The Sun and the Moon, Solemnity of the Annunciation, April 8, 2024

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
April 8, 2024
Is 7:10-14.8:10, Ps 40, Heb 10:4-10, Lk 1:26-38

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• Today we mark the most important event in human history, the time when, out of love for us and to save us, the Son of God himself became one of us in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Everything Jesus would later do flows from this event, which should never cease to fill us with wonder. And this incarnation is not just a one-time event in the distant past, but a continual reality. God-with-us is still with us, most especially in the enduring incarnation of the Holy Eucharist.
• The attention of most people today, however, is not on the coming in time of the One through whom all things were made, but on the total solar eclipse that will happen later this afternoon in upstate New York. But today’s special focus on the Sun and the Moon can be a helpful way to look at the mystery of the incarnation. Christ is the Sun, the Light of the World, the dawn from on high (Lk 1:78) foretold to come upon us. Mary, whom the Book of Revelation depicts clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet (Rev 12:1), has often been compared to the moon, reflecting the sun’s light. My friend, Canadian priest Fr. Raymond de Souza, summarizing centuries of reflection, wrote in a recent column, “The moon is an apt Christian symbol for the Blessed Mother, as the moon has no light of its own, but only reflects the light of the sun; Mary reflects the light of her Son upon the face of the earth. But the moon is not purely ancillary much less merely decorative; its gravitational pull keeps the earth in balance, as it were. An intermediary between the sun and earth, the moon watches over the earth with its face turned always to the sun. The moon is not a star, like the sun, a fearsome source of light and warmth. It remains the more approachable light. It is not possible to look directly into the sun – face to face, as it were (Exodus 33:20) – much less to stand upon it. The moon can be contemplated easily, a friendly companion, a gentle reminder that the sun, though not seen, is working still and will return.”
• And so we look at this mystery between sun and moon, between Son and Mother, between the “The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us” and Mary’s “the handmaid of the Lord,” whose whole life can be summarized by her “Let it be done to me according to your word,” since, like the light of the moon to the sun, her whole life was developed in accordance with that Word who took on her flesh.
• It’s great that we have a chance this year, because of the translation of the Solemnity from March 25 to after the Easter Octave, to celebrate this mystery during the Easter Season, when the prayer of the Regina Caeli helps us each day to focus on the source of Mary’s joy, that the One whom she merited to bear from the Annunciation to the Nativity has risen just as he said. There is a connection between the joy of Mary at the Annunciation and the joy at the Resurrection, , as the Word of God kept his word and rose on the third day, as God-with-us is now with us even more powerfully risen from the dead.
• It’s likewise great that we have a chance to celebrate this Solemnity in the afterburn of the Feast of Divine Mercy, because it’s easier to grasp that when the eternal Son of God took on our humanity, he came as Mercy. As St. Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary, “The inconceivable miracle of Your mercy takes place, O Lord: The Word becomes flesh; God dwells among us, the Word of God, Mercy Incarnate.” The Sign that God would give Ahaz and the world was not just “God with us!,” literally Emmanuel, but Mercy-with-us, Em-man-u-hesed. When in the words of today’s Psalm, Jesus would eventually pray, “Sacrifice and oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave him. Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not; then I said, ‘Behold I come,’” the obedience to which he was pointing, which was worth far more than the sacrifice of animals, was one of mercy. Jesus himself would say in the Gospel, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice!” (Mt 9:13). That’s the purpose for which he took on a body in the fulfillment of Ps 40 attested to by the Letter to the Hebrews: “When Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.’” He took on our nature to offer it as a sacrifice of merciful love.

• Beyond that, he took on our nature so that he could literally incorporate us into his sacrifice of mercy so that, as his Mystical Body, we might continue his work of mercy, his work of salvation, until the end of time. He wants us to offer ourselves, together with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, to the Father in expiation for our and others’ sins. The Blessed Virgin Mary shows us the type of cooperation, the type of participation, he desires in the Gospel, when she gives a wholehearted fiat to God’s will of mercy. To call her “full of grace” is to call her “full of God,” and since God is hesed, loving mercy, she was full of mercy preveniently and preventively from the first moment of her conception. She sang of God’s mercy in her Magnificat, reminding us that God has mercy on those who fear him in every generation and he remembers his promise of mercy to Abraham and our fathers in faith forever. Even though the modality by which we will be filled with God’s mercy is different than what happened in her, God’s will is for us to become full of his forgiving love and to cooperate with his plan, singing and sharing his mercy, as Mary did.
• We do so each day most stupendously at the altar, where the mystery of the Incarnation endures as Mercy Incarnate in the stupendous gift of the Holy Eucharist. The same Holy Spirit who overshadowed Mary in Nazareth and throughout her life comes now to overshadow this altar and all of us in a double epiclesis. He comes to work just as great a miracle as Jesus’ virginal conception, totally changing bread and wine into the Blessed Fruit of Mary’s womb, into Jesus’ own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Then the Holy Spirit wants to overshadow all of us and through our communion with the Word-made-flesh transform us into one body, one spirit in Christ. Let us ask through Mary’s intercession that our Amen to this mystery may be as full as her Fiat and that we, like the moon, may reflect and never occlude her Son’s life-giving light.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Verse Before The Gospel JN 1:14AB

The Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us;
and we saw his glory.

Gospel LK 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

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