Feast of the Annunciation to the Mother of God – March 25
The Yes That Changed Everything: St. Luke 1:26-38
“Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” (1:38)
On March 25 the Great Lent pauses. Not because the fast stops. But because a feast has arrived in the middle of the fast. And the feast is so great that even the most penitential season in the Church calendar must make room for it.
March 25. Nine months before December 25. The Annunciation. The day the angel Gabriel came to a young woman in Nazareth and announced that the Word of God would take flesh in her womb. The day the Creator asked a creature for permission. The day a teenage girl from an obscure village said yes and the universe changed direction.
In the Indian Orthodox tradition, the Annunciation is celebrated even during the Great Lent. The Holy Eucharist is offered. The fasting discipline may be relaxed in some communities. The Church puts on white in the middle of purple. Because what happened in Nazareth is the reason the fast exists. The fast prepares us for the Cross. The Annunciation is why there is a Cross to prepare for. Without Mary’s yes, there is no Incarnation. Without the Incarnation, there is no Cross. Without the Cross, there is no Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, there is no Lent. Everything begins here. In a room in Nazareth. With a girl and an angel.
The Angel Was Sent (vv. 26–27)
“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” (1:26–27)
Gabriel was sent. By God. To Nazareth. The specificity matters.
Nazareth was nothing. Not a centre of learning. Not a seat of power. Not a city where angels were expected. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael would later ask (John 1:46). The answer is: the best thing that has ever come out of anywhere came out of Nazareth. But no one expected it. That is how God works. He sends angels to places the world has written off.
“To a virgin.” Parthenon. Luke states it plainly. Not to a queen. Not to a priestess. Not to the wife of the High Priest or the daughter of a Roman senator. To a virgin. Young. Unmarried. Unknown. Without status. Without power. Without any of the qualifications the world considers necessary for the most important task in history.
“Betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.”
Mary is connected to David’s line through Joseph. The promise to David that his throne would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:16) runs through this engagement. The royal lineage. The messianic expectation. The thread that stretches from Bethlehem through a thousand years of kings and exiles and prophecies to a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth.
“The virgin’s name was Mary.” Mariam. In Hebrew, Miriam. The name of Moses’s sister who led the women of Israel in song after the Red Sea crossing (Exodus 15:20–21). The first Miriam sang after liberation. The second Miriam will sing the Magnificat after the greatest liberation is announced.
St. Ephrem the Syrian, in his Hymns on the Nativity, writes that the angel’s journey from heaven to Nazareth is the first movement of the Incarnation. Before the Word descended into the womb, the message descended into the room. Before God became flesh, God became word. Spoken by an angel. Heard by a girl. And the distance between heaven and Nazareth, between the throne of God and the floor of a peasant house, is the distance that love was willing to travel.1
Rejoice, Highly Favoured One (vv. 28–29)
“And having come in, the angel said to her, ‘Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.” (1:28–29)
“Rejoice.” Chaire. The Greek greeting. But here it is more than a greeting. It is a command. Rejoice. Be glad. The joy that has been absent from the Lenten series for thirty-seven days breaks into the fast through a single word spoken by an angel.
Earlier today we reflected on the fruit of the Spirit. The second dimension was joy. The joy the series forgot. Now joy arrives not as a theological concept but as an angelic announcement. Rejoice. The reason for all joy is about to enter the world.
“Highly favoured one.” Kecharitōmenē. The one who has been graced. The one upon whom grace has been poured. Not “the one who earned favour” or “the one who deserved grace.” The one who received it. The passive voice is everything. Mary did not achieve the favour. She received it. The grace came first. The obedience followed.
“The Lord is with you.”
This is the announcement before the Announcement. Before the angel says anything about a baby, he says this. The Lord is with you. Already. Now. Before the conception. Before the pregnancy. Before the birth. The Lord is with you. The presence precedes the task. God does not give assignments and then show up later to check on progress. He establishes His presence first. And from within the presence, the assignment is given.
“She was troubled.” Dietarachthē. Deeply disturbed. Agitated. Not calmly curious. Troubled. The appearance of the angel and the weight of the words shook her. She did not float above the moment in serene composure. She was a teenage girl facing the most overwhelming experience a human being has ever had. And she was shaken.
“And considered what manner of greeting this was.” Dielogizeto. She reasoned. She thought about it. She did not react instantly. She did not say yes before she understood. She took the words and turned them over in her mind. What kind of greeting is this? Why is an angel calling me “highly favoured”? What does “the Lord is with you” mean for a girl in Nazareth?
This is important. The Church does not teach that Mary was a passive instrument. She was not a vessel into which God poured Himself without her knowledge or consent. She thought. She questioned. She reasoned. And then she chose. The yes that changed everything was an informed yes. A considered yes. The yes of a person who understood enough to be afraid and said yes anyway.
You Will Conceive and Bear a Son (vv. 30–33)
“Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.'” (1:30–33)
“Do not be afraid.” The same words Christ spoke on the water to the terrified disciples (Day 32). The same words spoken to every person in Scripture who encounters the divine. Do not be afraid. The fear is appropriate. The presence is overwhelming. But the message is not one of judgment. It is one of favour.
“You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son.”
The announcement. Direct. Specific. Physical. You will conceive. In your womb. The Word of God who was with God from the beginning, through whom all things were made, who holds the universe together by the word of His power, will take up residence in the womb of a teenage girl. The cosmos will be contained in a cavity the size of a fist. The Infinite will become an embryo.
“And shall call His name Jesus.” Yeshua. The Lord saves. The name that contains the entire mission. Not “the Lord judges” or “the Lord observes” or “the Lord records.” The Lord saves. The name spoken in Nazareth is the name that will be spoken at every baptism, every Qurbana, every prayer, every exorcism, every healing, every moment when a human being reaches toward God and says: help me.
“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest.”
Gabriel’s description echoes the messianic prophecies. The throne of David. The house of Jacob. The kingdom without end. But Gabriel goes further than the prophets. Son of the Highest. Not servant of the Highest. Not prophet of the Highest. Son. The child in Mary’s womb will not be merely a great king. He will be the Son of God.
St. Athanasius the Great, in On the Incarnation, teaches that the Annunciation is the moment when the problem of human death was answered. Humanity was dying. Sinking into non-being. Returning to the nothing from which it was created. And the only solution was for the Creator to enter creation. Not from the outside. From the inside. Through a womb. Through the body of a woman. Through the same biological process by which every human being enters the world. Athanasius says the Incarnation had to begin this way because salvation had to begin where we begin. In a body. In a womb. In the darkness of flesh. The Son of the Highest entered creation through the lowest door. Not the palace. The womb.2
How Can This Be? (vv. 34–35)
“Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.'” (1:34–35)
Mary asks a question. Not a question of doubt. A question of logistics. How? She is a virgin. She is not married. She has not been with a man. The biology does not work. She is not questioning God’s power. She is asking how God’s power will operate in her specific situation.
This is different from Zechariah’s question earlier in Luke 1. Zechariah asked “how shall I know this?” (1:18). He wanted proof. He wanted a sign. Mary asks “how can this be?” She wants understanding. She wants to know the mechanism. Zechariah doubted. Mary inquired. And the angel treated the two questions very differently. Zechariah was struck mute. Mary was given an answer.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you.”
On Day 37 and Day 38, the Spirit entered the series. On Day 37, the Spirit who prays in us. On Day 38, the Spirit who produces fruit. Now, we encounter the Spirit who makes the Incarnation possible.
The same Spirit. The Spirit who cried “Abba, Father” in your heart during yesterday’s prayer is the Spirit who overshadowed Mary in Nazareth. The Spirit who interceded for you with groanings too deep for words is the Spirit who formed the body of Christ in the virgin’s womb. The Spirit who has been sustaining your fast for thirty-eight days is the Spirit whose power created the human nature of the Son of God.
“The power of the Highest will overshadow you.” Episkiasei. The word is used in the Septuagint for the cloud of glory that overshadowed the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:35). The Shekinah. The divine presence that filled the Holy of Holies. Mary’s womb becomes the Holy of Holies. The place where God dwells. The Tabernacle that Moses built with gold and acacia wood, God builds with flesh and blood.
“That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”
The child is holy. Not because of anything Mary has done. Because of what the Spirit has done. The holiness is from above. The humanity is from Mary. The two meet in one Person. One nature of God the Word Incarnate. This is the Christology the Oriental Orthodox Church confesses. Not two natures separated. Not one nature confused. One united nature. Fully divine and fully human. And the union began here. In this room. In this womb. On this day.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, in his letters and treatises on the Incarnation, teaches that the moment of the Annunciation is the moment when the two natures became one. Not at the baptism. Not at the Transfiguration. Not at the Resurrection. At the conception. The instant the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, the union was complete. From the first cell. From the first heartbeat. The baby in the womb was fully God and fully human. Not half and half. Not divine on the outside and human on the inside. Fully both. Completely one. And Mary is therefore rightly called Theotokos. The God-bearer. The Mother of God. Not because she gave birth to the divine nature (which is eternal and has no beginning). Because she gave birth to the Person who is God. And that Person’s human life began in her womb on this day.3
Let It Be to Me (vv. 36–38)
“Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.’ Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” (1:36–38)
Gabriel gives Mary one piece of evidence. Elizabeth. The barren relative who is now six months pregnant. The impossible made visible. The proof that “with God nothing will be impossible.”
“With God nothing will be impossible.” We heard these words on Day 25. The rich young ruler could not let go. Christ said: with God all things are possible. The same truth. The same God. The same impossibility overcome by the same power. What the rich young ruler could not do (release his wealth) and what biology cannot do (conceive without a man) are both impossible in the same way. And possible in the same way. With God.
“Then Mary said…”
This is the moment. The hinge of history. Everything before this sentence is announcement. Everything after this sentence is Incarnation. The entire plan of salvation waits on the next words from this girl’s mouth.
“Behold the maidservant of the Lord.”
She identifies herself. Not as the Mother of God. Not as the Queen of Heaven. Not as the most blessed woman in history. As a servant. Doulē. A bondslave. A girl who belongs to her Lord. She does not elevate herself. She locates herself. She is in the right place. Below God. Available to God. A servant awaiting instructions.
“Let it be to me according to your word.”
Genoito moi kata to rhēma sou.
Let it be. Let it happen. I consent. I agree. I say yes. Not “I understand” (she does not fully understand). Not “I am ready” (no one is ready for this). Not “I deserve this” (she claims nothing). Let it be. The simplest, most profound, most courageous act of faith in the Bible.
And the angel departed from her. The room is empty. The announcement is over. The decision is made. And inside the womb of a teenage girl in Nazareth, the Word is becoming flesh.
St. Ephrem, in his Hymns on the Nativity, writes about Mary’s yes with a wonder that borders on worship. He says the Creator of the universe asked a creature for permission. He did not force His way into the world. He did not seize the womb the way a king seizes a throne. He asked. Through an angel. Through words. Through a conversation in a room. And He waited for the answer. The God who spoke the galaxies into existence waited in silence for a girl to say yes. And when she said it, heaven and earth heard it simultaneously. The angels heard it from their side. The creation heard it from ours. And the Word, who had been with God from the beginning, began His journey from the throne to the manger. Because she said yes.4
On Day 29, we reflected on the potter and the clay. The potter has power over the clay. But today we see something the potter passage did not show us. The potter asked the clay. The sovereign God who has every right to act unilaterally chose instead to send an angel and wait for consent. The Incarnation is not a divine imposition. It is a divine invitation. And the invitation required a human response. And the human who responded was a teenage girl who said: let it be.
The Annunciation and the Great Lent
Why does the Church celebrate this feast in the middle of the fast?
Because the fast needs this feast. And this feast needs the fast.
The fast needs the Annunciation because the fast can become self-absorbed. Thirty-eight days of examining the self. Stripping. Confessing. Measuring. The lens pointed inward for so long that we forget why we are fasting. Today the lens swings outward. Away from us. Toward a room in Nazareth. Toward a girl and an angel. Toward the moment when everything started. The fast exists because the Incarnation happened. The Incarnation happened because Mary said yes. The entire Lenten journey, from Day 1 to Pascha, is a response to what happened in this room on this day.
And the Annunciation needs the fast because the fast has prepared us to hear it. If we had encountered this passage on an ordinary day, we might have admired it from a distance. Beautiful story. Important theology. Moving scene. But after thirty-eight days of fasting, the Annunciation is not a distant story. It is the reason we are here. It is the answer to every question the fast has asked. Why are we fasting? Because the Word became flesh. Why did the Word become flesh? Because a girl said yes. Why did the girl say yes? Because the Spirit overshadowed her. Why did the Spirit come? Because the Father loved the world (Day 24, John 3:16). Everything connects. The fast and the feast are part of the same story.
The Annunciation also reveals something about Mary that the Lenten fast has been teaching us about ourselves. She said yes without understanding everything. She consented before she could see the full picture. She agreed to carry a child whose destiny included a cross. She said “let it be” without knowing that “let it be” would lead to Bethlehem, to Egypt, to Nazareth, to Cana, to Calvary, to the foot of the Cross where a sword would pierce her own soul (Luke 2:35).
The fast asks us to say the same thing. Let it be. Let it be to me according to Your word. Not “let it be according to my plan.” Not “let it be according to my understanding.” According to Your word. The word I have not fully heard. The plan I cannot fully see. The road that leads to a cross I do not yet comprehend.
Mary’s yes is the model for every yes we have tried to say during the fast. Every time we stretched a withered hand (Day 34). Every time we came down from the tree (Day 36). Every time we walked toward the pool we could not see (Day 35). Every time we opened our hands and released the one thing (Day 25). We were saying, in our small way, what Mary said perfectly: let it be to me according to Your word.
The Theotokos: Mother of God
The Oriental Orthodox Church calls Mary Theotokos. God-bearer. Mother of God. This is not a devotional title. It is a Christological confession. The Council of Ephesus (431 AD) affirmed the title because to deny it would be to divide Christ. If the person born of Mary was not God, then the Incarnation did not happen. If the Incarnation did not happen, there is no salvation. The title “Theotokos” is not primarily about Mary. It is about Christ. It says: the baby in the womb was God. And the woman who carried that baby is therefore the Mother of God.
St. Cyril of Alexandria fought for this title at Ephesus against Nestorius, who wanted to call Mary Christotokos (Christ-bearer) rather than Theotokos (God-bearer). Cyril insisted: if you divide the titles, you divide the Person. Christ is not two people. He is one Person with two natures united. And that one Person was born of Mary. Therefore Mary bore God. Not the divine nature in isolation. The divine Person in His incarnate fullness.5
In the Indian Orthodox (Malankara) tradition, the Theotokos holds a place of deep veneration. Her icon is in every church. Her feasts are celebrated throughout the year. Her intercession is invoked in every prayer. “By the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos” is the closing formula of every reflection in this series. And today we understand why. Because without her yes, there is no series. No fast. No Cross. No Resurrection. No Seeking Theosis.
She is not worshiped. Worship belongs to God alone. She is venerated. Honored. Loved. Because she said yes when the angel came. Because she carried God in her body. Because she stood at the foot of the Cross (John 19:25) and watched the child she said yes to die on the wood she could not have foreseen when she said it. And because she is praying for us now. Before the throne. As a mother prays for her children. With the same heart that said yes in Nazareth.
For Our Journey Today
Say yes. The Annunciation is an invitation to consent. To say yes to God’s plan even when we do not fully understand it. Today, in whatever area of our life God is asking something impossible, say what Mary said. Let it be to me according to your word. Not according to my understanding. Not according to my plan. According to Your word. The yes does not require comprehension. It requires trust.
Receive the joy. “Rejoice, highly favoured one.” The first word of the Annunciation is a command to be glad. Today, in the middle of the fast, receive the joy. The fast is not only sorrow and self-denial. The fast exists because of the most joyful event in history. The Word became flesh. The Creator entered creation. A girl said yes and the universe changed. That is a reason for joy that no amount of fasting can diminish. Let the joy in today. It belongs in the fast. It is the reason for the fast.
Honour the Theotokos. If we have a prayer corner with an icon of the Mother of God, stand before it today. Light a candle. Say the prayer the Church has taught us. Ask for her intercession. She said the yes that made our salvation possible. She carried God in her body for nine months. She stood at the Cross when almost everyone else had fled. And she prays for us now. Honor her today. Not with worship. With gratitude. And with the recognition that your small yes during the fast is an echo of her great yes in Nazareth.
Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, who said “let it be to me according to your word” and carried the Word in your womb, pray for us today. We are in the middle of the fast and we are tired. Our yes has been smaller than yours. Our faith has wavered where yours held firm. Our comprehension has been slower than your consent. But we are saying it. In our own stumbling way. Let it be. Let it be to me according to Your word. Not my plan. Your word. Not my understanding. Your will. Teach us the courage of your yes. The simplicity of your trust. The depth of your surrender. And pray for us now and at the hour of our need. As a mother prays. With the heart that carried God. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, who entered the world through the womb of a virgin because Your Father loved the world so much that He gave You, we thank You for the yes that made the Incarnation possible. For the girl in Nazareth who said “let it be.” For the Spirit who overshadowed her. For the nine months in the darkness of the womb before the light of Bethlehem. For the road from the manger to the Cross that began on this day. The fast prepares us for the Cross. The Annunciation is why there is a Cross to prepare for. Everything begins here. In a room. With a girl. And an angel. And a yes. By the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the saints, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Patristic References
- St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373). Hymns on the Nativity (Madrāshē d-Yaldā). ↩︎
- St. Athanasius the Great (c. 296–373). On the Incarnation (De Incarnatione) ↩︎
- St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444). Cyril’s defence of the title Theotokos at the Council of Ephesus (431 AD), his insistence that dividing the titles (Theotokos versus Christotokos) divides the Person of Christ, and his teaching that the moment of the Annunciation is the moment when the two natures became one united nature, are developed in his Third Letter to Nestorius, his Twelve Anathemas, and On the Unity of Christ. His Christological formula (one nature of God the Word Incarnate, mia physis tou theou logou sesarkōmenē) is the confession of the Oriental Orthodox Church and finds its historical origin in the Annunciation: from the first moment of conception, the Person in Mary’s womb was one. Edition: On the Unity of Christ, translated by John McGuckin (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Popular Patristics Series, 1995). ↩︎
- St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373). Hymns on the Nativity. ↩︎
- Same as Note 3 above ↩︎
