I.— The advent of our Lord and Savior, by which, clothed with the nature of men, He deigned to visit us, the universal Church frequents throughout this whole age, and by its anniversary return it is rendered exceedingly joyful. For what the believing world once received, done for the redemption of its own salvation, it consecrated to be venerated by posterity unto eternal generations; and it brought it about then that from the old life there should be born, in newness of mind, joy. Now therefore the miracle of past time is presented before our eyes, while the things that were done long ago the divine readings solemnly set forth, and by yearly turns they are most devoutly celebrated.
Behold, we have heard, when the holy Gospel was being read, that Gabriel the archangel was sent by the Lord from the royal thrones, promising to the Virgin Mary a son (Luke 1:26). For entering in to her, who, modest before men, lay hidden secretly in concealment, he thus saluted her with the auspice of his speech: 'Hail, Mary,' he says, 'hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.' O wondrous annunciation! O rare salutation, bearing the abundance of fullness, and illuminating the virginal breast! The angel therefore descended, gleaming in flaming flight, and illuminating with the radiance of his brightness both the dwelling and the mind of Mary.
A herald preceding the Judge, so illustrious and gentle, so hastening and speeding, that in the palace of virginity, which remained secret on earth, the Lord of majesty might be received. 'Hail,' he says, 'Mary; hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you' (Ibid., 28). He who created you has already chosen you beforehand: He whom you are to bear has already filled you. II.— Troubled therefore at his entrance, she was pondering who had thus blessed her; who, keeping within herself the modest silence of her holy purpose, and having no acquaintance with the address of a man, is troubled at the saluting angel and is astonished at one thus blessing her: yet she did not dare to forestall the one speaking. For, marveling within herself the longer, with fear she was pondering in her mind at what she was thus being blessed.
While she pondered these things at length and hesitated, marking more intently the presence of the angel (for weighing at once the splendour of his presence together with the blessing, she was silently perplexed), Gabriel, the illustrious archangel, ambassador of the most holy Trinity and privy to the heavenly secrets, looked upon her and said: 'Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.' Then Mary, listening to these angelic words with weighed examination, and pondering them, most prudent virgin, upon the balance of her mind, said:
'How shall this be which thou sayest, since I know not a man? Shall I have a son, who know not a man? Shall I bear an offspring, who have no mother's milk? With what dry breasts shall I offer to the lips of an infant asking to suck, when neither has inborn youthful love possessed the couch of my chamber, nor has any wedded embrace ever been granted?' And the angel: 'Not so, Mary,' he said, 'not so. Do not be affrighted; do not bear anxiety concerning the integrity of thy holiness. Thou shalt remain untouched, and shalt rejoice in thy offspring; without the union of a mortal man thou shalt be made the daughter-in-law of the Most High through thy son, for thou art to bring forth the Son of God. But Joseph, that chaste man adorned with the name of justice, not thy husband but thy guardian, shall not approach thee;
but the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee; neither shalt thou burn with carnal desire, nor shall a bridegroom cleave to thee, but the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' O dwelling worthy of God! Before the angel should confirm to himself by most luminous testimony that what was brought from the hall of the paternal palace, and of what sort it was, he should receive with his own ears; she uttered no word from her chaste mouth, no assent of reply. But when Mary heard her unharmed virginity affirmed by truthful assurance, she answered at once, arranging in her most holy breast with all ornament the coming secret of her bridal chamber: 'Behold,' she said, 'the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word.'
As though she said: My heart is ready, since my womb remains untouched. Be it done unto me, Gabriel the archangel, according to thy word. Let him come to his own dwelling, who has set his tabernacle in the sun. Let the Sun of righteousness arise unto me, an abiding virgin, in whose wings abideth eternal health; who, flourishing in perpetual chastity, has decreed that integrity shall endure in her. Let him go forth like a righteous splendour, and let a Saviour be kindled as a torch. The torch of the sun illumines all, and pierces within the private places that perhaps seem to obstruct its rays, and destroys nothing at all. Let him now come forth to the eyes of men, beautiful in form above the sons of men; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, for I am made secure concerning my purpose.
CHAPTER III. Who, my brethren, could tell forth this generation in speech? Who could unfold it in tongue or eloquence? The virginity of nature is preserved undefiled, and the infant grows within the virgin. But when the time was fulfilled that she should bring forth, the sacred birth was set forth, the manner of whose conception the man, its father, knew not. This is the ineffable nuptial union of the Word and the flesh, of God and man. For thus was made, between God and man, a mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
and therefore the most precious bridal chamber chosen for the nuptials was the womb of the virgin, so that, because the world had been made foul by defiling sins, the Creator of the world, coming without the working of the world, poured forth from pure entrails into the world, and by a new miracle, born in the world, might render the world pure. For the Son of man came, as the very Son of God and man himself says, not that he might judge the world, but that he might save the world. Tell me now, I pray, holy Mother of the saints, who without the furrow of human propagation and without the rain of carnal seed hast made to spring up in the bosom of the Church the fragrance of the morning flower and the snow-white lily of the valleys:
tell me, I pray, only Mother, with what hands or by what device of Divinity did he form in thy womb a son whose father is God alone? Lead me, I beseech thee by that God who made thee such that he himself might be made in thee: tell me, I say, what good thing didst thou do; how great a reward didst thou offer; through what powers didst thou seek it; what patrons also didst thou have; what suffrages didst thou promise; by what sense or by what thought didst thou come to this, that thou shouldst receive it, that the Power and Wisdom of the Father, which reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly,
remaining wholly everywhere, and without any mutability of itself coming into thy womb, might so inhabit the chaste stronghold of thy belly, that entering it did not wound, and going forth kept it unharmed? Tell me, then, how didst thou come to this? And she: Thou askest of me what gift I offered, that I should be made the mother of my Saviour? My offering is virginity; my promise, not given to me by myself, but granted to me by that very Author of all good. For every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. My ambition is my humility;
and therefore my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, because he regarded—not a tunic studded with gold, not shining pomps with hidden gold for the adornment of my neck, nor did he look upon the stones of precious pearls hanging in my ears, nor did he attend to the redness of my cheeks coloured with the paint of falsehood; but he regarded the humility of his handmaid. For the meek one came to the humble, as had been promised before by the oracle of the prophet, and he says: Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek and mild, sitting upon a cloud: that is, upon Mary the virgin, whom he himself presented to himself as a mother without a peer among the stars. CHAPTER
IV. He came therefore meek, resting upon the maternal spirit, humble and quiet and trembling at his words. He came, then, meek, filling the heavens, passing through the lowly to the proud, and he did not forsake the heavens. Those puffed up with the swelling of pride, having applied the plaster of humility, as a gentle physician he himself healed. O profound humility! O height, more excellent, of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! The Bread of angels is suckled at the breasts of a mother. The Fountain of water springing up unto life eternal, prefiguring the Church in the Samaritan woman, asks to drink.
He does not refuse to feast with sinners, he to whose household of heavenly dignities they minister with trembling. The King of kings restored the ruler's son to health, not applying a poultice of divers pigments, but bearing the medicine upon his tongue. He heals the servant of the Centurion, quenched with fevers, whose faith was found praiseworthy; because the Centurion believed that it could be done by the Lord's power just as he himself commanded to his own soldiers subject to him. So too he took upon himself the sufferings of the paralytic, and the Lord, mercifully visiting, healed the long-standing wound of the woman, in whom the humour of disease, a bilge of corruption, had made her members waste away.
The Saviour himself, perceiving her silent faith, dried up the fountain of the troublesome blood as it went out from bondage. And when—or rather how—shall I run through all things? Time fails me in the telling, with how great power and profound goodness he accomplished all, who, great toward the small, humble toward the proud, full of mercy, came down. He made new things from of old, who came new to the world. Into whose wondrous form the evangelists display their figures: man, lion, ox, eagle. As man he came from a virgin mother without a man; as a strong lion he lay down in death; and by his own power he was lifted up on the cross, like a young calf willingly slain in his passion for the sins of the people;
and like a mighty eagle, rising from the tomb with his body received again, cleaving the keen air, he trod down the falls of all, and ascended above the Cherubim and flew; he who walketh upon the wings of the winds ascended into heaven: to whom be honour and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.