Even though the Annunciation happened
in March around St. Patrick’s Day the
church reads it at Mass in December
for the Immaculate Conception and Our
Lady of Guadalupe and then once more at
Advent so you hear it three times, if you go
to Mass, you hear the near-perfect opening
line in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was
sent by God to a town of Galilee called
Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man
named Joseph of the house of David and the
virgin’s name was Mary the lovely flow and
rhythm and length of it and the kicker
the virgin’s name was Mary which placed at
the end in appropriate Strunk and White
fashion signifies that Mary is a meaningful
term in the sentence and in what follows
namely the fiat: behold I am the handmaid
of the Lord let it be done unto me according
to thy word ie: thy will be done—and the
birth of Christ that came from the fiat and all
the Christians that came from the Christ who
came from the fiat the Christians who for the
past 2,000 years day and night have been
doing nothing but washing each other’s feet
in theory at least
So point being do go to any one of the three
December Annunciation reading Masses
or maybe even all three I mean why not and
then wonder if maybe the angel Gabriel isn’t
being sent into your world right now and
how the Mary of you has a chance to say yes
to what Gabriel is proposing and that
proposal may be simply to be a handmaid
of, who knows, not getting galactically
annoyed at the way an infant cries at Mass
at the very moment the priest reading the
Gospel utters “I am the handmaid” be the
handmaid of that not only because Gabriel
asked but because it is just an awful awful
thing to be irritated at a kid who cries at
Mass because I mean his parents even had
the Catholicism in them enough to bring
their potentially wailing kid to the manger
known as Mass so cut them some slack
that’s a-not-bad gift to give the world being
one degree less irritated during the reading
of the Annunciation whether that happens at
one of the three times in December or in
March after St. Patrick’s day or whenever
because the Lord loves the hidden fiats
as much as the famous ones.
