When King Ahaz, a very deficient king of Judah in the eighth century B.C., was invited by Isaiah to ask God for a sign, the prophet told him: "Ask the Lord your God for a sign: in the depths of the deep or in the heights of heaven.". In other words, you can ask for anything you want, no matter how extraordinary and seemingly impossible it may seem to him. Ahaz replies, in a display of false piety: "I don't ask, I don't want to tempt the Lord.". When in fact he was constantly testing, provoking, God with his ungodliness. Isaiah points out: you try the patience not only of men, but of God himself. And he adds: "For the Lord, on his own account, will give you a sign. Behold: the virgin is with child and is giving birth to a son, and he will call his name Immanuel.".
The absolutely impossible, unimaginable sign will be a virgin giving birth. "for with us is God". That prophecy could have had an immediate meaning at the time: a young princess, until then a virgin, would give birth to a child whose birth, ensuring the continuation of the Davidic dynasty, would show that God was still close to his people. But the real and full meaning of that prophecy was realized through the event that today's feast celebrates: the Incarnation of the Son of God. Today, in the most literal - and most miraculous - sense, a virgin gave birth to the one who is truly God with us, because he is God made man.
We could say many things about today's feast of the Annunciation. This "signal" was fulfilled in the birth of Christ: "And here is the sign: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." (Lucas 2:12), they said to the shepherds. God can do what is impossible for humans: he offers us a salvation, a closeness, which we not only did not dare to desire, but which had not even occurred to us. God's mercy surpasses even our imagination. But it has really happened: the inconceivable has become flesh. As we try to say no to our flesh this Lenten season, we are encouraged by the fact that God has become flesh and is therefore willing to suffer with us the cold, hunger and, finally, death. Regardless of what we try to do with our own self-denial and self-giving, God has gone ahead in his kenosishis self-emptying (Cfr. Philippians 2,7).
But today's feast also points to the human capacity to respond to God, which manifests itself above all in the yesthe fiat from the Virgin Mary to the angel. God can approach humanity through those who have the faith and courage to believe in His initiative and accept it (as Ahaz did not). Mary did not need time to think about it. She did immediately and totally with the fullness of her being.
