Last week a correspondent pointed out in this paper’s Letters pages that yesterday, 25 March, is the most important day in the calendar. It’s the Feast of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce that she was to be the mother of God. Except, of course, it wasn’t quite like that. Gabriel did indeed come to the Virgin, but with a proposal:

“The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.’ Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’” (Luke 1:30-34; KJV)
This passage troubled me for years; it seemed like an announcement, a declaration, not a proposal requiring assent from the girl. But I was put right by the late, lamented Sr Assunta Kirwan OP. She pointed out that in Middle Eastern cultures, a bargain was expressed like a declaration: you do this, I do that: a slap on a counter, which required another affirmative slap on top to seal the agreement. So what seemed like a simple affirmation by the angel about what was going to happen actually required the other party, Mary, to seal the arrangement by assenting to it. In other words, the Incarnation, the conception of Christ, did not happen until Mary agreed to it, with the words, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to your word.”