The Feast of the Annunciation is always celebrated during the Lenten season. It seems a bit jarring, doesn’t it? We are in a penitential season, thinking about the Incarnate Son of God and his Passion and death. The birth and mission of the One who would die and rise from the dead were announced long ago to a maiden in Nazareth.
When the archangel Gabriel came to Mary and proclaimed this Good News, it signaled a new reign had arrived in the history of Israel. The miraculous conception of the Savior by the Holy Spirit would mean that the reign of sin would be over. It meant that the heavenly Kingdom would be opened. That’s what the Good Thief heard on Good Friday, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Mary’s fiat at the Annunciation ushered in the era of the eternal Kingdom. Jesus desires to make us citizens of that eternal Kingdom. All we must do is follow him and do his will, and hopefully, we will be made worthy of the promises of Christ.