Monday 8 April
2013
The Annunciation of the Lord.
Isaiah 7:10-14. 8:10. Psalm
39:7-11. Rv.8. Hebrews 10:4-10. Luke 1:26-38
The maiden is with child and
will give birth to a son, Emmanuel, God-is-with-us.
Here I am Lord, I come to do
your will.
This will was for us to be made
holy by the offering of his Body.
I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Let what you have said be done to me.
_________________
First reading
Isaiah
7:10-14,8:10
The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask
the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of
Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord
to the test.’
Then
he said:
Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the
patience of men
without trying the patience of my God,
too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel,
a name which means ‘God is with us.’
The prophet wrote for his time and circumstances. Matthew uses this text to build up the story of Jesus' birth to proclaim who Jesus is. He is God with us in human form. He is Someone we can come to know personally.
Psalm
Psalm
39:7-11
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
You do not ask for sacrifice and
offerings,
but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Instead, here am I.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
In the scroll of the book it stands
written
that I should do your will.
My God, I delight in your law
in the depth of my heart.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
Your justice I have proclaimed
in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed;
you know it, O Lord.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
I have not hidden your justice in my
heart
but declared your faithful help.
I have not hidden your love and your
truth
from the great assembly.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
____________________
Second reading
Hebrews
10:4-10
Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are
useless for taking away sins, and this is what Christ said, on coming into the
world:
You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,
prepared a body for me.
You took no pleasure in holocausts or
sacrifices for sin;
then I said,
just as I was commanded in the scroll of
the book,
‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey
your will.’
Notice that he says first: You did
not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the
sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and
you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to
obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the
second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering
of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to do God's will. Heis the New Adam. The old Adam refused to do God's will and through sin cut himself off from God. Jesus will undo the work of Adam by his loving obedience even to the point of death on a Cross.
Gospel
Acclamation
Jn1:14
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word became flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory.
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Luke
1:26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a
town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to
her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply
disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but
the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour.
Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He
will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give
him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for
ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this
come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the
angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow.
And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too:
your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she
whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible
to God’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be
done to me.’ And the angel left her.
Emmanuel.
The
Word was made Flesh and lived among us.
This is the central truth of our Faith. God has become a human being like us,
one with us. He is Emmanuel, God-is-with-us. He is Jesus of Nazareth. We are
all flawed. God has come in Jesus to be the perfect human being. The perfection
of humanity lies in the ability to love, first God and then our fellow men and
women.
Today we celebrate the moment when God
emptied himself and took on our human nature in the womb of the woman specially
chosen and prepared. He who was rich as Son of God became poor so that we might
share in his riches and become as he is, God’s children. He came because God so
loved the world and sent him so that we may not perish but have eternal life.
His aim was that we should have life and have it in abundance. Therefore, he
searched for and saved the lost. He was the friend of ‘tax-collectors and
sinners’. God who lives in
unapproachable light is love and Jesus, the visible likeness of the invisible
God, is love in human form. By imitating
Jesus, we can become perfectly human and the true image of God in Jesus.
Jesus came to save us not by offering animal
sacrifices but by fulfilling the will of his Father at whatever cost to himself
and offering his life for our forgiveness. This he did by manifesting in his
actions and words throughout his life the love God has for us. It brought him
to the Cross and to the point where he could declare, “It is accomplished.” Therefore, bowing his head he offered up his
spirit. His Blood, shed for us, now purifies and makes us holy. Recreated by
his Spirit we call God, Abba - loving
and dear Father.
Mary his mother is the perfect believer and
disciple. Jesus is ‘the servant of Yahweh’ and Mary is ‘the handmaid of the
Lord’. She too following in the footsteps of her Son came ‘to do your will’.
She faithfully carried her cross behind her Son even to Calvary
where a sword pierced her heart. Today we celebrate with her that glorious
moment when ‘the Word became flesh’ in her womb. She carried him in her womb
for nine months and in her heart forever. We ask her to pray for us sinners now
at this moment and at that supreme moment of our death.
God became man so that he could offer us the
intimacy of friendship. ‘I do not call you servants but my friends’. Though
faith is always a test, we can through faithful prayer taste and see how good
he is. Do you open yourself to Jesus each day in prayer as he stands at your
door and knocks?
Father, as you love the world,
may we love you through Jesus whom you sent.
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