All Roads Lead to the Eucharist (part 2 of 4)

This post continues the series I started on four windows from St. Mary's Church, Mt. Angel.  There were four windows specifically chosen to be around the tabernacle... and they were chosen for good reason.  Read part 1 of 4 here.

The second window I'd like to examine is the Annunciation.  The angel Gabriel greets Mary, "Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28)  In the window, Gabriel's promise of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit is represented as a dove.

This is a perfect window to overshadow the tabernacle.  The key, I think, comes from a line of the Angelus: "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us."  The Eucharist is the Real Presence of Jesus among us--it is the fulfillment of His promise to be with us until the end of the age (Matt 28:20).  God is not a distant figure.  Just as in the Annunciation the Word became flesh, in the Eucharist a similar transformation takes place.  God dramatically enters our world in the Eucharist... ordinary food becomes heavenly food; what sustains us day to day fundamentally becomes the spiritual nourishment that carries us through life.

In a sense, we see a reflection of the magnificent moment of the Annunciation at every Mass.  God comes again to save His people; Jesus enters and transforms human existence.