Today is the crown of our salvation and the revelation of the mystery which is from eternity: the Son of God becometh the Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel proclaimeth good tidings of grace.
Troparion of the Annunciation
It is impossible to overstate the importance of this day in the history of the world, for on this day both the world and history itself were renewed and recreated. Only twice in the history of the world did such a fateful day as this occur. Twice an angel appeared to a virgin — a virgin who was to become the mother of the whole human race — and offered her a choice which would echo throughout all eternity. Such is the mysterious and terrible power that God has granted us in the gift of free will. By the free choice of Eve — mediated through the pride and disobedience of the devil — we brought hell to earth; by the free choice of Mary — through the humility and obedience of Gabriel — we might even dare to say that we brought God Himself down from heaven to earth, and were in turn raised up by Him to heaven and made nothing less than “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4).
This awesome and terrible day — the day of the Incarnation of the Son of God — is the watershed moment of all creation. This day was foreseen in glimpses throughout the centuries by the many holy prophets of Israel. The fruits of this day were brought forth on Nativity, were revealed on Theophany, were perfected on Pascha, were raised up to heaven itself on Ascension, and at last were given freely and fully to the entire Christian race on Pentecost.
But perhaps it can be said more than all other days, there is one day which is most perfectly united — mystically and inseparably — with this day. The Holy Church reveals this secret to us by the hymnody of the Vespers service for this feast: the special melody in which its stichera are sung is precisely same as that appointed for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. There are absolutely no coincidences in the spiritual life; therefore, we must recognize that the Annunciation is intrinsically united with Great and Holy Friday.
On this day of great and wondrous joy, we must remember that it is precisely “through the Cross [that] joy has come to all the world” (Paschal Canon). We must understand that today’s supreme act of obedience by the Mother of God — an act great enough to reverse the fall of mankind, to open heaven itself, and to make mankind into gods by grace — could not possibly have been accomplished without the Cross being at the very heart of this act. And although this was true mystically and in regard to all mankind, it was also true practically and in regard to the Mother of God personally: according to the law of Moses, if a betrothed woman committed adultery, the penalty was death. Had it not been for the righteousness of Joseph, for Mary to bring forth her son would have meant for her, a sinless one, to thereby accept a shameful and unjust death at the hands of an uncomprehending world. By uttering those surpassingly beautiful words which reversed the Fall of Man itself: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word,” the Most Holy Mother of God was choosing to do the only thing that can possibly bring mankind to salvation and life eternal: she was choosing to take up the Cross.
And as for us, my dear brothers and sisters: let us remember that at each moment of every day of our lives, we too are faced with the choice of this great and fateful day. If we are not choosing the Cross — actively, and constantly, and in all things — then we are imitating Eve rather than Mary, we are hearkening to the devil rather than to Gabriel, and we are choosing hell rather than heaven. Our entire life on earth is nothing else than a preparation for the day of our death, an opportunity to make ourselves ready — through the choices we make each moment of every day — for the day on which we will have to make our final and irrevocable choice, and answer for that choice to God Himself on Judgment Day.
But let us remember too that Eve’s choice led just as surely to Golgotha as did the choice of Mary. The entire human race stands ever at the foot of the Cross. Truly, we are given an awesome and terrible freedom. But in the final analysis, that freedom is simply to choose whether to shout: “crucify Him, crucify Him,” or whether to say instead: “be it unto me according to Thy word.”
Through the prayers of the Theotokos, may our All-Merciful Savior Jesus Christ, the only Lover of Mankind, enable each one of us to make our choice wisely. Amen.
Amen!