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Scripture Reflections




Monday, 26 March, 2012, Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord


SALVATION CONSISTS IN A TOTAL OFFERING OF SELF IN FIDELITY TO GOD’S PLAN FOR US

SCRIPTURE READINGS: ISA 7:10-14, 8:10; HEB 10:4-10; LK 1:26-38

The question posed in today’s second reading is: Where is salvation to be found? Not in holocausts and sacrifices that are extraneous to the worshipper, but in the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. This is the summary of our whole salvation: the self-offering of Jesus Christ to the Father for us. Concretely, how did such an offering take place?

Firstly, it happened at the Incarnation. In the Incarnation, Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity and took on a human body and became man. In other words, Jesus offered Himself by assuming our human nature in order to identify Himself with us. For this reason, there is one branch of soteriology in the Church as old as the scriptures called incarnational soteriology. That is to say, for St John and some Patristic Fathers, Christ already saved us in His incarnation. This is because the other mysteries of His life; His passion, death and resurrection – are but the unfolding of His first act of the incarnation.

Nevertheless, an incarnational soteriology alone would not do justice to the mystery of our redemption. The Church stresses the paschal mystery as the cause of our salvation as well. For the whole purpose of the Incarnation is to lead us to the cross and the resurrection. This is precisely mentioned in today’s post-communion prayer. This fact is also brought up in the reading from the Hebrews, where we are told that the whole purpose of the Incarnation is for Jesus to assume a human body so that He can offer Himself as a sacrifice of perfect obedience on the cross. In this way, the Church is able to reconcile the celebration of the Annunciation, which is the Incarnation, with the Lenten season, which is a preparation for the celebration of the paschal mystery, the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord.

In both soteriologies, the emphasis is on Christ doing the will of God. It is His fidelity to the Father’s will that is the cause of our salvation. “Here I am Lord, I am coming to obey your will.” It is this response of Jesus to the Father, both in His incarnation and throughout His earthly life until His death on the cross, that manifests His total obedience to His Father that brought about our salvation. This sacrifice replaces the old sacrifice of bulls and goats’ blood.

What is true of Jesus is also true of Mary’s yes to God; “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me.” It was Mary’s fidelity to God’s will that has brought about our salvation. Here again, we must not presume that Mary’s decision to be the mother of our Saviour took place only at the moment of the annunciation. Rather, Mary’s whole life from the time she was conceived in her mother’s womb was a life of constant faithfulness to God. That is why St Augustine would later say of her: Mary conceived Jesus in her heart before she conceived Jesus in the flesh. For Jesus and Mary, it is their fidelity to the Father’s will that made it possible for God’s salvific plan to take place.

Now, if this is true for Mary and for Jesus, it is also equally true for us. Our salvation does not consist in performing good works and penance per se, but in being faithful to our calling in life, which may be expressed in different ways and yet boils down to the fact of self-offering. Good works which we perform, especially during Lent, are simply the expression of our self-offering for the service of God and man. Hence, the underlying emphasis is fidelity to God’s call and our vocations in life. Without this fidelity to our vocation, it is impossible to find happiness in life. Why is this so?

Because the gospel tells us that every vocation is a transcendental calling. This is what the Incarnation story in Luke’s gospel wants to bring across. What is important is not so much the virginal conception of Jesus. This is presupposed. But more importantly, Luke wants to tell us that the history of Jesus did not simply emerge from human history, but that the history of Jesus has a transcendental origin. This is affirmed by the angel’s message which emphasizes the creative act of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that brought about the Incarnation of Jesus. If that is true of Jesus, it can also be applied in some way to Mary and to all of us. Our calling in life too, is of transcendental origin, although our history is not. Nonetheless, we too are called for a certain vocation in life. It is fidelity to our transcendental calling that will ensure our fulfillment and happiness in life. And this fidelity must be unto death as well if we are to participate in the same sacrifice of Jesus.

How then can we be true to our calling in life? The answer is given in today’s gospel. The first way is through the incarnational way. That is to say, each one of us must determine our calling like Mary. “How can this come about?” said Mary. We are called to search like Mary. Mary had her own plans and convictions. She believed deeply that God wanted her to consecrate her life to God by living a life of celibacy. On the other hand, she was posed with another calling of God to be the mother of the Saviour. Both seemed contradictory to her. We, too, are often torn between the different preferences we have in life. Fidelity to God’s call therefore requires that one must search in all ways, like Mary.

Secondly, after the quest for God’s calling, we must respond in faith. Like Mary, if we have searched deeply enough, we must say, “Let it be done according to thy word.” This is the crucial moment of our surrender to God. The truth is that we cannot expect our call to be so clear. Our calling in life pertains to the level of mystery. However hard we try, we can never understand it completely. Yet, when we have that inner perception that God is inviting us to a particular way of life and even though we might never completely understand the “how’, we can nevertheless surrender in faith that God will bring our sincere response to fulfillment. Once we respond in faith, God will supply us with the means to fulfill our calling. It is not by our qualifications that God calls us. Rather, He will qualify us when He calls us. He will make possible the means for us to fulfill our vocation in life when we step out in faith. Our calling is often proven and confirmed in the living of our vocation. A person might feel that he is unable to lead an organization but who has said “yes” in faith to the call, would soon come to realize that God has given him actual grace to fulfill his tasks magnificently, beyond human imagination.

Hence, having responded to God’s call, we now must live out our calling like Jesus and Mary, in constancy. To be consistent to our call and to our belief is what we are called to do if we want to be faithful to God’s call. But all these will take place within the ambiguities of history. Like them, our response to God does not exempt us from the trials of daily living. We will have to face and accept misunderstandings, persecutions and sufferings for living up to our convictions and calling. Indeed, to be consistent for a day or two is easy. But to be consistent in one’s whole life is much more difficult. Yes, it is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, but it is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation. However, only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole life can be called faithfulness. Mary’s fiat in the Annunciation found its fullness in the silent fiat that she repeated at the foot of the Cross.

But such surrender is only possible when we live in faith and trust. Precisely in the first reading, Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, not because he was a man of deep faith, but because he did not want to listen to Isaiah’s advice that the alliance between Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel would not be able to destroy Judah because God would see the kingdom through in the birth of a child, presumably Hezekiah, who would continue the kingdom of David. This, then, was a sign that God would be with David.

We, too, are invited to have faith in God. We must surrender our lives in faith and trust like Mary, such as when she thought it was impossible for her to be a virgin and a mother at the same time. Let us realize too, that although we are called to respond on our part, the gospel is clear that ultimately, it is the creative work of the Holy Spirit that gives us the grace to respond. It is the Holy Spirit that brought about Christ’s incarnation. It is through the same Holy Spirit that Christ would surrender His Spirit on the cross. We too are called to acquire this same Spirit of Christ so that God can work marvels in our lives and bring our calling to fruition. In this way, we save both ourselves and at the same time, save others by fulfilling our respective roles in God’s plan.

Written by Rev. Fr. William Goh
Spiritual Director, Catholic Spirituality Centre (CSC)
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