On March 25, the Church observes the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord.
This solemn feast is called “Annunciation” because it was the occasion when Archangel Gabriel offered greetings and announced to Mary of her conceiving the Son of the Lord God, the Most High, the eternal Davidic King, whose Kingdom has no end (Luke 1:31-33) and also of the pregnancy of Elizabeth, who is her relative of advanced age (Luke 1:36).
The Annunciation is where Christology and Mariology meet and is reflected on the very first mystery of all the 20 mystery of the Holy Rosary as it is the First Joyful Mystery as it is the annunciation of Christ the Son reaching the earth from heaven and conceived in the womb of Mary who was betrothed to Joseph though she was virgin.
Christologically, this signifies the incarnation of Christ to dwell among us (John 1:1, 14), and Mariologically, this identifies her role as the handmaid of the Lord so that His will be done to her (Luke 1:38). This fiat (let it be done) statement of Mary, echoing God’s statement of “Let there be light”(Genesis 1:3), means “Let Christ the light (i.e. John 8:12) be”, Christologically speaking. This also means Mary’s submission to God’s will, making her the Theotokos, bearer of God, to serve Him as the human mother of His Son incarnated in the human flesh. In regard to this, Pope St. John Paul II sees the Annunciation, which is also the incarnation of Christ, as the initiation of the New Covenant (Redemptoris Mater). This also reminds us that we cannot appreciate Christ fully without Mary. In other words, there no complete Christology without Mariology, theologically speaking.
As the Holy Rosary, which integrates Christology and Mariology, the very first mystery of its all 20 mysteries across the 4 categories of the mysteries, and it is the first Joyful Mystery. Moving from the Joyful Mystery to the Glorious Mystery, through the Luminous Mystery and the Sorrowful Mystery, we certainly see that the Annunciation is the moment of symbiosis of the incarnated Christ and Mary. On the third Joyful Mystery, which is the Nativity of the Lord, the incarnated Christ comes out of the symbiosis state and begins to grow outside Mary’s body. Then, moving to the First Luminous Mystery, the adult incarnated Christ is baptized by John the Baptist to initiate his public ministry, leading to his death and burial in the Sorrowful Mystery, and the resurrection to move to the Glorious Mystery, concluding with his reunification of Mary in heaven through the Assumption and Coronation of Mary, following the Ascension of the Lord.
According to the Gospel Reading (Luke 1:26-38) of the Solemnity, Christ, the Theos-Logos (God the Word) (John 1:1) , was incarnated in the human flesh of a Jewish man, Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, the Blessed Virgin, who is the Immaculate Conception. This is also understood as the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise to Ahaz, a Davidic king, a virgin conceiving and giving birth to a son, described in the First Reading (Isaiah 7:10-14).
Mary is understood as the Immaculate Conception, based on Archangel Gabriel’s acknowledgement of her as “kecharitomene (κεχαριτωμένη)”, which is translated as “gratia plena” in Latin and as “highly favored one” in English (Luke 1:28), based on Bl. John Duns Scotus’ interpretation. Based on this, Scotus argued that the human flesh of Jesus, the incarnated Christ, is unblemished because Mary is the Immaculate Conception, conceived completely free from any effect of the Original Sin, though humanly conceived in the womb of her mother, Anna. In 1854, Pope Bl. Pius IX promulgated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, Mary, as an official doctrine of the Church in Ineffabilis Deus.
So the question is why God sent His only begotten Son to us by way of what this solemn feast, the Annunciation, describes – letting Him incarnate in the human flesh in Mary, the Blessed Virgin, being the Immaculate Conception?
To answer this question, we find a key in the Second Reading (Hebrews 10:4-10).
This is about the incarnated Christ being the perfect sacrifice for Yom Kippur atonement with God rather than offering animal sacrifices year after year under the Law (Leviticus 16:1-19). In other words, only the blood of the incarnated Christ is truly acceptable to God once for all, not blood of sacrificial animals, to atone our sins. This also indicates the superiority of the New Covenant, which is represented with the blood of Christ (Luke 22:20; cf. Hebrews 9:15; cf. Jeremiah 31:31), over bull’s blood of the old covenant (Exodus 24:8). To further address the incarnated Christ being the perfect sacrifice offering for atonement and the New Covenant, we also find reference to Psalm 40:5-8 in Hebrew 10:5-7:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight. Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.
These words from Psalm 40 are of David. As they also sound like words of Jesus, the incarnated Christ, there is a juxtaposition of Christ to David. And this reflects Archangel Gabriel’s announcement of Mary that the child conceived in her womb is the eternal Davidic King, as well as the Son of the Almighty Lord (Luke 1:32-33), fulfilling God’s covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:8-11).
Indeed, God has sent His only begotten Son by way of the incarnation of the human flesh of the Jewish man, Jesus, conceiving him in the womb of Mary, as she is the Immaculate Conception, in order to perfect the atonement sacrifice. This is why we have Hebrews 10:4-10 for the Second Reading of the Solemnity of the Annunciation.
Of course, the perfection of the atonement sacrifice by the incarnated Christ took place on the Cross, as commemorated on Good Friday, fulfilling the fourth servant song (Isaiah 52:13-53:12), which is the First Reading of Good Friday.
There is another reason for God to have sent His Son incarnated through Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, as the Annunciation revealed. It is also to make Christ the perfect Korban Pesach (Paschal Sacrifice, Passover Sacrifice)(Exodus 12:5-14). Lamb to be sacrificed for Pesach (Passover) must be male and unblemished (Exodus 12:5). His flesh must be eaten, as roasted, and his blood protects, upon slaughtering him before sunset on the 14th day of Nisan (Exodus 12:6-13). So the incarnated Christ was killed on the Cross and placed in his tomb before sunset of that day, before the beginning of Pesach sabbath (John 19:38-42). Thus, the incarnated Christ is Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi (The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world)(John 1:29), delivering us from the snare of sin as our New Pesach (New Passover).
It is no coincidence this Solemnity, the Annunciation of the Lord’s incarnation in the Blessed Virgin’s womb, usually comes during Lent, as the incarnation points to his death on the Cross as the perfect Yom Kippur atonement sacrifice offering and as the perfect Korban Pesach (Passover Sacrifice). It is God’s will to save and redeem us, as He had done for the Israelites, delivering them from the slavery in Egypt through Passover. Because he was incarnated in the human flesh, his blood, the New Covenant, enables us to atone our sins with God, making our salvation, instead of being condemned for our sins, making our Yom Kippur perfect. Not to mention, because he was incarnated, we benefit from the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the living bread of life and blood (John 6:32-58), established during the Lord’s supper on the night before his death (Luke 22:14-20). Indeed, the Annunciation of the Lord points to the sacrifice of the Lord on Good Friday.
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