What a mystery the mother of Jesus is. Mary is the human, the woman, through whom God enters and takes on humanity. Mary is a mystery because she's intimately connected with the greatest mystery of all: The Incarnation. In Christ God became fully human and Jesus is fully human as you! The story of Jesus begins in earnest with the Annunciation, the angelic announcement to a young virgin that she would bare a son named Jesus, called the Son of God. Mary is poor and obscure. She is an utterly insignificant peasant in the nowhere of Nazareth. But now an angel is telling a peasant girl that the true Son of God is going to enter the world in poverty; it's not the economy that matters most, but the reign of God. When the angel Gabriel begins the Annunciation to Mary, he begins with the message "Rejoice!" We might say this is the proper beginning of the New Testament. The long, dark night is at last coming to an end and it's time to Rejoice! God is keeping his promise to bless the world though the seed of Abraham, Rejoice! God is keeping his promise to make the Son of David the ruler of the nations, Rejoice! The child who will bless the world and rule the nations is about to be born, Rejoice!