On Wednesday we celebrate our Patronal Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lady. This year it is especially important for us, because it’s the first time we’re keeping this Feast since our church was consecrated last year by Bishop Patrick during Our Lady’s month on 1^st May. This was the day St Mary’s was set apart as a holy place for the worship of God alone. Wednesday’s Feast reminds us that God did something truly astonishing. He came to live among us, beginning as a child in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

To understand this great Feast, we need to go back to the very beginning of the Bible to the book of Genesis chapter 2. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. They were in friendship with Him and were endowed with various supernatural gifts, including immortality. But when Satan tempted them to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, they made a choice. Eve listened to the serpent instead of trusting God, and Adam went along with it, and their disobedience brought sin, suffering and death into the world. Heaven was now closed to us, symbolised by Adam and Eve being thrown out of Eden (Genesis 3:24).

But God didn’t give up on us. He had a plan to fix what had gone wrong, and that plan began to come to fruition at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38). When the Angel Gabriel, God’s messenger, appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she too faced a choice. At first she was afraid and could have said no. But when Gabriel unveiled God’s plan, her response was very simple, and it changed the course of human history: “Be it done unto me according to thy word.” Where Eve said “no,” Mary, the New Eve, said “yes.” And at that very instant, without any ceremony, the New Adam, JESUS Christ, the God man, entered into the world, into time, as a tiny human life in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. JESUS had come to UNDO what Adam had done. We can think of it like this: Eve said “no” and everything fell apart. Mary said “yes” and God began to put everything back together again. That’s why we call Mary the New Eve, and it’s why we call JESUS the New Adam. They reversed by their obedience what Adam and Eve had done through their disobedience.  Adam’s choice brought death, whereas JESUS’ choice brought life.

We all face choices every day. They might be big things or small things. So, do I choose what is right or do I choose what is easy? Do I obey God, or do I go along with the crowd? Facing choices like these, we are in a similar position to Adam, Eve and Our Lady. Our decisions may not be quite as consequential as theirs, but they are our chances to say yes to God. The more you say yes to God, the easier it becomes, and gradually your life starts to change. You become stronger and more peaceful because you know you are doing God’s Will.

Finally, remember God has a plan for you, just as He had a plan for Mary, and there is no limit to the good He can do in you and through you, if only you learn to say, as Mary did: “Yes Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.”

Fr Paul Gillham, IC