The Feast of the Annunciation, usually on March 25th (nine months before Christmas), was moved to today! Just because the 25th fell on Easter Week, it didn’t mean the Church would ignore the Feast this year. (admittedly, I practically forgot about it!)

Yesterday was the Feast of Divine Mercy. The Divine Mercy of God can be summarized this way: not getting what we deserve and getting what we do not deserve.

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation of Divine Mercy. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”. In other words, He gave Divine Mercy. Jesus is Divine Mercy, the Mercy of God for you and me.

He was announced to the Holy Virgin Who became His Mother. “In the fullness of time God sent His Son, born of a woman…” The Holy Virgin Mary said “yes” and The Divine Mercy became Flesh and Dwelt Among us. She became the conduit of Divine Mercy.

The Annunciation brings about a merciful reversal: The curse brought on by the sin of disobedience of our first parents was done away with by the obedience of the Son and His Mother. Pride in the first and humility in the latter.

On the morning of Divine Mercy Sunday something came to my mind that i had never thought of before: in the movie The Passion of the Christ, a soldier mocking Jesus on the Cross tells Him to descend. That is exactly what Jesus was doing: descending. He descended from the heights of Heaven all the way down to death on a Cross. And at Holy Mass i realized that He descends even further. In Holy Communion He descends all the way down into my heart!

The Annunciation is the day which makes possible Holy Thursday, Good Friday’s fountain of Mercy which gushed out of the Heart of Jesus, and Easter Sunday.

Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

– The Exultet (Easter Proclamation)