Saint Michael the Archangel
Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Boston. Hudson, Massachusetts
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, celebrated on Tuesday, March 25th. Mass is celebrated at 9:00am, all are welcome.
Annunciation of the Lord
The Solemnity of the Annunciation is celebrated nine months before the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas). The feast had first started being celebrated in the fourth or fifth century.
The Annunciation recalls the day when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary and revealed God’s will that she become the Mother of the Son of God and she accepted. At that moment, the “Word became Flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
This solemnity's central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized. The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
What is the role of Mary in God's Plan?
Mary has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity, God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation. Because Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.
Mary is the virgin-mother who fulfills Isaiah 7:14 in a way that Isaiah could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38).
Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God.
She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become.
She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.
-Franciscan Media
What is the Significance of Mary's Response?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us...
At the announcement that she would give birth to “the Son of the Most High” without knowing man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded with the obedience of faith, certain that “with God nothing will be impossible”: “Behold, I am the hand maid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word.” Thus, giving her consent to God’s word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the
person and to the work of her Son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God’s grace:
As Saint Irenaeus says, “Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert . . .“The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith." Comparing her with Eve, they call Mary “the Mother of the living” and frequently claim: “Death through Eve, life through Mary.”
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 494
Mary responded to God's request with the most perfect faith and obedience.
Through Mary’s “yes” to God, she made the Divine Plan of salvation effective in history. As Eve disobeyed and set humanity on a path of sin, Mary was perfectly obedient and set us on the path of grace. As Eve was the “Mother of All the Living” (Genesis 3:20), Mary is the Mother of All those Living “in Christ.” We owe her a debt of justice and a devoted obligation of love.
How does Mary serve as the New "Eve" in our salvation story?
Saint Irenaeus (from the 2nd century) taught...
Just as the former – that is, Eve – was seduced by the words of an angel so that she turned away from God by disobeying his word, so the latter – Mary – received the good news from an angel’s announcement in such a way as to give birth to God by obeying his word.
And as the former was seduced so that she disobeyed God, the latter let herself be convinced to obey God, and so the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve.
And as the human race was subjected to death by a virgin, it was liberated by a Virgin; a virgin’s disobedience was thus counterbalanced by a Virgin’s obedience…
Saint Michael the Archangel
Catholic Church
21 Manning Street
Hudson, MA 01749
Parish Office
20 High Street
Hudson, MA 01749
Priest & Administrator |
Reverend Bert Proulx
Priest | Portuguese Community |
Reverend Valdir Lima
Deacon |
Jarod Auclair
Deacon |
Charles Rossignol
Business Manager | Marcy Flaherty
Pastoral Assistant | Lori Morton