“Jesus is the sun and Mary is the dawn announcing his rising.”

The above is a beautiful recent tweet from Pope Francis.

This tweet’s relevance to the subject of my blog struck me immediately as it concerns the act of announcing Christ to the world. We often think of the Annunciation in terms of the angel announcing the good news to Mary, but Gabriel is not the principal announcer in this scene. Mary is the one who announces, more than anyone else (other than God himself of course), the good news that Jesus has been conceived, born, grown into a man, nailed to a cross, and finally, risen from the tomb. Gabriel simply by the grace of God arranges things in such a way as to make Mary’s announcement possible. Her words of acceptance call God down from heaven, her humility gives the WORD a home in her womb, in her heart and in each of ours. The words of our Beloved Mother give voice to the Word God wishes to speak to us more than any others. That Word is a person even as you and I are persons; his name is Jesus Christ and he is from a little town called Nazareth, his father is named Joseph and his mother is named Mary.

Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.