Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. Today is exactly nine months away from the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The Universal Church commemorates on this day that moment which set in motion the events that would lead to the greatest event in the history of humankind: the Annunciation of the Lord. It was the moment when the Archangel Gabriel was sent by God to the Blessed Virgin Mary with the message that she would be the Mother of the Son of God. And although it was a message that Mary initially struggled to understand, she availed herself to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and allowed God’s will to be done in her life. The Annunciation inaugurated the fullness of time (cf. Galatians 4:4), that is, the time for the fulfillment of God’s promises for creation (the birth of Jesus Christ commenced the redemptive phase of the creative process). It had been God’s plan right from the very beginnings that creation would find its final rest in the Creator (cf. Romans 8:19-23). As an “outflow” of the Godhead, the creative work of God was to become complete when creation finally “makes” its way back to its source, the Godhead. However, this return, also known as salvation, was frustrated by the rebellion of creation. Blinded by the sin of man who was supposed to assume the lead role in this return, creation became unable to make its way back to its Creator. This prompted God to send a “guide” to the created world to help it make the important return. Jesus Christ is that guide. The Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews “celebrates” the person of Jesus Christ by reminding us of how he effected the work of redemption. Our first parents forfeited God’s redemptive plan for them when they chose to stray from the path which God had charted for them. It was a choice that set the created world on the path to self-annihilation. To remedy the damage caused by the rebellion of our first parents and to bring creation back onto the path of redemption, Christ had to undo what our first parents had done. Jesus Christ had to teach the world how to once again be obedient to God’s will. His coming to dwell amongst creation was itself a result of the Blessed Virgin Mary allowing the will of God to be done in her life. While the Annunciation itself is about the Lord Jesus Christ, and rightly so, we can never speak about it without mentioning the name Mary. For it was upon the Blessed Virgin Mary that the Holy Spirit descended in order to prepare a place for God to dwell. From the moment the Blessed Mary said YES to the angel of the Lord, she became transformed into a vehicle of God’s grace. No longer was the Blessed Mary living for her own self. She was also living for her brothers and sisters. Her YES made it possible for God to assume a creaturely nature, dwell with his creatures as one of them, and by so doing effect the work of the redemption of creation that was so crucial to the culmination of the creative process. Mary’s YES to the Lord earned her a special title of being the Mother of God. It is a title that she has proudly merited and in which we rejoice. By saying YES to God, the Blessed Mary, as it were, became a vehicle through which God’s blessings reached the universe. Through her consent to God’s plans, the Blessed Mary earned our veneration as the Mother of Christ and our Mother.