Jesus Christ was a man of flesh and blood, just as each human being is made of flesh and blood. And in Jesus, this flesh and blood of humanity make of themselves a perfect offering to God. “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins,” as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us (10:4), but the self-offering of Christ in obedience and love is different from these earlier sacrifices. Hence the Psalm says, “Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts and sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, ‘Behold I come’” (40:7–8a). The once-for-all self-offering of Christ, which we celebrate in the Paschal Triduum and indeed at every celebration of the Eucharist, is what has consecrated us to God (cf. Heb 10:10).
The self-offering of Christ is prepared for by Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel. The psalmist’s “Behold I come,” spoken beforehand of Christ, finds its perfect match in Mary’s fiat: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary’s expectant readiness and consent makes possible the ‘Yes’ of Christ that undoes the ‘No’ of sin; by God’s gift Mary is already full of grace (Luke 1:28), and now the floodgates of grace are opened for all of us.
Let us contemplate this mystery of the Incarnation today, this mystery in which God enables humanity to speak a complete ‘Yes’ of love in response to his offer of love. And with Mary, let us enter into the complete ‘Yes’ of Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit.