The church celebrates today the solemnity feast of the Annunciation of the Lord. The feast announces God’s promise of a child to Mary, who will be called the son of God, and who will be a savior. This promise of salvation began even in the Old Testament promise to the house of Judah. Indeed, God’s promise of salvation is as old as creation and new as each day. However, the events of history do set boundaries to our hope on God’s promise. The readings of today present us with some responses to God’s promise: King Ahaz, the Psalmist, Mary, and Jesus; all responded to God’s promise even in a somewhat critical circumstance. Hence, today’s readings present us with two significant themes: God’s promise and its fulfilment in time.
God’s Promise of Salvation
The first reading is a dialogue between Isaiah the Prophet and King Ahaz. This part of Isaiah, chapter 7, concerns the Syro-Ephraimite war of 735–732 B.C, a crisis period in the history of Judah and Jerusalem. In the days of King Ahaz, who ruled Judah from 735 to 715 B.C., Rezin, King of Aram, and Pekah, King of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it. This attack against Jerusalem by the kings of Syria and Israel raised a great fear in the land of Judah. Through Isaiah the prophet, they were assured that in sixty-five years their enemies shall be crushed and will no longer be a nation (Is 7,9). Earlier in the book of Samuel, (2 Sm 7:12–16) God had chosen and made a commitment to David’s dynasty and his capital city Jerusalem: “Judah and its Davidic dynasty should trust God’s promises and not fear the combined armies of Israel and Syria; within a very short time these two enemy states will be destroyed, and David’s dynasty will continue.”
Nevertheless, sixty-five years was too much a time of waiting for the people. Time became a constraint to their hope. As a sign of his faithfulness to his promise, God tells Ahaz through the Prophet Isaiah in today’s reading to ask for a sign that will prove God’s faithfulness. Ahaz the king, however, exhibited firm trust in God. He said to the prophet: I will not ask for a sign. “I will not tempt the LORD!” Then the prophet proclaimed the prophecy of the birth of Jesus. He will be Immanuel, God with us.
I Come to Do Your Will
In the Gospel, Lk 1:26-38, we encounter a poor maiden of Nazareth, Mary, who receives an astounding message from an Angel. According to the promise of God to Mary, she will conceive and bear a child who will be called holy, the Son of God, and who will rule over the house of Jacob forever. Mary was greatly troubled at these words, but having been assured by the Angel, Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Doing God’s Will by Waiting on His Promise
As believers, we are reminded by these readings and the feast we commemorate today, to trust in God’s promises even in the unpredictable events of life. As we know, the question of human existence; suffering, evil and contingencies of life, has always challenged the belief in God. Most of the debates and answers have been unsatisfactory as far as reason is concerned. In the narratives about Mary and Jesus, we encounter the fulfilment of God’s promise as far as human beings abandon themselves in faith to God. Mary represents an alternative to loss of hope in the incomprehensibility of life. She believed God’s promises beyond every circumstance. The question that challenges us today is whether we are able trust God and pray for his will even in the inconsistencies of life.
May the prayer of the Psalmist today (40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11): “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will” encourage and strengthen us.
