March 25/Fifth Wednesday of Lent
Solemnity of the Annunciation
Sacrifice and offering you do not delight in, but you have dug out my ears.
To do your will, O God, I delight in; your teaching is within my belly [lit. transl]. ~ Ps 40.7, 9
There is something in our human nature that almost reflexively resists rules and limits. We bristle at someone telling us what to do. We are determined to follow our own devices and desires, not cave to anyone else’s. We no sooner confront a set of guidelines for the common good than we invent ways to circumvent or break them. Speed limits, tax codes, sports protocols, zoning laws, every sphere of human activity is subject to our creative “workarounds,” or more accurately, our flaunting. In much the same way, we find loopholes in our promises to God. We may take the path of outright defiance and simply stop going to church and practicing regular prayer. Or we may faithfully attend weekly services, presenting our envelopes and offerings while shutting off our ears and hearts to God’s teachings. We show up as we are expected, but otherwise devote our lives to chasing our own desires. We spend money on our own comfort and entertainment, reducing our support of a charity in need; we spend time on social media, passing up meaningful conversation with a spouse or a child; we focus on our own professional advancement in ways that foster unhealthy competitiveness over productive collaboration. In short, we “do us.” And God wants no part of it. The offering he seeks is the sacrifice of our stubborn, inflated egos. We are invited, today, to listen and to heed — and as the psalmist colorfully puts it, God has even taken the liberty of “digging out our ears” so that we can hear. The “delight” that both God and we experience from this obedience — and the Hebrew verb is the same in these two verses, underscoring the point — is the mutual delight of a relationship in which both sides are fulfilling their promises of love and faithfulness. And on this Solemnity of the Annunciation, we may see it, too, as the delight of the young maiden Mary, offering her life and her self to God.
Almighty God, Make me an instrument of your love, your peace, and your mercy, and grant that I may always seek to do your will. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032526.cfm
To hear the Cambridge Singers sing “Dixit Maria,”** by Hans Leo Hassler, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bQuKPeZzpo&list=RD_bQuKPeZzpo&start_radio=1
** Mary said to the Angel:
Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord,
let it be done to me, according to your word.
