind as a whole, and all the nations to him who is infinitely holy” (May 13, 1982). St John Paul II

To consecrate myself is to unite my life with the sacred, this choice will lead to a solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. Dedication is a public expression of an inner strength, to serve for the common good of all. If you wish to see such examples of dedication look at the people who are in the front line to the present crisis that the world face. 

Today we seek the spiritual resilience we all need, the truths that will set us free from fear; wisdom, understanding, good judgment, courage, knowledge, prayer and wisdom. We need both the fruits of consecration, and the witness of dedication. Dedicated service without an inner spiritual strength will eventually weaken, consecration that does not lead to a dedicated life of service for others will lead to a empty heart. 

So let us make our consecration following the example of Our Lady, as we conceived him in our heart so that we may a Holy House fit for his dwelling.

On Sunday we shall begin to build that house in our Land once again, as we re-dedicate England as the Dowry of Mary. This will be a new Annunciation for our time. Having taken to heart the message of the Angel that “nothing is impossible for God” and being inspired by Marys response in the face of her fears to do God’s will, our annunciation will be a public witness of a personal offering of our faith. This new annunciation could be the beginning of the fulfilment of the longed-for prophesy of Pope Leo XIII that “when Mary returns to Walsingham, England will return to Mary”

So, let us today return to Walsingham from wherever we are in the world, and accept into our hearts the message of Our Lady given in this sacred place, to “share my Joy in the Annunciation.” 

DOS TUA VIRGO PIA HÆC EST, QUARE REGE MARIA