“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
The words of Gabriel to Mary recalled the prophecy from the book of Zechariah in the first reading.
"Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!"
The reason for joy given by Zechariah was that the Lord himself was coming to dwell among his people. Mary embodied this daughter Zion, called to rejoice because God had decided to come so near to his creation. In particular she was called to rejoice because of the way God himself had set her apart to use her to accomplish his coming. She had found favor with God and he had made her full of grace (given grace in the past in a way that was ongoing in the present). He was with her, present in her life, on her side, ready to make possible the seemingly impossible thing he desired to do through her.
Do not be afraid, Mary
In the presence of an angel fear was a natural and common response. For one who was as humble as Mary, the unusual and exulted greeting might only have added to this feeling. Could he really mean to address her in this way? But the angel did not mean only to assuage whatever fears Mary might of felt as an individual. It was also as though in her he was addressing all of Israel and the entire world.
The LORD has removed the judgment against you, he has turned away your enemies; The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst, you have no further misfortune to fear (see Zephaniah 3:15).
Mary was invited by the angel to believe that the time of the fulfillment of this prophecy was at hand. In her all of the fear that had consumed the past ages as a result of sin would finally be overcome. The judgment against mankind would be set aside through the coming of her son. He would "deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (see Hebrews 2:15). As John the Baptist's father Zechariah had prophesied, we, "being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear" (see Luke 1:74). Mary was the microcosm in which grace and obedience would perfectly overcome all fear. And it is under the protection of her mantle that we can know the same peace that the angel had invited her to receive.
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
Mary asked this question of the angel not out of doubt or fear, but in order to know the part she meant to play, the specific instructions she was to follow. She could not have guessed on her own what this plan would have been and she needed to understand it in some measure to assent to it and to cooperate with it.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
Just as the glory cloud filled the tent of meeting in the time of Moses, as it filled the temple that Solomon built, so too would it fill Mary as a new temple of the Lord's presence. Unlike those past places where God's presence was found however he would not choose to dwell in this new temple without her consent.
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Where others invited to participate in the Lord's plan had failed because fear and doubt limited what they were willing to believe the Lord could do Mary chose instead to believe in the power of the God for whom all things would be possible. Where she might have been tempted to fear her own limitations from the point of view of her humility she instead trusted the word of the Lord spoken to her by Gabriel. She embraced trust over fear and thus represented the beginning through which all fear would eventually be overcome.
We see in Mary the beginning of the fulfillment of the restoration of Israel and indeed of all creation. But this beginning was not given only for her alone, but so that she could share it all of us whom Jesus made his brothers and sisters, sons of daughters of the Father, yes, but also of his mother.
Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,
and they shall be his people,
and he will dwell among you,
and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
It is precisely Mary's maternal care for her people that was celebrate in today's feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She was not content to let the peoples of Mexico continue to live in fear. What missionaries could not accomplish she would not leave undone. As we celebrate the beautiful miracles by which she used Saint Juan Diego to establish the faith in Mexico we can take comfort to know that she has the same love for us that she did for them. Let us reflect on we ought respond to the love of so great a mother, and on what blessings might await if we open ourselves more to that love.
Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.
- words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego on Mount Tepeyac in 1531.
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