20 December 2025 – Saturday of the 3rd week of Advent
Homily
Today we have the same Gospel as on the day of the Annunciation of the Lord, exactly nine months before the feast of the Nativity, the day on which 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 the subject of various announcements or ‘foreshadowing’ in the Gospels.
In Matthew's Gospel, there is the announcement to Joseph, which we read on the feast of Saint Joseph. In Luke's Gospel, there are two announcements, one to Zechariah and the other to Mary. One cannot be understood without the other, for in Luke there is a rigorous parallel between the two. In both cases, it is the same angel Gabriel who is sent from God, bearing his message. In the first case, he stands to the right of the altar of incense; in the second, he stands before Mary. In the first case, he is sent to an old man married to an equally old woman - a sterile couple. In the second case, he is sent to a young girl who is engaged but not yet married.
Zechariah's family tree is impressive. He came from a priestly family, from the tribe of Levi, living in Jerusalem, in Judea, in the most religious region of Israel. He was a faithful observer of the Law, serving in the Temple and, on this very special day for him, entering the Holy of Holies to offer incense at the time of the evening sacrifice, while the people waited outside. In Mary's case, her own genealogy is not even mentioned, even though she is betrothed to a young man from the tribe of David. She lived in a small village never mentioned in the Old Testament, in Judea, which was not very religious and was even almost pagan. She was a very young girl, socially unimportant.
Zechariah was troubled, and his lack of faith meant that he was mute until the birth of his son. Mary simply asks how ‘ it will be done “, and far from being mute, she sings her admirable ” Magnificat ’. Zachariah had the task of giving his son the name John - a task that fell to the father. But in the case of Jesus, it was his mother Mary who gave him the name ‘ Jesus ’ revealed to her by the angel. John will certainly be ‘ great in the eyes of the Lord “, the greatest of the woman's sons, Jesus will say; but Jesus is the ” Son of the Most High ’. The Holy Spirit descended on John after his birth; Jesus was born through the intervention of the Holy Spirit.
This list of points of comparison could be extended. The central idea is that the moment of Jesus' conception marks the beginning of a new era in human history - a new creation replaces the old (which is what the double mention of the “sixth month” refers to, recalling the first six days of creation).
This new creation began with the conception of Jesus in Mary, the new Eve, mother of all living beings. This is not the end of a story, still less the end of history. On the contrary, it is a new beginning, the start of a period of history to which we belong; the start of a transformation of humanity that must continue in our society and in each of our lives.
After Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, many others received an ‘annunciation’ at some point in their lives. The Acts of the Apostles tells us about some of them from the first Christian community, in particular that of Paul on the road to Damascus. In reality, not only every Christian, but every human being, throughout his or her life, receives these ‘visits’ from God, made to them by ‘angels of God’, that is, men and women who help them to perceive God's will for them. In particular, there is a moment in every adult human life when the meaning of their life here on earth and the goal towards which they are striving are revealed to them in an intuitive and mysterious way.
Today's feast invites us to relive that moment when, as adults, we are born again to ourselves, as Jesus taught Nicodemus - the moment when the meaning of our life here below was revealed to us in the depths of our hearts. It is the moment when we had to say our own Fiat to the birth of God in our existence and to the entry of our personal existence into the dynamic of the Paschal Mystery.
Armand VEILLEUX