The last sentences of this Gospel introduce us directly to the great Week that we will begin tomorrow, and during which we will commemorate the passion and death of the Lord Jesus, to end, on Easter night, with the solemn celebration of His Resurrection.
En cette fête de l’Annonciation du Seigneur, neuf mois avant la prochaine fête de la Nativité, nous célébrons le moment de la conception de Jésus dans le sein de Marie, -- le premier moment de l’existence humaine de Dieu. Cet instant, qui divise toute l’histoire humaine en deux grandes périodes – celle d’avant le Christ et celle d’après la naissance du Christ – fait, dans l’Évangile, l’objet de diverses annonces, ou « annonciations ».
Throughout this Lenten season, the biblical readings, inviting us to conversion, have spoken to us of the experience of the desert, during which, for forty years, God formed and transformed His people.
On this feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, nine months before the next feast of the Nativity, we celebrate the moment of Jesus' conception in Mary's womb - the first moment of God's human existence. This moment, which divides the whole of human history into two great periods - that before Christ and that after Christ's birth - is, in the Gospels, the subject of various announcements, or "annunciations".
‘If your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart, and He knows everything’ - when John wrote this in one of his Letters, he was probably thinking of the scene he recounts in today's Gospel.
Tout au long de ce temps de carême les lectures bibliques, en nous invitant à la conversion, nous ont parlé de l’expérience du désert, au cours de laquelle, durant quarante ans Dieu a formé et transformé son peuple.
Two editorial levels can easily be distinguished in this passage from John’s Gospel. The original narrative was an account of the raising of Lazarus, the greatest of the miracles performed by Jesus. When John decided to insert this account at a crucial moment in Jesus’ life—that is, at the end of his ministry and the beginning of his passion—he transformed it. What now lies at the heart of the narrative is no longer the miracle itself, but rather Jesus’ dialogue with Martha.