First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in.”
What God desired when he asked for sacrifices was not the things in themselves, of which he had no need. It was rather the hearts of those that offered those things. Yet, though the things were offered, hearts remained hardened. But this meant that sacrifices could not fulfill their true purpose. If we could not give ourselves, we could not receive ourselves back, forgiven of sin. This was our condition, however, since we were not at any point sufficiently self-possessed to make such an offering. The fall of Adam had rendered the human race slaves to sin, unable to escape the need to put ourselves first. The fear of death that the buffered self felt made it subject to the slavery, acting always with that fear as a backdrop, and self-preservation as the goal. We would thereafter try discover the eternal goods for which we were made in things that were only temporary. We would do all we could to distract ourselves from the certain knowledge of the futility of such a project.
that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham (see Hebrews 2:14-16).
We were unable to offer ourselves completely and so escape this slavery to fear. In fact, we were even afraid to ask for something so potentially paradigm shattering.
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”
But the Lord was not content to leave us in our sorry state apart from him. Whether we could muster the courage to ask or not, the Lord would nevertheless provide what we never could on our own.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us!”
The one who was announced on the Annunciation was precisely this one, Emmanuel, God with us, who would finally be able to do what we could not. He was not constrained by fear or sin, and thus was perfectly free to lay down his life.
Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”
Jesus could say, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (see John 10:18). Mary was prepared with fullness of grace in advance so that she could be his way into the world, a way which would leave his human nature untainted by the sin that afflicted us.
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
The freedom of Jesus to offer himself was never meant to be a replacement for our own offering. It was rather to empower us to give what we could not give, to offer our hearts, and so receive new hearts in return. Mary was the first to receive this gift from her Son, and so she was able to say, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” And though our offerings will still often come up short of those of Jesus and Mary, when we unite our own own attempts with the one offering of Jesus, through Mary, we too will offer something that is truly acceptable to God.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (see Romans 12:1).
What is announced on this solemnity? Freedom from fear is offered. We see the path from slavery to Sonship. But it is still ours to enter or ours to neglect this great gift. May we fully receive and live it.
No comments:
Post a Comment