The Eve of the Annunciation

The Eve of the Annunciation of Our Lord (March 24, AD 1996) was clear and still. This particular night was punctuated by a cosmic visitor, a denizen of the far ranges of the solar system briefly hurtling past the earth on its fleeting, slingshot-like spin around the Sun.

Comets are no rarity--thousands have been discovered through the centuries, their orbits tracked, their positions plotted. But bright comets are scarce, and the forecasting of whether a particular comet will be bright enough to be seen unassisted by binoculars is a very inexact science. Too often expectations exceed actualities, and the cosmic visitor remains hidden from view.

So for the Eve of the Annunciation to be graced by a bright comet--let alone one conveniently position close to one of the best known asterisms of the sky--the Big Dipper--was a once in a lifetime occurrence.

That this comet was unknown and undiscovered until detected by Japanese astronomer Yuji Hayakutake less than two months before made this cosmic visitor a most appropriately timed surprise from God, who on this festival declares that “all things are possible”.

Despite our high speed computers, sophisticated deep space eyes and ears, and even our orbiting space telescope, God still continues His work of Creation. While Quoheleth, the preacher of Ecclesiastes, might lament that there is nothing new under the sun, the sudden appearance of comet Hayakutake confirms instead the prophesy of Isaiah, “Behold, I am about to do a new thing.”

The timing could not have been better. For the Festival of the Annunciation concerns “a new thing”-- the sudden and unexpected arrival of a messenger--the angel Gabriel--to the maiden Mary of Nazareth. Among the people of the ancient middle East, comets were thought to be messengers, bearers of news and portents of things to come.

But the message of the cometary visitor was never received with joy. These wispy apparitions were believed to be the heralds of calamity: of war, or famine, or pestilence. Their appearance was thought to precede the death of kings and the downfall of nations. Their news was anything but good. Those privy to seeing the sign in the heavens were filled with fear for that which was soon to come.

How different, then, was the message of Gabriel. It began simply “Fear not.” Of course Mary would have been afraid. Angels were not in the habit of visiting mortals. And, like every devout Jew, Mary remembered every year--every spring of every year--one time when an angel visited mortals in Egypt. That visitor was the Angel of Death. Every Passover was a remembrance that the Angel of Death had passed over the houses of the Jews, while striking the Egyptians. When the angel Gabriel appeared in the spring in Nazareth, Mary must have immediately feared that he was coming to take her life. How could a springtime angel be an angel of life?

Yet, for Mary, he was at once an angel of life--and yet one whose message would indeed take and transform her life by joining her in the most intimate way with God her Creator. The Word through whom the earth and sky and sea had been made; the one whom heaven and earth cannot contain, would become a single cell in her womb, and there grow to become the Son of the Most High, the Savior Christ the Lord.

Perhaps, in a perverse way, this angelic messenger brought doom like his cometary counterpart. This child, who would be “great and Son of the Most High” and “given the throne of his Father David” would also be heralded as “the downfall of nations and kingdoms,and a sign that will be spoken against”. And, for Mary, there would be a personal pain and passion to be borne “for a sword will pierce your soul also”.

But Mary yielded her will to the will of God the Father, her mind to the mind of Jesus God the Son, and her body to God the Holy Spirit. She became, in a moment of time, uniquely linked to the Holy Trinity as daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and bride of the Spirit; the first repository of the Body of Christ, in very being, the first Christian. Mary’s “yes” of obedience and faith undid the “yes” of her first mother and ours, the “yes” of Eve to rebellion and sin. Truly, Mary is the Eve of the Annunciation.

The Eve of the Annunciation was indeed graced by a heavenly visitor, highly graced, highly favored.

With God all things were possible--even virgins in Nazareth may conceive. With God all things are possible--even unknown and unexpected comets may blaze across the springtime sky. With God all things will be possible, for He who does many “a new thing” will one day “make all things new.”

Let us “ponder anew what the Almighty can do; if with His love He befriend thee.”

Priest: An Angel of the first rank was sent from heaven to say to the Theotokos: Rejoice! (3) And perceiving You, 0 Lord, taking bodily form, he stood in awe and with his bodiless voice cried aloud to her as follows:

Rejoice, through whom joy shall shine forth;
Rejoice, through whom the curse shall vanish.
Rejoice, fallen Adam’s restoration;
Rejoice, redemption of Eve’s tears.
Rejoice, height that is too difficult for human thought to ascend;
Rejoice, depth that is too strenuous for Angels’ eyes to perceive
Rejoice, for you are the throne of the King;
Rejoice, for you hold him Who sustains everything.
Rejoice, star that shows forth the Sun;
Rejoice, womb in which God became incarnate.
Rejoice, through whom creation is renewed;
Rejoice, through whom the Creator becomes an infant.
Rejoice, O Bride unwedded.

People: Rejoice, O Bride unwedded.

Priest: The holy one, beholding herself in innocence, says to Gabriel: The incredible tidings of your voice appear difficult for my soul to accept. For how do you speak of childbirth from a seedless conception, crying: Alleluia.

People: Alleluia.

Priest: Curious to know knowledge what is knowable to no one, the Virgin cried out to the ministering angel: How is it possible for a son to be born of pure loins? Tell me. To whom the angel answered in fear, crying out:

Rejoice, initiate of ineffable counsel;
Rejoice, faith of silent beseechers.
Rejoice, introduction to Christ’s miracles;
Rejoice, consummation of his doctrinal articles.
Rejoice, heavenly ladder by which God came down;
Rejoice, bridge leading those from earth to I heaven.
Rejoice, marvel greatly renowned among the Angels;
Rejoice, wound bitterly lamented by demons.
Rejoice, for you gave birth to the light ineffably;
Rejoice, for the “how” you taught to no one.
Rejoice, surpassing the knowledge of scholars;
Rejoice, dawn that illumines the minds of believers.
Rejoice, O Bride unwedded.

People: Rejoice, O Bride unwedded.

Priest: The divine power of the Most High overshadowed the unwedded Maiden that she might conceive, and made her luxuriant womb appear as a luscious field for everyone who desires to reap salvation while chanting thusly: Alleluia.

I somehow missed this the past few years, and even yesterday, but it is beautifully stated!

Thank you.

There is nothing particularly original about the final sentence; that is a strain of Christian teaching going back to +John Chrysostom and +Irenaeus.

The beginning part comes from having had the blessed experience of sitting in the class room of Rev. Dr. Robert Jenson; who imparted the importance of looking for the action of each Person of the Holy Trinity in every mystery of Redemption.

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