Yesterday, on the Julian Calendar, we celebrated the Annunciation of the Mother of God. This Feast day commemorates the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she is to become the Mother of God.
The fact that this Feast usually falls during the season of Lent holds special significance for us. Certainly we see and understand that the Feast must occur now, nine months prior to the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord. However, the fact that it occurs during these days of ascetic struggle is equally important.
As we come near the end of our Lenten journey, the temptations will certainly increase for us. As we get closer to the moment of celebrating Christ's victory over death, the devil desperately wants to dampen that celebration with sin. The Annunciation of the Mother of God becomes a way point for us, a safe harbor in this storm of temptation. We see in this Feast the promise of salvation and the we realize that the moment that we have been preparing for, Pascha, has at this moment become a reality.
As the Tropar of the Feast says to us: Today is the beginning of our salvation and the revelation of the mystery that was planned from all eternity. Let us celebrate this reality and embrace it and allow it to help us and lift us up in these concluding days of Great Lent. As Moses says in one of the Old Testament readings for the Feast, as he beholds a bush burning but not being consumed: I will now turn aside and see this great sight. Let us turn aside from this world and behold the sight of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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