Monthly Spiritual Message, August 2005
By Fr Carl Schafer OFM
The centrepiece of the painted wooden triptych above the altar in the Porziuncola is the Annunciation. When the Virgin Mary accepted the angel’s announcement, the Word of God became a frail and mortal being in her womb. Our Lady of the Angels is Our Lady of the Incarnation of the eternal Word, the Son of God.
No one received the Spirit of God into his or her heart and mind, and even into her body more than Mary. The Son of God was born of a woman, at the time appointed by God his Father.
In the second reading for the feast, from Paul’s letter to the Galatians (Gal 4:3-7), the expression “the appointed time” is literally “the fullness of time”. It refers to the time of the Messiah, the Saviour of his people. When he came, he filled a need felt for centuries, rather like filling up an empty vessel to the brim. He brought a long time of waiting to a perfect conclusion.
Jesus proclaimed, “The time has come” (Mk 1:15). Paul described the appointed time as “the end of the age” (1 Cor 10:11), “when the times had run their course to the end” (Eph 1:10). The Letter to the Hebrews identifies the appointed time “in our own time, the last days” (Heb 1:2), “now at the end of the last age” (Heb 9:26). Peter also described it as “in our time, the end of the ages” (1 Pet 1:20).
Paul explains to the Galatians that Jesus Christ came at the appointed time on a saving mission, to redeem us from the Mosaic Law, and to make us adopted children of God. This adoption that makes us heirs of God our Father is more than a simple juridical title. It is a gift of the Spirit of God and it affects our very being. We are children of God because we are born of his Spirit, and so we are his heirs by more than a legal fiction.
So, there are two aspects to our redemption by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Before he redeemed us, we were like children and slaves dominated by the Mosaic Law, but we gained freedom from the Law by becoming children of God through receiving the Spirit of God into our very being.
All this is brought about with God’s sending his Son who took on human nature in the womb of a woman. In this way, God the Son inserted himself into the historical reality of a particular people and so subjected himself to the law of that people, the Mosaic Law.
Prophecies and promises were fulfilled at their appointed time, as the gospel for the feast day proclaims (see Lk 1:26-33).
In the angel’s announcement to Mary, Luke indicates the fulfilment of the promise that God made to David: “I will preserve your offspring after you, a son of your own, and make his sovereignty secure … I will make his throne firm for ever. I will be a father to him and he a son to me … I will preserve him for ever in my house and in my kingdom; and his throne will be established for ever” (1 Chron 17:12-14; see 2 Sam 7:14,16).
Furthermore, with the reference to Jacob, we can see in Jesus the realization of all God’s promises. Also, Luke, like Matthew, recalls that Jesus is in the Davidic line through his adoption by Joseph. Then, in the dialogue between Mary and the angel, we discover the fulfilment of Isaiah: “the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel” (Is 7:14).
The realization in Jesus of God’s promises is the work of God and not of man. However, it did not come about without human cooperation, represented here by Mary’s acceptance. Neither will it come about in us without our cooperation.
August 2 is the anniversary of the dedication of the very large basilica in Assisi that was built round the tiny chapel of St Mary of the Angels, repaired by St Francis.
Many incidents in the life of Francis are connected with St Mary of the Angels’ chapel. Like all of us, Francis had to cope with all kinds of problems and temptations, and some were extremely severe and lasted several years. One day while he was praying in the chapel, he recalled vividly the gospel message: “If your faith were the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it would move” (Mt 17:20). Francis realized that the mountain was his temptation. He answered, “Then, Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.” At once he was freed from his trouble, so much so that it seemed to him he had never been troubled by it (see Legend of Perugia, in Omnibus of Sources, p.999.).
Francis often said to the friars, “This is truly a holy place and the dwelling place of God. Here the most High increased our numbers when we were only a few; here He enlightened the hearts of his poor ones with the light of His wisdom; here He kindled our wills with the fire of His love; here all who pray wholeheartedly will receive what they ask…” (I Celano 106, in FA:ED I, p.275).
On this feast day, let us pray that the words of St Francis will be verified in us: ” the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon them and make Its home and dwelling place among them, and they are children of the heavenly Father Whose works they do, and they are spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Earlier Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, 6-7, in FA:ED I, p.42).
