CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord in the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar. This year, the great Feast was supplanted by the 5th Sunday of Lent so we celeberate it today, March 26, 2012. In the Office of Readings we find an excerpt for Pope St Leo the Great inviting us to reflect on the profound implications of this Feast. God's greatest gift to us. The Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ, invites a response of "Yes" to our own vocation - and Mary shows us the way.

Pope St Leo writes: "He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself."

This "Condescension of Compassion" reveals the Merciful Love of God and invites a response of surrendered love. Thus, the Feast of the Lord is also a Feast of Our Lady. Her 'Yes" is the prototype of all vocational responses to such a great act of Love. Another great father of the Church, St Gregory of Nyssa, invites us more deeply into the mystery with these words:

"What came about in bodily form in Mary, the fullness of the godhead shining through Christ in the Blessed Virgin, takes place in a similar way in every soul that has been made pure. The Lord does not come in bodily form, for ´we no longer know Christ according to the flesh´, but He dwells in us spiritually and the Father takes up His abode with Him, the Gospel tells us. In this way the child Jesus is born in each of us." (St. Gregory of Nyssa)

It is interesting to note that when the Solemnity falls during Lent, we break with our Lenten fast. Canon # 1251 of the Code of Canon Law reads "Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday."

So, we do not fast - we feast. Why? Because the Solemnity takes precedence over even our Lenten observance. This importance should invite us to consider again the mystery of Mary's cooperation in God's plan and our cooperation in God's plan. In the midst of all of the challenges we face as Catholic Christians in a Culture which has forgotten God, we celebrate God's loving plan and remember the heart of the Christian message, conversion through Jesus Christ.

The great event of the Annunciation reveals the path to salvation and to cultural recovery. The little Virgin of Nazareth teaches us how to live our real lives in a real world! When the Angel of the Lord appeared, bearing the message and calling her to a special mission, she said "YES."  We must say "Yes" as well and believe that "nothing is impossible with God."  Let's consider her response to the message: "I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word."  It is in these words that we discover the heart of the Christian vocation.

"What came about in bodily form in Mary, the fullness of the godhead shining through Christ in the Blessed Virgin, takes place in a similar way in every soul that has been made pure. The Lord does not come in bodily form, for ´we no longer know Christ according to the flesh´, but He dwells in us spiritually and the Father takes up His abode with Him, the Gospel tells us. In this way the child Jesus is born in each of us." Gregory of Nyssa

When Mary spoke those words, human history was forever changed. They came from a deep spiritual reservoir within the heart of a young Jewish girl who was in love with the God of her fathers - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Mary´s "Yes" is called the Fiat:  in Latin, "Let it be done."
Mary´s Fiat was spoken from a heart filled with love for God. In the Biblical context, "heart" is a word that means much more than the fleshy organ at the center of our chest cavity. It refers to our center, the core of each of us, the place where our deepest identity is rooted, and from which our fundamental choices about life are made. Mary´s words proceeded from a humble heart.

This young woman was not full of herself, not self-protective, not cynical, she was emptied, in order to be filled. She was therefore able to completely surrender herself in love, to Love.  Her initial assent to the Angel Gabriel´s announcement reveals the very meaning of another Biblical word, "holy". holiness is not about looking pious.  It is about being selfless. Mary was holy, and she shows us the way to become holy, too.

In the original languages, the words in Holy Scripture which are translated into the English word "holy" mean set apart or consecrated, ...