Throughout the Lenten season, we’ll be posting reflections for holy days and Sundays. These reflections are gleaned from Lenten reflection booklets which Pax Christi USA has been publishing for over 40 years, and their messages ring as true now as they did when they were first written. Click here to see all reflections as they are posted as well as links to other Lenten resources on our Lent 2021 webpage.
Today’s reflection is from Linda Ballard, osc, taken from the 2006 Lenten reflection booklet. Linda holds a BA in History and an M.Div. from St. John’s University in Minnesota and the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Massachusetts. She is a member of the Order of St. Catherine of Siena, second-vocation women living in Beguine settings who practice voluntary simplicity, celibacy, humility, and charity.
reflection for the solemnity of the annunciation, MARCH 25, 2021
by Linda Ballard, osc
Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10 | Hebrews 10:4-10 | Luke 1:26-38
“Do not be afraid … How can this be?” (Luke 1:30, 34)
As our knees bend to Creed this day, it is good to remember that even Lent sings God’s willingness to be part of us.
In the five-thousand one-hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world, Jesus Christ, desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and nine months have passed since his conception, was born … of the Virgin Mary, being made flesh (Christmas Proclamation).
It is a two-fold celebration today. God asked. Mary answered. God wants us as a partner. God wants us to birth God before peoples and generations. Nine months from today is Christmas. In the midst of our desert wanderings, in the midst of our refusal to see, in the midst of our search for water, God came to a woman bound by death and asked her to bring forth LIFE. And she said yes. And so do we.
For today, it is that simple. Mercy is coming. The world is made sacred, and God is PRESENCE from us and for us. Our timing may be faulty, but God’s timing is always right. It is okay to wonder. Do not be afraid.
Click here to see more resources for prayer, study and action this Lenten season.
This reflection appeared in Wrestling With Presence: Reflections for Lent, published by Pax Christi USA in 2006.
Many thanks for that lovely and enchanting reflection on the occasion of this feast of the annunciation. Even though the story as presented in our gospels was never intended to be taken as historical fact. This is a meaningful and helpful metaphor using the classical Hebrew literary form of story-telling known as midrash.Again, thanks to the PCUSA folks for this uplifting reflection.