Hail! Full of grace. . .

On this day of the Church Calendar we recall how the angel came to Mary.  “Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you.”  Behind that greeting was the Word of the Lord.  As that Word spoke to the shocked Mary, her womb became home to the Son of God in human flesh and blood.  Quite a lot for a young virgin to take in...  Quite a lot for us, as well!

The Church has called the Blessed Virgin “Theotokos.”  It means birth giver of God or Mother of God.  While we might be tempted to wait until Christmas to think of Mary in this way, that title is true of this day, nine months before she delivered her first born Son and laid Him in swaddling cloths in a manger.

Later, visiting Elizabeth, this was further testified by the baby John in Elizabeth’s womb.  In Greek he “eskiptasin” – yeah, you got it.  He skipped in his mother’s womb, recognizing Jesus in Mary’s own womb.

Let me take this another direction.  The world thinks that the child in the womb is a choice for a mother, a potential who can easily be cast aside.  The world thinks of abortion as a right and the unborn have less rights than animals or the same right as tonsils.  As we think about Jesus taking flesh from the womb of the Virgin Mary, we ought to think of how special and precious is the gift of life, what a privilege it is to protect and defend this life, and what responsibility we bear to God for this life.  At conception it is all there – all we are remains the same from conception to birth.  Can we do less than  protect and defend the unborn as children from God?  What does that say about us when we treat them as less than human?

2013 is an anniversary year.  Abortion is legal and mostly safe but it is far from rare.  Now some 55 million lives have been cast aside as worthless, without protection or rights.  Imagine that – one and one half times the whole population of Canada!

The Blessed Virgin consented to the Lord's Word.  "Let it be to me as you have said."  The gift was given to be received.  On this day we rejoice in the God who became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, who was made man, in the womb of the Virgin.  On this day we rejoice in the Virgin who saw this gift and consented to the Lord as an act of faith and trust.  On this day our attention draws nine months forward to Christmas and to the birth forever blessed, when the Virgin full of grace, delivered up the Savior of all mankind.  In Lent.  In Holy Week.  A hint of Christmas.  As it should be. . .

As we take a moment to offer to God thanks and praise for Him who did not disdain the Virgin's womb, but, for us and for our salvation, took flesh from her, can we do anything less than commit ourselves to the cause of those whom the Lord gives flesh and blood in wombs still and guard the treasure of this gift for the Lord, as a trust from Him?  I hope not. . .