Main news for 8 January 2024

Today's reading is devoted to an event described by two evangelists: Matthew (Mt 1:18-23) and Luke (vv. 26-38). It is reasonable to think that Luke used in his Gospel the testimony of the Virgin Mary herself, unlike Matthew, who relied on Joseph's account. In addition, in Luke's presentation the story of the Annunciation is joined to the story of the Virgin Mary's visit to Elizabeth (vv. 39-56). Using such a composition, the evangelist, as it were, compares and relates two events: the birth of John the Baptist and the Nativity of Christ.

At first glance, such a comparison can appear rather conditional: after all, the birth even of such a prophet as John is still incomparable in significance with the birth of the Messiah-Christ. And yet this comparison has its own meaning. For every miracle is nothing other than God's intervention in nature and history, changing, though not completely stopping, the course of natural and social processes. From this point of view, the Nativity of Christ too could be considered an ordinary miracle, if only the word "ordinary" were appropriate in this case. For even the birth of the Messiah-Christ and the entry of the Kingdom into the world are not something absolutely external to this world; otherwise Christ would have had no need to be born, and the Incarnation of God would lose all meaning.

The Kingdom is amazing precisely because it includes our world and does not destroy it. Perhaps for this reason the Incarnation of God was absolutely necessary: by containing Himself within the bounds of human nature, which is by definition limited, God enters the world not from outside, but from within; now His greatness does not prevent Him from becoming wholly, to the end, part of the world He Himself created. Apparently, in a fallen world it was not possible to act otherwise; it was possible to set it right only from within, and God resolves on this step for the sake of His love for people.

But even before this He did not abandon humanity, and above all His people. Every miracle, every theophany, was a step toward the world and toward the human person. Therefore Luke quite rightly relates John's birth to Jesus' birth: all "ordinary" miracles find their meaning only in the main miracle - the birth of the Messiah and the manifestation of the Kingdom.

Today we celebrate the beginning, the starting point of our salvation. This feast, which arose no later than the 5th century, was originally called the Day of the Incarnation; its modern name appeared later, not earlier than the 7th century. This ancient name expresses for us both the main meaning of the feast and the main Person who acts in it. We rejoice today because Almighty God desired to become incarnate in order to save us, and He fulfilled this will of His. And today we rejoice over Her who received Him in Her womb, over His Mother. We are not celebrating the anniversary of the event, because we do not know exactly when it happened: the date was set quite conventionally, simply exactly 9 months before Christmas. But we rejoice over the Incarnation as an accomplished fact. Once proclaimed by the prophets, it became an event of real history, and because of this everything became a participant in eternity. Let us cite the words of two great saints about this event, in translation from Greek.

Here is what St. John of Damascus says: "Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice: for He who is coessential with the Father, without beginning with Him and sharing His throne, in compassion and man-loving mercy emptied Himself, by the good pleasure and counsel of the Father, and dwelt in a virgin womb, purified beforehand by the Spirit. O wonder! God among human beings, the Uncontainable in a womb, the eternal in time: how glorious are the seedless conception, the ineffable self-emptying, and such a mystery! God is made small, and is incarnate, and is formed, when the angel tells the Pure One of the conception: Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you, He who has great mercy."

And here are the words of St. Andrew of Crete: "Now is the joy of the Annunciation, the virgin celebration; earthly things are joined with heavenly things, Adam is renewed, Eve is freed from the ancient sorrow, and the dwelling of our nature, deified by the One who took our composition, becomes God's temple. O mystery! Incomprehensible is the way He made Himself small! Ineffable is the manner of conception! The angel serves the wonder; the Virgin womb receives the Son; the Holy Spirit is sent down; the Father from above is well pleased; reconciliation for all is created by [His] will! In Christ, saved by Christ, together with Gabriel let us cry out to the Virgin: Rejoice, O favored one, through You the Lord has come, our salvation, Christ our God, who received our nature and raised us to Himself; pray to Him for the salvation of our souls."

The appearance of the angel to the Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, what is it? A revelation like the many others described in the Bible? Yes, of course, this is undoubtedly a revelation, one similar in essence and form to many others. A unique revelation speaking of the birth of the Messiah? Yes, certainly: the main content of the revelation is precisely the good news of His birth. Yet it is not only all this; there is something more here.

A hint of that more is reflected, by the way, in the traditional name of the event itself: Annunciation is the same thing as Gospel, good news. So where does the Gospel, the good news, the Annunciation begin? In the ancient prophecies about the Messiah's coming? Yes, of course, but there it is still only prehistory. In the promise the angel announces to the Virgin Mary? Undoubtedly, for he announces to Her the fulfillment of ancient prophecies. Yet the future is the future; it still lies ahead. And the past is the past; it already lies behind. The good news, meanwhile, is always in the present, or else it does not exist.

What, then, is in the present? "The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You." More precisely, according to the sense of the Greek text, not "will come" and "will overshadow," but "is coming down" and "is overshadowing," since the Greek forms allow the present tense in translation no less than the past. This is truly good news. Good news always includes the one to whom it is addressed. It includes that person in the process that presupposes its reality, the possibility of its fulfillment in fullness, there and then, where and when such fulfillment is provided for by God's providence.

Yet God's providence, if it is revealed to a person, never remains merely in the future for that person. It is always revealed to the one to whom it is revealed as an eternal present, of which that person's own life becomes a part. So it happened with the Virgin Mary: the good news made Her herself part of God's providence. Of course, with Her consent: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord." Without such consent a person will not become part of God's providence. The Virgin Mary consented, and became Who She became. The Mother of the Messiah.