5 April 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”” Luke 1:38
On the day after the Octave of Easter the Church goes back, as it were, nine months before Christmas, to the little house in Nazareth. This year the feast has waited for us. The Annunciation fell on Holy Thursday, and the Church does not let the joy of the Incarnation compete with the Supper, the Cross and the empty tomb; so she keeps it now, in the white light of Easter. The move is not an accident of the calendar but a lesson. The child announced by Gabriel is the same Lord who died and rose. The flesh he received from the Virgin Mary is the flesh that hung on the cross and walked out of the tomb on the third day. In the first reading King Ahaz, frightened by two enemy kings, refuses the sign that God offers him; it sounds pious, “I will not put the LORD to the test,” but it is really fear dressed up as piety. Isaiah answers: “the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” The Hebrew word, almah, means a young woman of marriageable age; the ancient Greek translation made by Jewish scholars rendered it parthenos, a virgin, and this is the text St Matthew quotes. The Church, with the whole tradition, reads the promise as fulfilled to the letter in the Virgin of Nazareth, and so the Lectionary proclaims it today: “the virgin shall conceive.” The reading ends with the name itself: “God is with us.”
The Letter to the Hebrews lets us hear what the Son said as he entered the world. It quotes our psalm: “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me… See, God, I have come to do your will.” The Annunciation has two yeses. Before Mary says “Here am I,” the eternal Son has said “See, I have come.” The Father prepares a body for him in the womb of the Virgin, and that body will be offered once for all on the cross: “it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The Incarnation is already turned toward the Passover. That is why this feast sits so naturally in the Easter season: the Son took our flesh in order to offer it, and he offered it in order to raise it up. And every time we kneel at Mass and the priest says “This is my Body,” we are before the same body that began to exist in Mary's womb on this day.
Then the Gospel, which Christians have prayed in the Angelus three times a day for centuries. The angel Gabriel is sent “to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,” a village nobody had heard of, “to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.” He greets her: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” The Greek word, kecharitomene, means one who has been and remains filled with grace; the Church sees here the grace that preserved Mary from all stain of sin from her conception. Mary is troubled and ponders; she does not doubt, she asks: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The answer reveals the whole Trinity: the Most High is the Father, the Son of the Most High is the child, and “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” That word overshadow is the word used for the cloud of God's glory that covered the tent of meeting. Mary becomes the new Ark, the place where God dwells. Gabriel adds a sign, her old relative Elizabeth expecting a child, “for nothing will be impossible with God.” And then the yes on which our salvation hung: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” In that moment, says the Creed, he “was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” That is why we kneel today when we say those words. The Easter Church kneels before the beginning of everything she celebrates.
Theme: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
God is with us, the Son's yes, Mary's yes, and the Word made flesh, celebrated in the light of Easter.
“Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
““Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”” Matthew 1:23
Apply: Where fear has made you refuse God's help, ask him today for the sign you need, and accept the one he gives.
“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8
“And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10
Apply: Offer your body to God each morning this week: your work, your tiredness, your hands, for him.
“And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”” 1 Samuel 3:10
“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”” Luke 1:38
Apply: Each day this week begin your prayer with Samuel's words, then listen in silence for two minutes.
“O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!” Psalm 95:6
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
Apply: At every Sunday Creed, bow deeply at “and became man,” and remember that God became small for you.
God kept his promise to give a sign: the Virgin conceived, and God is with us.
The Son who took flesh from Mary offered it on the cross and raised it at Easter; let us say yes with her.
Take-home resolution: Pray the Regina Caeli every noon until Pentecost, and the Angelus every noon after it.
Dear brothers and sisters, today the Church does something unusual. In the middle of the Easter season she takes us back to Nazareth, to a quiet house and a young woman at prayer. The Annunciation fell on Holy Thursday this year, so it was moved to today. And how fitting it is: the child announced by the angel is the Lord who has just risen from the dead.
In the first reading King Ahaz is afraid. God offers him a sign, and he refuses with pious words. But God gives a sign anyway: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, God is with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). God does not wait for our perfect faith before he comes near.
The Letter to the Hebrews tells us what the Son said when he came into the world: a body you have prepared for me; see, God, I have come to do your will (Hebrews 10:5, 7). Before Mary said yes, the Son said yes. The body prepared in Mary's womb would one day be offered on the cross for us, and that same body rose on Easter morning.
Then the angel comes to Mary: Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. Mary does not run away and does not pretend. She asks an honest question: how can this be? And the angel answers: the Holy Spirit will come upon you; nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary says the most important yes in history: here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word (Luke 1:38).
Today, when we say the Creed, we will kneel at the words: and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. We kneel because God became small for us. The great God who made the stars became a tiny child, hidden for nine months. And at this altar he becomes small again, hidden in the bread that is his Body.
So let us ask Mary today for her faith. Ahaz said no out of fear; Mary said yes out of love. Whatever God is asking of you this Easter, a forgiveness, a vocation, a child, a sacrifice, say with her: let it be with me according to your word. Holy Mary, rejoice, for your Son has risen. Alleluia. Amen.
Children, a long time ago an angel came to a girl named Mary. He said: God wants you to be the mother of his Son, Jesus. Mary said: yes, I am God's servant. And Jesus began to grow inside her, like every baby grows inside its mother.
Today at Mass, when we say “and became man,” we kneel down to say thank you to Jesus for becoming a baby for us. Let us say yes to God like Mary!
O God, who willed that your Word should take on the reality of human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, grant, we pray, that we, who confess our Redeemer to be God and man, may merit to become partakers even in his divine nature. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Let us also pray: Lord Jesus, Word made flesh, you entered our world through the yes of your Mother and rose from the dead in the same flesh you took from her. Give us her faith, that we may hear your word and keep it, and her courage, that we may say each day: let it be with me according to your word. Holy Mary, Mother of God, rejoice, for your Son has risen. Alleluia. Amen.