Every March 25, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. It is not only the announcement of a birth, but the event in which God himself enters human history, assuming flesh in the womb of a woman, in the womb of Mary. This feast is, in the words of St. Augustine, the moment when Mary “conceived believing whom she gave birth believing”(Sermon 215, 4).
Faith that engenders
Faith that engendersSt. Augustine underlines a powerful truth: the conception of Christ begins in Mary’s mind and heart before it begins in her body. When the angel Gabriel announces the divine plan, Mary, with simplicity and depth, asks “how can that be,” not out of unbelief, but because she does not know a man. The angel responds with a promise that surpasses human logic: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk 1:35).
And then the miracle happens. Mary believes, and in that act of faith the Incarnation is realized. St. Augustine says: “Mary believed, and what she believed was fulfilled in her”(Sermon 215, 4). It is faith that opens the door to God’s action.
A birth that defies reason
The way in which St. Augustine describes the mystery is overflowing and reverent:
“These things are marvelous, because they are divine; they are ineffable, because they are also inscrutable; the mouth of man is not sufficient to explain them, because neither is the heart sufficient to investigate them”(Sermon 215:4).
Thus she reminds us that the Incarnation is a mystery that does not exhaust itself in rational explanations. It is not a matter of understanding everything, but of entering into faith with humility, like Mary.
Mary, figure of the Church
In his patristic vision, St. Augustine establishes a beautiful parallel between Mary and the Church:
“He is born of the Holy Spirit and of a virgin woman in whom the Church will be reborn of the Holy Spirit, a virgin also” (Sermon 215, 4).
Here, Mary’s virginal maternity is not only a sign of purity, but also of spiritual fecundity, the same that the Church transmits to believers through the sacraments.
The abasement of God
The abasement of GodOne of the most poignant lines of the sermon is this:
“God who abides in God, the eternal one who lives with the eternal one, the Son equal to the Father, did not disdain to put on the form of a servant for the benefit of servants, convicts and sinners” (Sermon 215:4).
Here the whole theology of abasement (kenosis) is condensed. The eternal Word did not come for our merits – for “we deserved punishment for our sins” – but out of gratuitous love. This is the scandal of the Incarnation: God becoming small, God in swaddling clothes, God in the womb of a virgin.
St. Augustine proclaims it elsewhere with the same intensity:
“Wake up, man! For you God became man” (Sermon 185, 1).
A mystery to believe… and live
The Annunciation is not just a remembrance of a past event. St. Augustine invites us to do as Mary did: to believe in order to spiritually conceive Christ in us. Like her, we can give our “yes” to God’s plan, even if we do not fully understand it.
“Let us also create so that it may also be profitable to us what has been fulfilled” (Sermon 215, 4).
This is the key: it is not enough to admire the mystery; we must enter into it by faith. Because what happened physically in Mary can happen spiritually in every believer.
On this Solemnity of the Annunciation let us remember the words of Augustine: “the Creator took the form of the servant to save the servant”. Mary believed and conceived; may we too, believing, allow Christ to be born in our lives.