Holy Day of Obligation. 

*** 1st Reading ***

Genesis 3:9-15, 20

Yahweh God called the man saying to him,

“Where are you?” He said, “I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I ordered you not to eat?”  The man answered, “The woman you put with me gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.”

God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said,  “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”  Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Since you have done that, be cursed among all the cattle and wild beasts! You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.

I will make you enemies, you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”  The man called his wife by the name of Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

 

Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.

 

*** 2nd Reading ***

Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12*

 Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord, who in Christ has blessed us from heaven with every spiritual blessing.  God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and without sin in his presence.(……)

 

**** Gospel ****

Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth. He was sent to a young virgin who was betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

The angel came to her and said, “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” Mary was troubled at these words, wondering what this greeting could mean.

 But the angel said, “Do not fear, Mary, for God has looked kindly on you. You shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call him Jesus. He will be great and shall rightly be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his ancestor; he will rule over the people of Jacob for­­ever and his reign shall have no end.”

 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be if I am a virgin?” And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the holy child to be born shall be called Son of God.

 Even your relative Elizabeth is expecting a son in her old age, although she was unable to have a child, and she is now in her sixth month. With God nothing is impossible.”

Then Mary said, “I am the hand­maid of the Lord, let it be done to me as you have said.” And the angel left her.

 

Gospel Reflection

The drama fo salvation begins with the fall of Adam and Eve in paradise the climax is the Paschal mystery – the birth, the passion and death of Jesus Christ. The denouement is the Resurrection! And in this Divine Comedy, God vanquishes the devil! In the plot designed by the Divine author there is the Woman who would be the surprise instrument for the victory of God!

Thus, the 1st reading reveals not only the fall of Eve but the promise of the Woman who would bear a Son who would crush the head of the serpent! The divine drama develops gradually in the Old Testament, which is a period of waiting, an “advent!”

In the fullness of time, the Savior would be born of The Woman whom the Archangel Gabriel will great “Ave Maria!” She, the sinless one, the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, would be the “cause of our joy”

When she would accept the Divine offer to become the Mother of God! God uses a lowly maiden to undo what an ambitious woman was tempted to do, to become like God. the handmaid who was full of grace declared her unconditional obedience to God’s holy will.

That “FIAT”set the wheels rolling for the climax of the Divine comedy that begins with the mystery of the Incarnation! Thus, Christmas cannot be imagined without the Virgin Mother! How wonderful that during the Advent season holy mother Church lets us contemplate Mary’s role in the Divine Drama!