Great is the care of the saints for modesty, so that very often shame is bound up in their very prayers, just as in this place we observe holy Elizabeth — who certainly desired to have children — hiding herself for five months. What cause was there of her hiding but shame? For to every office there is a prescribed age, and what is becoming at one time is not becoming at another, and the change of age often changes the nature of each deed. There are also certain times prescribed for wedlock itself, when it is seemly to devote oneself to children — while the years are vigorous, while there is hope of receiving children, while the practice of begetting is in keeping, and the practice of union is in earnest pursuit.
But truly, where the mature old age of life has succeeded, and an age fitter for rearing children than for begetting them, it is a shame to bear the tokens of intercourse, however lawful, and to be burdened with the weight of an age not its own, and to swell the womb with a fruit out of its proper season. For the aged are shut out by their very age, and by a just shame of incontinence are called back from doing the works of wedlock. Even the young very often hold up the desire of children as a pretext, and think the heat of their age is to be excused by the longing for procreation. How much more shameful is it for the old to do what for the young is a shame to confess! Nay, even the young themselves, who temper sober hearts with the fear of God, very often, having received offspring, renounce the works of youth.
And what wonder concerning men, if even the cattle by a certain mute act declare that their concern is for begetting, not a desire for coupling? Since once they have felt their womb heavy and the seed received in the generative field, they no longer indulge in coupling nor in the wantonness of one in love, but take up the care of a parent. But men spare neither the conceived nor God: they defile the one, they provoke the other. 'Before I formed thee in the womb,' He says, 'I knew thee, and in the womb of thy mother I sanctified thee.' To restrain thy wantonness you perceive certain hands of thy Author forming man in the womb. He works, and do you defile the secret of the sacred womb with lust? Either imitate the beast or revere God. And why do I speak of beasts?
The earth itself often rests from the work of begetting, and if it be seized upon, with seeds frequently cast by men's impatient zeal, it punishes the shamelessness of the farmer and changes fruitfulness into barrenness. Thus there is in the very elements and in cattle a certain shame of nature at not ceasing from the use of begetting. Deservedly, then, did holy Elizabeth blush at the grace, even though she recognized no fault. For although she conceived by a man — for it is not lawful to believe otherwise concerning the birth of a man — yet she blushed at the age of her childbearing. And again she rejoiced that she had been freed from reproach; for it is a shame for women not to have the rewards of wedlock, since for them this is the sole cause of marrying.
This reproach, therefore, she consoles, now removed by her own modesty — by that modesty, as I said, by which she was ashamed on account of her age. Whence it can be understood that they no longer came together in conjugal intercourse; for she who would not blush at the intercourse of old age would not blush at the childbearing; and yet she blushes at the burden of being a parent, so long as she knows not the mystery of religion. She who hid herself because she had conceived a son began to boast because she was bearing a prophet; and she who blushed before now blesses, and she who doubted before is now confirmed. 'For behold,' she says, 'when the voice of thy salutation was in my ears, the infant leaped for joy in my womb.' And so with a loud voice she cried out, when she perceived the Lord's coming, because she believed the birth to be holy;
for there was no cause for shame, where she was acquiring the proof of a generation given to her — a prophet's birth — not affected. BOOK TWO. Now at the same time the angel Gabriel was sent by the Lord into a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. The divine mysteries are indeed hidden, nor easily, according to the prophetic saying, can any man know the counsel of God; but nevertheless, from the other deeds and precepts of the saving Lord, we can understand that this too was of a more weighed counsel, that she was chosen above all to bear the Lord who was espoused to a man. But why was she not made pregnant before she was espoused?
Perhaps lest it should be said that she had conceived from adultery. And well did Scripture set down both — that she was both espoused and a virgin: a virgin, that she might appear free from intercourse with a man; espoused, lest she should be branded with the infamy of violated virginity, since a heavy womb might seem to display the mark of corruption. But the Lord preferred that some should doubt concerning His own birth rather than concerning His mother's modesty — for He knew the virgin's chastity to be tender and the repute of her purity to be slippery — nor did He think the credit of His own birth was to be built up at the cost of injuries to His mother. And so holy Mary's virginity is preserved, as untouched in modesty, so inviolable in reputation;
for it behooves the saints to have testimony also from those who are without, nor was it fitting that to virgins living by a sinister reputation there should be left the veil of excuse, that the mother of the Lord too should seem defamed. And what could be ascribed to the Jews, what to Herod, if they should seem to have persecuted one born of adultery? And how could He Himself say: 'I came not to loose the law, but to fulfill it,' if He should seem to have begun from an injury to the law, since the offspring of the unwedded is condemned by the law? Nay, even a richer witness of her modesty is employed — the husband, who could both grieve at the injury and avenge the reproach, if he did not recognize the sacrament. What of the fact that even Mary's faith is gained as greater than her words, and the occasion of a lie is removed?
For the unwedded pregnant woman would seem to have wished to cover her fault by a lie. But she had cause for lying while unespoused; espoused, she had no cause, since the reward of wedlock and the grace of marriage is the childbearing of women. There is also no slight cause, that Mary's virginity should deceive the prince of the world, who, when he saw her espoused to a man, could not hold the offspring suspect. And that it was the design of the Lord Himself to deceive the prince of the world, the Lord's words declare, when the apostles are bidden to be silent about Christ, when the healed are forbidden to glory in their cure, when the demons are commanded to keep silent about the Son of God. That it was the design, as I said, to deceive the prince of the world, the apostle too declared, saying:
'But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory' — that is: they would never have brought it about that I should be redeemed by the death of the Lord. He deceived, therefore, for our sake; He deceived that He might conquer; He deceived the devil, when He was tempted, when He was asked, when He was called the Son of God, so that nowhere did He confess His own divinity. But still He rather deceived the prince of the world; for the devil, although he doubted at some time, when he said: 'If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down,' yet at length, though late, he recognized Him and departed from Him. The demons too recognized Him, who said: 'We know who thou art, Jesus, the Son of God.
Why hast thou come to torment us before the time?' And therefore they recognized that He had come, because they had foreknowledge that He was to come. But that the princes of the world did not recognize Him, by what greater proof can we establish it than the apostolic statement: 'For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory'? For the malice of the demons easily detects even hidden things; but those who are occupied with worldly vanities cannot know things divine. Now well did the evangelists divide things among themselves, so that holy Matthew should bring in Joseph being admonished by an angel not to put Mary away, Luke as evangelist should there bear testimony that they had not come together, and here Mary herself should confess it, when she says to the angel: 'How shall this be, since I know not a man?'
But holy Luke himself also declared her a virgin, saying: 'and the virgin's name was Mary,' and the prophet taught it, who says: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb,' and Joseph designated it, who, since he saw her pregnant whom he had not known, was eager to put her away; and the Lord Himself, placed upon the cross, made it manifest, when He says to His mother: 'Woman, behold thy son,' then to the disciple: 'Behold thy mother.' Both also bore witness, the disciple and the mother, that from that hour the disciple took her unto his own. Surely if they had come together, she would never have left her own husband, nor would the just man have suffered her to depart from him. And how would the Lord have enjoined divorce, since it is His own judgment that no one ought to put away a wife save for the cause of fornication?
But beautifully did holy Matthew teach what a just man ought to do who has detected the disgrace of his spouse — that he ought to show himself bloodless from murder and chaste from adultery; for 'he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her.' Therefore everywhere in Joseph the grace and person of the just man is preserved, that the witness may be adorned; for 'the mouth of the just man knows not a lie, and his tongue speaks judgment, his judgment speaks the truth.' Nor let it move you that Scripture frequently calls her his wife; for it declares not the snatching away of virginity, but the attestation of wedlock, the celebration of marriage. In short, no one puts away her whom he has not received, and therefore he who wished to put her away confessed that she had been received. At the same time, neither ought it to move you that the evangelist says:
'he knew her not, until she had brought forth her son'; for that is an idiom of Scripture — as you have elsewhere: 'and until you grow old, I am.' Did God then cease to be after their old age? And in the psalm: 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make thy enemies a footstool for thy feet.' Will He then not sit afterward? Or because he who pleads a case thinks it enough to say what pertains to the case, and does not require superfluity; for it is enough for him to establish the case he has undertaken, and to defer what is incidental. And therefore he who had undertaken to prove the incorrupt mystery of the incarnation did not think the testimony of Mary's virginity was to be pursued more abundantly, lest he should be believed to be rather a defender of the virgin than an asserter of the mystery.
Certainly, when he taught Joseph to be just, he sufficiently declared that the temple of the Holy Spirit, the mother of the Lord, the womb of the mystery, he could not violate. We have learned the order of the truth, we have learned the counsel: let us learn also the mystery. Well espoused, but a virgin, because she is a type of the Church, which is immaculate, but wedded. A virgin conceived us of the Spirit, a virgin brings us forth without groaning. And therefore perhaps holy Mary, wedded to one, filled by another, because the individual churches too are indeed filled with the Spirit and grace, yet are joined to the likeness of a temporal priest. 'And the angel, having entered to her, said: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. But she, when she saw him, was troubled at his entering in.'
Learn the virgin by her manners, learn the virgin by her modesty, learn the virgin by the oracle, learn her by the mystery. It belongs to virgins to tremble and to be alarmed at every entrance of a man, to fear every address of a man. Let women learn to imitate the resolve of modesty. Alone in the inner chambers, whom no man might see, whom an angel alone might find: alone without a companion, alone without a witness, lest she be corrupted by any degenerate address, she is saluted by the angel. Learn, O virgin, to avoid wantonness of words; Mary feared even the salutation of the angel. 'Yet she was,' it says, 'considering what manner of salutation this might be,' and therefore with modesty, because she was alarmed, and with prudence, because she marveled at a new formula of blessing, which is nowhere read, nowhere before found.
To Mary alone was this greeting reserved; for well is she alone called full of grace, who alone obtained the grace which no other had merited, that she might be filled with the Author of grace. Mary blushed, therefore; Elizabeth too blushed; and so let us recognize what difference there is between the modesty of a wife and of a virgin. The one blushed for a reason, the other through modesty; in the wife a measure of shame is applied, in the virgin the grace of modesty is increased. And the angel of the Lord said to her: Fear not, Mary; for you have found grace with God. And behold, you shall conceive in the womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great. It was said indeed of John too by the angel that he would be great, but he was great as a man, this one is great as God;
For great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised, and of his greatness there is no end. And truly he too was great, for among those born of women there has arisen no prophet greater than John the Baptist. Yet he has one greater than himself, since he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. John, then, was great, but great in the sight of the Lord. John drank neither wine nor strong drink; this one eats and drinks with publicans and sinners. The former, who had no power over nature, gathered merit by his abstinence; but Christ, to whom it belonged by nature to forgive sins, why should he shun those whom he could render better than the abstinent? At the same time, in a mystical sense, he does not disdain the banquet of those to whom he is about to give the sacrament.
This one, then, eats; the other fasts—a figure of the two peoples: in the one he fasts, in the other he is fed. But Christ also fasted, lest you should evade the precept, and he ate with sinners, that you might perceive grace and acknowledge his power. Great, therefore, was John also; but his greatness has a beginning and has an end, whereas the Lord Jesus is himself both end and beginning, himself the first and the last. There is nothing before the first, nothing beyond the last. Nor let the custom of human generation drag you into error, so that you suppose he is not the first because he is the Son. Follow the Scriptures, that you may not go astray. The Son is called the first. It is also read that the Father alone, who alone has immortality and dwells in light inaccessible, as you have read:
and to the immortal God alone; yet he is neither first before the Father nor alone without the Son. If you deny the one, you establish the other: follow both, and you confirm both. He did not say, 'I am former and I am latter,' but, 'I am the first and I am the last.' The Son is the first, and therefore co-eternal; for he has a Father, with whom he is eternal. I dare to say: 'The Son is the first, but he is not alone'—and I say it well and reverently. Why do you prick up your ears toward impiety, you heretics? You have fallen into the snares you set. The Son is the first and he is not alone: first, because he is always with the Father; not alone, because he is never without the Father. It is not I who say this, but he himself who said it: 'And I am not alone, because the Father is with me.'
The Father is alone, because God is one; the Father is alone, because there is one sole divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and what is one is alone. The Father is alone, the Only-begotten is alone, the Holy Spirit also is alone; for he who is the Son is not the Father, nor he who is the Father the Son, nor he who is the Holy Spirit the Son. The Father is one, the Son another, the Holy Spirit another; for we read: 'I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter.' The Father is alone, because there is one God, from whom are all things; the Son is alone, because there is one Lord, through whom are all things. Divinity alone makes them one; generation testifies both to the Father and to the Son, so that nowhere may the Son be seen without the Father, nor the Father without the Son.
Therefore he is not alone, since he is not alone immortal, nor alone dwells in light inaccessible; for no one has ever seen God except the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, who sits at the Father's right hand. And yet there are some who dare to say that the light which the Father inhabits is inaccessible. Is the light, then, better than the Father? But how can that light be inaccessible to him to whom the Father is not inaccessible—he who is himself the true light and the begetter of the eternal light, of which it is said: 'It was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world'? See whether that may not be the inaccessible light which the Father inhabits and the Son also inhabits, since the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father. Rightly, then, is he great;
for the power of God is poured forth far and wide, far and wide does the greatness of the heavenly substance extend itself. The Trinity has nothing prescribed, nothing circumscribed, nothing measured out, nothing dimensioned. It is not enclosed by place, not comprehended by opinion, not bounded by estimation, not varied by age. The Lord Jesus did indeed give men greatness; for 'their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world'—yet not to the ends of the universe, not to the ends of heaven, not beyond the heavens. But in the Lord Jesus all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and invisible, and he is before all things, and all things consist in him. Look upon heaven: Jesus is there; gaze upon earth: Jesus is present;
ascend in word into heaven, descend in word into hell—Jesus is present. For if you ascend into heaven, Jesus is there; if you descend into hell, he is present. Today as I speak, he is with me; within this point of time, within this very moment, and if at this hour a Christian is speaking in Armenia, Jesus is present; for no one calls upon the Lord of the law except in the Holy Spirit. If in thought you should penetrate the abysses, there too you will see Jesus at work; for it is written: 'Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?'—that is, to bring Christ down; 'or, Who shall descend into the abyss?'—that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. Where, then, is he not, who filled the things of heaven, of hell, and of earth?
Rightly, then, is he great, whose power has filled the world, who is everywhere and will be forever, since of his kingdom there shall be no end. Now Mary said to the angel: 'How shall this be, since I know not a man?' Here Mary may seem not to have believed, unless you observe attentively; for it is not lawful that she who was chosen to bear the Only-begotten Son of God should appear to have been unbelieving. But in what way it could come to pass—although the prerogative of the mother is preserved, to whom indeed more deference was assuredly owed, yet so that, as her prerogative was greater, so a greater faith ought also to have been reserved for her—in what way, then, could it come to pass that Zechariah, who had not believed, was condemned to silence, while Mary, had she not believed, would have been exalted by the infusion of the Holy Spirit?
But Mary ought neither to disbelieve nor to presume so rashly—to disbelieve the angel, to presume upon divine things. For it was not easy to know the mystery hidden from the ages in God, which not even the higher powers were able to know. And yet she neither refused faith nor declined the office. Rather she accommodated her affection and pledged her obedience. For when she says, 'How shall this be?' she did not doubt the outcome, but inquired about the manner of that very outcome. How much more measured is this response than the words of the priest! She says, 'How shall this be?' He answered, 'Whereby shall I know this?' She is already dealing with the business; he is still doubting the message.
He denies that he believes, who denies that he knows, and as it were still seeks another author for his faith; but she professes that she will do this, and does not doubt that what she inquires can be done, when she inquires in what manner it can be done; for thus you have it: 'How shall this be, since I know not a man?' A birth incredible and unheard-of had first to be heard, that it might be believed. That a virgin should bear is the sign of a divine, not a human, mystery. Hence he says, 'Receive a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son.' Mary had read this, and therefore believed it would come to pass; but how it would come to pass she had not before read; for not even to the prophet had it been revealed in what manner it would happen. For so great a mystery of the commission was to be uttered not by the mouth of a man but of an angel. Today for the first time it is heard:
'The Holy Spirit shall come upon you'—and it is heard and believed. Then she says, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.' See her humility, see her devotion. She who is chosen as mother calls herself the Lord's handmaid, and was not exalted by the sudden promise. By calling herself a handmaid she claimed for herself no prerogative of so great a grace, but would do whatever was commanded; for she who was to bear the meek and humble One ought herself also to display humility. 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.' You have obedience, you see her vow; for 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord' is the readiness for her office, 'be it unto me according to your word' is the conception of her vow. How quickly, then, did Mary believe, even concerning a condition so unequal!
For what is so unequal as the Holy Spirit and a body? What so unheard-of as a virgin great with child, contrary to law, contrary to custom, contrary to the modesty whose care is dearer to a virgin? Zechariah, however, disbelieved not on account of an unequal condition, but on account of his aged years; for the condition itself was fitting. From man and woman birth is the ordinary course, nor ought it to seem incredible where nature is in accord. For since age belongs to nature, not nature to age, it most often happens that age impedes nature; yet it is not unreasonable that the lesser cause should yield to the greater, and that the more powerful prerogative of nature should exclude the use of an inferior age. To this is added that Abraham and Sarah had received a son in old age, and Joseph is a son of old age.
But if Sarah is reproved because she laughed, more justly is he condemned who believed neither oracle nor example; whereas Mary, when she says, 'How shall this be, since I know not a man?' does not seem to have doubted the fact, but to have inquired about the manner of the fact. For it is clear that she had believed it was to be done, since she asked how it would be done. Hence she also deserved to hear: 'Blessed are you who have believed.' And truly blessed, who was more excellent than the priest. When the priest had denied, the virgin corrected his error. Nor is it any wonder if the Lord, about to redeem the world, began his work from Mary, so that she through whom salvation was being prepared for all might herself first draw the fruit of salvation from the pledge. And rightly did she inquire how it would be;
for she had read that a virgin would bear, but she had not read in what manner a virgin would bear. She had read, as I said, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb'; but how she would conceive, the angel first spoke of in the Gospel. Now Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah, and entered into the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. It is a moral lesson for all, that those who demand faith should furnish faith. And therefore the angel, when he announced things hidden, that faith might be furnished by an example, announced to the Virgin Mary the conception of an aged and barren woman, that he might assert that everything which pleased God was possible to God.
When Mary heard this, not as one disbelieving the oracle, nor as uncertain about the message, nor as doubting the example, but as one joyful for her vow, devout in her office, and hastening for joy, she went into the hill country. For whither would she, now full of God, hasten but to the higher places? The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow endeavors. Learn also, you holy women, the diligence which you owe to your kinswomen who are with child.
Mary, who before had dwelt alone in the inmost chambers, was not held back from going into the hill country by the modesty of virginity that shuns the public, nor by the harshness of the mountains from her zeal, nor by the length of the journey from her office. The virgin went with haste, mindful of her office, unmindful of the inconvenience; her affection being vigorous, she set out from home not as one abandoning her sex. Learn, virgins, not to run about through the houses of strangers, not to linger in the streets, not to mingle in idle conversations in public. Mary, slow within the house, hastened in public, and remained with her kinswoman three months; for she who had come for the sake of an office clung to that office. She remained three months, not because the strange house delighted her, but because to be too frequently seen in public displeased her.
You have learned, virgins, the modesty of Mary; learn also her humility. A kinswoman came to her relative, the younger to the elder; and not only did she come, but she also greeted her first. For it is fitting that the chaster a virgin is, the more humble she should be. Let her know how to defer to her elders; let her be a teacher of humility, in which is the profession of chastity. There is here also a motive of piety, and likewise a rule of doctrine. For it is to be observed that the superior came to the inferior, that the inferior might be helped—Mary to Elizabeth, Christ to John; and later too, that he might sanctify John's baptism, the Lord came to the baptism. The benefits of Mary's coming and of the Lord's presence are quickly declared;
for as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Notice the distinction and the proper meanings of the several words. Elizabeth was the first to hear the voice, but John was the first to perceive the grace: she heard by the order of nature, he leaped by reason of the mystery; she perceived the coming of Mary, he the coming of the Lord; the woman perceived the woman, and the pledge the pledge; the women speak of grace, while the children work it inwardly within, and approach the mystery of piety by their mothers' advances, and by a double miracle the mothers prophesy through the spirit of their little ones. The infant leaped, the mother was filled. The mother was not filled before the son, but when the son had been filled with the Holy Spirit, he filled his mother also.
John leaped, and Mary's spirit also leaped for joy. When John leaped, Elizabeth was filled; yet we know that Mary was not filled with the Spirit, but that her spirit leaped—for the Incomprehensible was working incomprehensibly in the mother—and the one was filled after conception, the other before conception. 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' The Holy Spirit knows his own discourse and never forgets it, and the prophecy is fulfilled not only by miracles of events but also by the propriety of words. Who is that fruit but he of whom it was said: 'Behold, sons are the inheritance of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward'? That is:
the inheritance of the Lord are sons, who are the reward, the fruit of him who came forth from Mary's womb. He himself is the fruit of the womb, the flower of the root, of whom Isaiah well prophesied, saying: 'There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from the root.' For the root is the family of the Jews, the rod is Mary, the flower of Mary is Christ, who, like the fruit of a good tree, according to the progress of our virtue now blossoms, now bears fruit in us, now is restored by the renewed resurrection of the body. 'And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?'