The Word Became Flesh

     When Mary said "YES!" to the invitation of God to cooperate in His loving plan for us,announced by the angel Gabriel, the Spirit of God, which is love, came upon her and she conceived a child.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  The God/man, Jesus, came to be.  It was and is the Incarnation, the turning point of all history.  Today we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation.

     In the earliest days of the Church the primary feast of the coming of the Lord was Epiphany, the manifestation of the Christ to all the peoples of the earth.  The Word of God came to all people of good will.  Later, the celebration of the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem of Judea began to take center stage.  Born in the city of David, He became the fulfillment of the promise made to Israel.  But it is in this feast that God enters human history in His embracing of our human nature (in all things but sin) so that we can be lifted up to share in the glory that is God.

     This feast is so important that we take a respite on our journey through Lent.  In fact, the invitation and obligation to abstain from eating meat is lifted (although coming to our fish dinner at the parish is still a great option).  At Liturgy today we proclaimed the "Glory to God" and professed the Creed.  This is the day that the Lord came to us.

     In celebrating this feast we once again acknowledge that the new life within the womb of Mary at that moment of conception IS a unique human being on the path to birth, growth, ministry, passion and death and new life.

     And just think ... there are only nine months left for Christmas shopping.  We will continue our Lenten Friday Reflections next week.