Sermons & Tracts 3 part 2/12

Then crying out to the Lord Jesus, he begs to be saved. Him the Savior lays hold of by the hand and delivers, and adds, saying: O you of little faith, why did you doubt (Matthew 14:31)? That is: Why are you of so little faith, that you, who by believing had begun to walk upon the sea, did not by persevering pass over it? For it is written: He who perseveres unto the end, this one shall be saved (Matthew 10:22). But while you delay and doubt, you have lost the very thing upon which you had entered. Why, I say, are you of so little faith, that you did not, by the same faith by which you had begun to come, arrive? Understand therefore that in the sea belief was carrying you, unbelief was submerging you.

Therefore, brethren, holy Peter, while he is tossed, while he sinks, while he is imperiled, thus comes to the Lord: showing us that only through perils does one hasten to Christ. For there are many diabolical waves in this world, many shipwrecks of temptations, from which we can be delivered thus, if the Savior stretches out His hand to those who cry out. Let us therefore not cease to cry to the Lord, and He will not refuse His accustomed help — Jesus our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 193. On the Annunciation of the Lord, I. 1. The devil, by the very art by which he had deceived man, is himself deceived by Christ. Christ is God and man.

Most beloved brethren, today has dawned the day on which Christ took flesh from the Virgin. He willed to put on the form of humility, that He might free our souls from sins. The transgression of that first man had deceived the whole world, so that there was no remedy of salvation unless Christ should come from heaven. The most foul dragon rejoiced, because he had prepared poison for the new man: but for this Christ descended into the womb of the Virgin, that thence He might take on human limbs, which He would deliver up to the cross and bring death upon the ancient dragon. For the devil had been so puffed up by his evil counsel that through the serpent he spoke to the woman, and the devil was not recognized.

But hence God the Son of God, who descended from heaven to take on a human body, reduces him to nothing, setting for him a snare of death — namely, through the appearance of flesh; so that, as if he were approaching a man alone to tempt Him, he might be utterly ignorant of the Lord. He saw the flesh, but was ignorant of the Lord's majesty; he beheld the weakness, and did not see the deity. The devil remained confounded, while the Lord appeared in a man. Thus He descended from God the Father, whence He never departed. He was on earth; and He did not forsake the heavens, as the Lord Himself says: No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3:13). On earth He spoke as man to men; and in heaven He confessed Himself to be, as God.

For the Godhead is not diminished when weakness is assumed; He received that which He was not, and He remained God, which He was from the beginning. For in that He became man, He profited us, and diminished nothing to Himself. He emptied out the fullness of the Godhead, He took on the form of humility; and He remained equal to the Father. 2. Mary's merit and prerogatives. Such a Virgin is chosen, from the whole world, who should have so great a merit that she might receive the Son of God within herself, and after childbirth remain a virgin in every way. Hail, it says, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women: for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins (Luke 1:28-32).

You shall preserve the rights of virginity, you shall have a son, and you shall not lose the name of virgin. For so great is that divine power that it both makes a mother fruitful and preserves a virgin unharmed. Therefore blessed are you among women, because you shall conceive of the Holy Spirit, where there is no carnal husband, but the divine power is recognized. You shall nurse your own infant, you shall hold out the sap of milk to the Creator, and you shall be filled with heavenly foods. You shall wrap in swaddling clothes the child who will bestow on you an immortal garment. In a manger you shall lay the infant limbs of Him who will prepare for you a heavenly table. All the things due for the sake of a nurse you shall perform about the child, so that what He Himself promised to His saints, you too may the more gladly obtain. Why say more?

Rejoice, O Virgin, at so great a promise; the angelic messenger departed; and God, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages, enters the lodging of your womb. Amen. SERMON 194. On the Annunciation of the Lord, II. 1. Eve's losses, and Mary's benefits. There is present to us, most beloved, the longed-for day of the blessed and ever-venerable Virgin Mary: therefore let our land rejoice with the highest exultation, illumined by the solemn day of so great a Virgin. For this is the flower of the field, from which sprang the precious lily of the valleys, by whose childbearing nature is changed and the guilt of our first parents is blotted out. In her was cut off that reproach of Eve's unhappiness, in which it is said: In sorrow you shall bring forth children (Genesis 3:16):

because she brought forth the Lord in gladness. For Eve mourned, but she exulted; Eve carried tears, Mary carried joy in her womb: because the one brought forth a sinner, the other brought forth the innocent One. For a Virgin gave birth, because a virgin conceived; inviolate she bore, because in conception there was no lust. In both there was a miracle, both pregnant without corruption, and a virgin mother in childbirth. The angel descended, sent in secret from God the Father, at the beginning of our redemption, to greet blessed Mary: Hail, said the angel to her, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Mary therefore was filled with grace, and Eve was emptied of guilt. The curse of Eve is changed into the blessing of Mary: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

With you the Lord in your heart, with you in your womb, with you in your body, with you in help. 2. Mary surpasses all praise. Rejoice, blessed Virgin: Christ the King comes from His heaven into your womb, from the bosom of the Father He deigns to descend into the womb of a mother. Blessed, it says, are you among women, who have brought forth life both for men and for women. The mother of our race brought punishment upon the world; the Mother of our Lord brought salvation to the world. Eve was the authoress of sin; Mary the authoress of merit. Eve by slaying did harm; Mary by giving life did good. The one wounded; the other healed. For obedience is exchanged for disobedience, faith is compensated for unfaithfulness. Joyful therefore Mary bears the infant, exulting she embraces her son, she carries Him by whom she was carried.

Nor did she find the little one by chance, as the Sabellians pretend; but when nine months were completed she bore Christ. Let Mary now clap upon the instruments, and among nimble fingers let the timbrels of the child-bearer resound. Let the rejoicing choirs sing together, and let sweet-sounding songs be mingled with alternating measures. Hear, then, how our timbrel-player has sung: for she says, My soul magnifies the Lord; and my spirit has exulted in God my Savior: because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid; for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he who is mighty has done great things for me. The cause, then, of so great and growing gladness was a new miracle.

Mary's new childbearing overcame Eve's childbearing, and Mary's song shut out Eve's lament. 3. The salvation of the world hangs upon Mary's assent. Mother of the sea and virgin. She was wedded to God Himself. Jeremiah's prophecy concerning Mary. Finally, after the presage of that blessing, while the Virgin was contending in a silent strife of mind within herself, what manner of greeting this might be, the heavenly messenger meanwhile proceeds: Do not fear, Mary; you have found grace with the Lord. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. But she: How, said she, shall this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel to her: The Holy Spirit, he says, shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you;

and therefore that Holy One who shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God. Now you have heard how this shall be; answer now the word; why are you troubled now? You have heard how this shall be, because the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, that you may bear offspring, and not lose your virginity; that you may bring forth a son, and after childbirth remain incorrupt. O blessed Mary, the whole captive age beseeches your assent: the world, O Lady, has made you the pledge of its faith. Do not delay, O Virgin: answer the word quickly to the messenger, and receive your son; give faith, and feel the power. Behold, she says, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word (Luke 1:26-38). And without delay the messenger returns, and Christ enters the virginal chamber.

Suddenly the blessed Mother of God is made pregnant, and thenceforth is proclaimed happy through all ages. She conceived as soon as she believed the word, ignorant of manly fellowship: her womb is filled, defiled by no human embrace. And so she stands a virgin when she conceives, a virgin pregnant, a virgin when she gives birth, and a virgin after childbirth. Illustrious therefore is that virginity, and glorious that fruitfulness. Mary exults, and rejoices to marvel at herself made a mother, and rejoices to have given birth of the Holy Spirit: nor is she frightened because she gave birth unwedded; but because she conceived, she marvels with exultation. Let us therefore also rejoice, brethren, on the day of so great a Virgin who, while she was betrothed to a carpenter, was wedded to the architect of heaven. For a Son is promised to her through the visitation of the Holy Spirit.

Hearing these things, she rejoices and desires to be made a mother. What wonder, then, if He is born without corruption who is conceived of sanctification? For it was not fitting that He who brought us salvation should snatch from His mother the dignity of her integrity. For He who is not contained by earth, sea, and heaven is received within the members of one little body. This is that newness foretold by the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah: The Lord, he says, shall make a new thing upon the earth; a woman shall encompass a man (Jeremiah 31:22). O woman blessed above women, who knew no man at all, and encompassed a man within her womb! Mary encompasses a man by giving faith to an angel; because Eve destroyed a man by consenting to a serpent. 4. The angel's words to Mary.

Mary's obedience is commended. The angel greets the maiden, ignorant of the salutation of a man; the Virgin is frightened by the newness of the words. To whom the angel, as we have said above, said: Do not fear, Mary; for you have found grace with the Lord. Do not, he says, be frightened at my sight, Mother of my Lord: I have come as the minister of your conception, not to make you lose your virginity; He Himself sent me to you, who is to be born of you. For you shall conceive and bring forth a son; not a man of any ordinary merit, but the Savior of the whole age. Recall, Mary, in the book of Isaiah the prophet, the virgin whom you read would give birth (Isaiah 7:14); and rejoice and exult, because you have merited to be she. You were there prefigured, O Virgin; behold, you now conceive in

your womb, not of man, but of the Holy Spirit: and you shall be pregnant, and shall remain incorrupt. You shall indeed bring forth a son, and shall suffer no loss of your virginity. You shall be made pregnant, and shall be a mother ever untouched. You shall feel the weight of the womb, and shall not lose the modesty of chastity. Your breasts shall swell, and your genitals shall remain untouched. But she said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. O happy obedience, O signal grace, which, while it humbly gave faith, incorporated within itself the Maker of heaven! In her the Lord fulfilled what He had long before foretold: Obedience I will rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than holocausts (Hosea 6:6).

This was true obedience, more pleasing than any sacrifice, this will more acceptable than all victims; hence she merited the glory which she herself afterward proclaimed: Behold, she says, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 5. A prayer to the blessed Virgin. O blessed Mary, who can worthily render to you the tribute of thanks and the proclamations of praise, you who by your singular assent came to the aid of a lost world? What praises shall the frailty of the human race pay to you, who by your commerce alone found the way of recovery? Receive therefore whatever thanksgivings, however slight, however unequal to your merits: and when you have received our vows, by praying excuse our faults.

Admit our prayers within the sanctuary of being heard, bring back to us the antidote of reconciliation. Let that be excusable through you which through you we bring forward; let that be obtainable which with a faithful mind we ask. Receive what we offer, give back what we request; excuse what we fear. (You who are the only hope of sinners, through you we hope for pardon of our offenses; and in you, most blessed one, is the expectation of our rewards.) Holy Mary, succor the wretched, help the fainthearted, cherish the tearful, pray for the people, intercede for the clergy, plead for the devout female sex. Let all feel your help, whoever celebrate your commemoration. Stand ready to the vows of those who beseech you, and render to all the desired effect.

Let it be your care to pray unceasingly for the people of God, you who, being blessed, merited to bear the price of the world's ransom, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. SERMON 195. On the Annunciation of the Lord, III. 1. Mary, the closed gate in the house of the Lord. I would most fully praise the most chaste womb of the Virgin Mary, the closed chamber of the womb of the virgin bride, the sealed upper room of modesty, if I were reaping a harvest that I had not sown, of which the Apostle thus speaks: Whatever a man shall sow, this also shall he reap (Galatians 6:7). It is altogether true, it is true that every man reaps what he sowed:

God alone can reap what He did not sow, as the very Son of the Virgin says in a certain reading of the Gospel: I reap where I did not sow, and I gather where I did not scatter (Luke 19:22). Let Him say it, let Him say it: let Him alone say it, the One born of the Virgin, the Son of Mary; let Him say to His bride-mother: I reap where I did not sow, and I gather where I did not scatter. Let Mary too say: And I bore you as a son; nor did I violate my virginity: I held the kingdom of virginity, that I might beget the King of chastity: I had within the palace of my womb, entering and going out, the Son of the Emperor, and from my hands I did not lose the key of royal modesty. I was made the gate of heaven; I was made the door for the Son of God.

I was made that closed gate which the prophet Ezekiel saw in a divine vision, of which, prophesying, he says concerning me: I saw a gate in the house of the Lord closed: and the angel said to me, This gate which you see shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it; for the Lord alone shall enter and go out through it, and it shall be closed forever (Ezekiel 44:2). O wonderful vision of the Prophet; but more wonderful the fulfillment of the prophecy! What is the closed gate in the house of the Lord, but that Mary the Virgin shall be ever untouched? And what is it, No man shall pass through it, but that Joseph shall not know her? And what is it, The Lord alone shall enter and go out through it;

but that the Holy Spirit shall make her pregnant, and the Lord of Angels shall be born through her? And what is it, It shall be closed forever, but that Mary shall be a virgin before childbirth, a virgin in childbirth, a virgin after childbirth? Let Mary therefore say: I was made a gate; I was made a door for the Son of God: to Him I was made a closed door, who after His resurrection entered to His disciples through closed doors; who, born of my womb, left me a mother untouched, filled my womb with divinity, and did not empty my womb of chastity: He went forth from my womb, magnificent in a giant's course, and my womb was not emptied of its modesty, nor in conception was I found without modesty, nor in bringing forth was I found with pain.

O wonderful and praiseworthy among women, in whom virginity was greeted by an angel, alone made pregnant yet not defiled, unburdened yet not emptied; because she was thus greeted by the angel: Hail, he said, full of grace, the Lord is with you! Happy navel of chastity, which no marital embrace touched! I consider your conception, O blessed Virgin, and I am amazed; I behold your childbirth, and I tremble; I adore your Son, and I come to life again. 2. The angelic salutation. Tell me, I beseech you, how did you merit to be called the daughter-in-law of the Lord, and the bride of the Son of God? What I ask, show me; yet forgive me for speaking with you:

forgive me, I say, that I, a servant — and would that I were a good one, and not also a useless and evil servant, and therefore an evil servant because I do not speak with you with trembling as a servant — forgive me, then, that I should dare to converse with the bride of my Lord; and yet show me how the Son of God could be begotten through you. Hear, brethren, hear Mary speaking with us; behold her absent in body and present in spirit; turning her face from the one who converses with her out of the modesty of virginity, and showing how she was made pregnant by the Creator. I was, says Mary, in my house, a Jewish maiden, begotten of the seed of David the king:

I grew to womanhood, and was betrothed to a husband, and pleased another, not with adultery intervening, but with the Holy Spirit interceding. I was betrothed to a Jewish man, and I pleased a divine Man: a Jewish man betrothed me, and Christ God loved me. My spouse Joseph indeed did not know that my God had loved me, and thought that my womb had been made pregnant by adultery. For, while my spouse Joseph knew nothing, there came to me a certain great groomsman of Christ, not the first patriarch, nor an eminent prophet, but that archangel Gabriel, gleaming in face, flashing in garment, wondrous in gait, terrible in aspect; he visited and troubled me, greeted and made me pregnant, and said to me:

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. The Lord, he said, is with you; but more than with me. The Lord is with you; but not as with me. For although in me too the Lord is present, the Lord created my very self: but through you He is to be born. For thus, Mary, is the Lord with you, that He is in your heart, He is in your womb; He fills your mind, He fills your womb; He comes forth beautiful from your womb, as a bridegroom from his chamber; the King goes forth from your inmost womb, as a king from his bedchamber; the prince comes forth from the royal court, in such a way that He does not cause your virginity to be violated. 3. It continues on the same subject. And she said to him: How shall this be, that I should be laden with a chaste womb, and be free from a husband;

since I do not know a man at all? For I am betrothed to a just man; if I do not come together with him, whence shall be that which I shall bring forth? But if it can be done that I both conceive untouched and bring forth closed, tell the manner, and you shall find my mind ready. For in all ways I long to be for my God, that I may both have offspring and not lose my modesty. The angel Gabriel relates the manner of conception, that it would come about by the word of the Savior. O Mary, he says, virgin of God, bride of the Lord, beloved of God, daughter of God, mother of God: if you require this manner from me — how you may conceive a virgin, bring forth a virgin, and after childbirth remain a virgin, or how He who made you may be made in you — hear me, and do not be troubled within you:

The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you (Luke 1:35). So shall the power of the Most High overshadow you, that you shall neither suffer the heat of lust, and shall be the mother of the Creator. 4. Joseph is troubled. Meanwhile Joseph, Mary's spouse, does not know what the angel has done with her. Suddenly Joseph, with familiar gaze and marital liberty, looks upon Mary his wife: he saw in her the veins swelling in her throat, and her face grown thin, and lastly he saw her weighed down in her steps; he understood that Mary's womb was heavy with child. Joseph, a just man, is troubled, because he perceived Mary — whom he had received from the temple of the Lord, and had not yet known — to be pregnant, and one whom he had not deserved in the honor of marriage he now had in confusion;

and long agitated and disputing within himself, he says: Whence has this happened? What has come to pass? I have not known her, I have not touched her; if I have not touched her, I have not violated her; if I have not violated her, I have not made her pregnant. Alas! alas! what has happened? What, do you think, has come to pass? By whom has Mary thus fallen? Whom has she found more flattering to herself than me? For I, though I had marital liberty, did not violate the maidenly modesty of the nuptial bed. I feared, and greatly feared, what is fixed by a decisive word in that Mosaic book of the Law: that whatever virgin has defiled her father's house by adultery shall lie under death by stones;

likewise also the man who has not brought the garment of her modesty to her father, and produced it before witnesses, and has not shown the token of modesty, must die together with the virgin. Both the licentious, then, Moses willed to be struck by this sentence, and commanded the adulterers alike to perish. For thus he says: You shall take away the reproach from the house of Israel; and everyone who hears shall fear, and shall not act impiously (Deuteronomy 22:21-22). This sentence of Moses I was guarding against, and I was reining in that very wantonness in my body, especially because I knew myself both to be a son of David, and to have exercised the royal priesthood.

But since there is nothing wonderful, nothing new, nothing hidden that shall not be revealed, and nothing concealed that shall not come into the open, I recall at last, concerning the daughter of the king, a story about David. Royal boldness carried David the king into the wife of Uriah the Hittite in Bathsheba, nor did marital fear frighten him: a maidenly thought impelled Mary the daughter of King David, nor did parental terror restrain her. What then shall I do? What shall I do? I am anxious, I groan, I grieve, I run about, I seek counsel, and find none complete. Shall I expose, or keep silent? What I should do I utterly do not know. Shall I expose the adultery, or keep silent for the sake of avoiding reproach? If I expose it, I do not indeed consent to the adultery, but I incur the stain of cruelty; for according to the book of Moses I know that she must be stoned.

If I keep silent, I consent to evil; and with adulterers I set my portion. Therefore, since to keep silent about an evil is bad, and to expose adultery is worse, lest through me a murder be committed, let me quietly dismiss the marriage. 'Joseph considered,' it says, as the Gospel relates, 'quietly to dismiss Mary his wife' (Matthew 1:19). He considered that she belonged to another, since indeed she did belong to Another — not through any resistance of his mind, but through the conception of faith. 5. Joseph is calmed by an angel. The prophecies concerning Mary are set forth. But let not Mary fear David, the daughter of that great king; for just as the prophetic word bestowed pardon upon David, so the angel of the Savior sets Mary free.

Come now, chaste Mother of the Lord, in whom there was no manly desire but the fulfilling of the Holy Spirit; whom Joseph, a Jewish man, did not violate, but almighty God alone made with child; who wast not joined to Joseph thy betrothed, nor known by any man, but by the Almighty God alone. Call upon, O holy Virgin, thy Lord David thy father — not that David darkened by adultery and made notorious by the murder of Uriah the Hittite, but that David, I say, who fought with a mighty hand and long contended with the devil. Let God arise to thy help; let Him send His angel from heaven, and visit thy betrothed in sleep. Let Moses suspend his own judgment, lest Joseph take vengeance upon thy supposed adultery.

Prepare therefore, O Joseph, thy mind for the time in which thou mightest quietly dismiss Mary. 6. The same theme continues. Behold again that bridesman of the Virgin — not a man, but an angel, that illustrious Gabriel, the most impartial courier of heaven — at the midpoint of the night's balance says to Joseph in a vision: 'Joseph,' he says, 'son of David, why art thou so troubled? Why art thou so greatly saddened? Why in sleep dost thou sweat with anxious thoughts? Why in waking dost thou walk about in sorrow? Why dost thou heap upon thyself an evil suspicion concerning Mary, when she herself is about to bear thee the Savior? Put away thy jealous spirit; He who shall be born of her is the very One who made her with child. For therefore, Joseph, thy soul is (in doubt), because whatever thou hast read in prophecy, thou hast not understood as fulfilled in Mary.'

Hence is all thy sorrow, that thou hast not yet known thy betrothed, and yet dost perceive her with child, and thou suspectest in her nothing but adultery. Joseph, son of David, born of priestly lineage — and not only priestly, but also royal — son of the Prophets, companion of the Scribes: that God who wrote wondrous things in His Law, He Himself has wrought wonders in thy spouse. And what are the wonders of God, if not those things which are impossible to men? Hast thou then not read the wonders of God in the Law? And if indeed thou hast read them, why hast thou not understood them? Surely that very Law which thou readest daily was written without a stylus upon tablets of stone. Read and understand that the earth brought forth bread in the wilderness, whose seed no plowman had ever put into the ground.

Aaron's rod also, dry for very many years without water, revived, blossomed in the temple, and, though enclosed beneath a roof, produced nuts. Therefore He who wrote upon the stone tablets without an iron stylus, He Himself made Mary with child by the Holy Spirit; and He who brought forth bread in the wilderness without a sower, He Himself made the Virgin fruitful without corruption; and He who caused the rod to sprout without rain, He Himself caused David's lily to bear offspring without seed. Finally, Joseph, son of David, son of the Prophets, hast thou not read what Isaiah, the most excellent of the Prophets, said — how he wrote, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel' (Isaiah 7:14)? What therefore thou hast read in thy books, behold in Mary with thine own eyes: