The Annunciation

On this day, the Creator becomes the Created.  God forms for Himself a body made from the substance of our lowliness, and in so doing He creates for us the path to seek Him and become elevated to heaven.

In how many ways, and over how many times, does our God need to demonstrate His unfailing love for us - even in our fallenness and sinfulness?  We have the Resurrection as the Supreme example.  We have His condescending to accept baptism to show us the path we must follow.   We have the Virgin birth.

But without minimizing any of these, we have His Conception, without which none of the aforementioned could have occurred.

In Exodus 33, Moses is on the mountain in the presence of God, and he petitions God, "Show me Your glory."  In short, I want to SEE You.  God's response to this may at first blush seem cryptic.  His words are, "No one may see Me and live."  St. Gregory of Nyssa teaches that this does not mean that if a human were to look upon the face of God, he or she would die.  Rather, he teaches that the meaning is that flesh cannot perceive that which is spirit - it's just not possible.  These are words we sing in the hymnology of an Orthodox funeral service.  "It is not possible for man to see God, upon Whom the ranks of angels dare not gaze."

And so God, as in so many other instances, makes possible what is impossible.  For "Nothing is impossible with God."  (Luke 1:37)

And this last fragment of Scripture bring us to the purpose of THIS message, for it comes from the lips of the Archangel, who comes to announce to Mary, daughter of Joachim and Anna, that she will bear a Son Who is beyond nature.  How does God effect this miracle of miracles?

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you."  These are words that are prayed by the Deacon at every Divine Liturgy immediately after the Great Entrance, as the Priest says to him, "Remember me, my brother and fellow minister."  The reply is, "May the Lord God remember your Priesthood in His heavenly Kingdom."  At this, the priest requests, "Pray for me, my fellow minister," and the Deacon responds with the above words from the Feast of the Annunciation.  It is present in the Liturgy because there we also need God's miraculous intervention to accomplish what normal people cannot - accepting the human offering of bread and wine, and changing it miraculously into the very Body and Blood of Christ.  Can you find the connection to the conception where the human flesh of the Virgin is changed into the divine Body of God?

The Archangel tells the Virgin, "So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God."  

The Feast of Annunciation fills our hymnology with gems of theological wisdom.  Vespers for the Feast begins with this hymn:

Revealing to you the pre-eternal Council, Gabriel came and stood before you, O Maid.  Greeting you, he said, "Hail!  You are the earth which has not been sown.  Hail, burning bush that remains unconsumed.  Hail, unsearchable depth.  Hail, bridge that leads to Heaven, and ladder that Jacob saw.  Hail, divine jar of manna.  Hail, deliverance from the curse, and restoration of Adam.  The Lord is with you!

The word translated here as "Hail!" is equally correctly translated as "Rejoice!"  It is from words such as these that another major service of the Church evolved its own hymnology, the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos, whose refain is, Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride!  

The Troparion of the Feast tells the fullness of the importance of the Feast.

Today is the beginning of our salvation, the revelation of the eternal mystery!  The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin as Gabriel announces the coming of grace.  Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: 'Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with you!'

This is truly a Glorious Feast!