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Annnouncing Joy and Sorrow

by Father Dominic Legge, OP 

As of today, Christmas is exactly nine months away. Don’t rush to the mall – instead, go to church to celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation – the moment when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a young virgin in Nazareth, and announced that she would conceive by the Power of the Holy Spirit. With her “fiat,” the world gained its savior.

We might welcome today’s feast as a respite from the discipline of Lent – and, indeed, it should be marked with true festivity (which is something deeper than blinking lights and wrapping paper). But this year, this feast comes with a marked contrast, since today we also stand at the threshold of the most solemn week of the year: the sacred Triduum is one week away. This Sunday, Palm Sunday, we begin our meditation on (or, better, the liturgical re-presentation of) the suffering and death of Jesus at the hands of corrupt judges and cruel torturers. 

It is a strange combination: to rejoice today at the conception of Jesus in the womb of the virgin, and to weep tomorrow at his rejection and suffering at the hands of the very people he came to save. But on second thought, perhaps it is not so odd. The Letter to the Hebrews (the second reading at today’s Mass), places the words of Psalm 40 on Christ’s lips as he is coming into the world – as he is being conceived, as it were:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me ...  Behold, I come to do your will, O God.” ... By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.  (Heb. 10:5-10) 

So this combination of joy and sorrow – joy at the new life of this child, sorrow that our sinfulness will put him to death – should be no surprise. The whole life of Jesus, from the first moment of his existence, is on a trajectory towards the cross. “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15) Jesus himself spoke of this: “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” (Lk 12:50)

Let us not deceive ourselves: Christ was not only crucified by a mob in Jerusalem. You and I are also guilty of this crime. Still, Jesus undergoes his terrible passion, but he is not merely passive on the cross. His death is an offering, a true sacrifice, for sin. Even more, it is the outpouring of the burning fire of his love – his love above all for the Father, but also for us, despite our sinful rejection of him. Indeed, the pierced heart of our crucified Lord is a true font of love, from which flows charity itself. Washed clean by that blood and water, we are consecrated to God.

The love of God is far more powerful than our crimes. It is that love that caused the eternal Son to empty himself and take the form of a slave. The same love impelled him to the cross, despite its suffering and shame. Let us then be sorry for our sins, and joyful in his love – a love that is stronger than death.

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)