The two primary "poles" of our Holy Land pilgrimage were also the two primary poles of Our Lord's public life: Galilee and Jerusalem. They were the places where he called his disciples, where his preaching took place, where his miracles were performed, and where he eventually underwent his passion and death. These places are more or less the setting for most of the Gospel text, and thus were understandably the focal point of our 10-day pilgrimage!
And yet, we know too that the overwhelming majority of Jesus' life took place, not in the fishing villages around the lake, nor in the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem, but in the town of Nazareth, an essentially insignificant Jewish town which happened to be, for Mary and Joseph, "their own city," as Luke describes it (2:39). It was there that Christ lived his quiet years within the loving embrace of the Holy Family, assisting his foster-father St. Joseph in the humble trade of a carpenter, and praying with His Blessed Mother, who no doubt treasured these many peaceful years in her heart. This city, while neither the place of Christ's birth nor of his public ministry, nevertheless carries great significant for us as Christians, because, in fact "he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, 'He shall be called a Nazarene.'" (Matthew 2:23)
The Church of St. Joseph in Nazareth commemorates the great patron of the Universal Church.
But the site of this home of the Holy Family is significant not only because of what happened after Mary and Joseph returned from Egypt, but also for what happened there before. For indeed, Mary, having grown up in her parents' home in Nazareth, and having met her future husband there, also received, on one seemingly ordinary day, a message which was to change her life and the lives of all those who had ever lived and would ever live. It was in this little insignificant town that the angel of God appeared to a young girl who seemed, in the eyes of the world, to be an insignificant Jewish girl. We are all familiar with Mary's answer, and of the rest of the story of the Incarnation, a story which continues to this day, and which will continue for the rest of eternity. But the reality is that Mary's fiat occurred at one moment, in one place, in one earth-shattering decision which set humanity free. And the place where this moment took place was here, in Nazareth.
The inscription on the altar at Nazareth reads, "The Word was made flesh here."
In our Mass for the day at the Church of the Annunciation, we read for our Gospel the passage which contains that most significant event in the history of the universe: the moment of God's becoming man. The accompanying priest who preached that day drew our attention to the mystery of insignificance which God seems so pleased to use throughout history, whenever he can. Here we were in this place which, to the Jew of the 1st century - or to anyone of the 1st century, for that matter - would have been so insignificant and unimportant. And yet it was here - in Latin, hic - that God had chosen to come and first pitch his tent among us. And this girl to whom he had appeared was young, poor, and unmarried - in the society of the time, a woman of no social standing or significance. And yet, it was her - his lowly handmaiden - whom God had chosen to be the mother of his only-begotten son! If God was able to do such marvels in that time, and in this insignificant place, then what could possibly prevent him from working in the midst of those poor, lowly, insignificant areas of our lives, areas which we might have already written off as being "outside" of God's providence?! This brief stop in the place of Christ's Incarnation has brought all these reflections to light, and helped me to recognize that the Incarnation, which began here - hic - in the town of Nazareth, will always continue in my heart and in the hearts of all who welcome him in lowliness and meekness!
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