SERMO III. IN ANNUNTIATIONEM GLORIOSAE ET GRATIA PLENAE DOMINAE NOSTRAE DEIPARAE ET SEMPER VIRGINIS MARIAE

72SERMON III. On the Annunciation of our all-supremely-glorious and highly favoured Lady the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary.

1. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice; let angels applaud, and let men leap for joy, and let all creation be made bright today, because the Creator of all now, himself rejoicing, fills the whole with joy. Now he goes forward to reconciliation with those that had been hated; now he looses the dejection that came of sin; now, as though it were another air, he has poured out gladness upon all; now, beyond the sun, he shines out cheer of heart to the ends of the earth. Now he has clothed us with a garment of salvation and put about us a tunic of gladness, according to the God-sounded utterance of Isaias. Now Jeremias of the lamenting voice, weaving a palinode, will say, as from God and in due season: I will be merciful to the iniquities of men, and their sins I will by no means remember any more. [LXX Jer 38:34 / Heb 8:12 ταῖς ἀδικίαις αὐτῶν, "their iniquities"] Now the beauty of heaven and the light-formed circle of the stars is the lesser, for delight, beside the splendour that lies before us. Now it is seasonable to say the word: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men. For he who formerly gave subsistence to heaven and earth and sun, and to the splendours of the rest of his great work, now gives subsistence, so to speak, to joy — the thing which at the beginning did not subsist, or which, having been created, did not endure. And just as, Let there be light, he said, and it came to be, and in this manner he brought forth the whole variegated chain of things begotten: so now, Rejoice, he says, through an angel, to her that is highly favoured.

2. This "Rejoice," then, he now as it were fashion-works, and sends it out to embrace the whole creation — creation whose grace, and whose fair-woven goldwork within her, the perception of rejoicing furnishes to those who attend, that they may perceive it. For that which is ever suffering and consorts with grief is not of a nature to search out the beauty and the wonder of nature; so that, if this rejoicing had not now come to be, all the brightness of the creation would have flowed away and continued unheralded. But since it was not thus in the good Master to overlook his creation ill-fated in the better portion of it — I mean joy — for this cause he now creates the rejoicing also, which of old he loved to add to the things that are, but he did not find the vessel sufficient, one that should have power both to guard what was given and to impart it.

For now, to this supernatural and most spacious receptacle that has appeared — the much-hymned Virgin, who is this altogether — he announces the 73"Rejoice," showing as it were by this address that he has found the thing he loves; just as we too greet our friends in this manner when we meet them.

3. And this word, having given subsistence to rejoicing, moulded it also upon the things that already subsisted, as though it were another nature. Therefore today the Creator rejoices, bringing rejoicing forth. For how should he not? — since even he who compounds an ointment is perfumed by the very making of it. And all the creation rejoices too, receiving upon itself this most fragrant ointment, I mean joy, as it is poured out. Nothing, then, of the things that are is without a share of joy today. But that this may become clearer — both for many other reasons, and not unseasonably for the reason that has been given — it is plain that God rejoices. And angels also rejoice, having shown themselves ministers of the joy that was created. But men too rejoice; since for the reception of this new joy God had need not of the sun's disk, not of the vault of heaven, not of angelic nature, nor of any other of all the things that are, but only of the virginal and all-pure dwelling, of one nature with these men. Nor is it unlikely that the rest of matter rejoices also, perceiving that her own master — man, I mean, for it was on his account that she came to be — is stripping off, so to speak, the heaviness of his frown. For the mountains and the hills, says the marvellous Isaias, shall leap forth, receiving us with joy; and all the trees of the field shall clap with their branches. [LXX Isa 55:12 προσδεχόμενοι ὑμᾶς, "receiving you"] And besides, if all creation groans together, as the blessed Paul says, it must needs also rejoice together with them that rejoice. Since it partook of corruption too on account of man; and it shall be freed from the bondage of corruption — this also according to the divine Paul — when we, on whose account creation now suffers, have received the things on high.

It remains, then, that today all things truly are 76full of joy, filled with exultation, shining out with brightness, glittering with splendour of every kind and with grace.

4. But if, when all the things that are have received their portion of joy, the artificer of wickedness does not come even near the hour, there is nothing marvellous in it. For he willingly suffered the darkness, and willingly did not escape depravity; nor did he seek out the brightness, but remained luxuriating in the wretchedness into which he had fallen. And that among those who have understanding a man unwilling should find the things that belong to the willing would not be a thing that preserves reason; for what a man thrusts away, it is not possible to receive. To call, therefore, to a banquet in which the apostate neither rejoiced nor was giving his assent, is far from what follows. For it would have come to much the same thing as if a man should lead a swine that delights in mud to the pleasantness of flowers, neither gladdening the creature, dragging it away from what it loves, and outraging the grace of the meadows. For this cause he has been kept outside the joy of the whole world, as one neither willing, and as one who would have offered outrage had he been called; but unto the judgment of the great day in everlasting bonds under darkness, says Jude the apostle, and unto the fire that has been prepared, as we hear in the Gospels. For those of whom the correction is born of being threatened or of being called — and that, so far as either avails, or both together — of these God is ever careful; but for such a one as does not get sobriety from thence, the sentence is destruction; and of each of these the Ninevites and the Sodomites are witnesses.

5. And besides, neither could he with any likelihood be bound into the choir of the things that are — he who has fallen away from the blessed and all-radiant Being, and has become darkness, and spends upon that which is not the intellectual power given him according to nature, as the God-inspired Maximus also has somewhere said: just as that is not luminous which is bereft of what illumines, nor is he living who is not together with the cause of life.

For which reason, I think, even after that headlong fall of the apostate God called all things exceedingly good, inasmuch as the author of evil had been broken off from the circle of good things, and was as it were dead, or rather corrupted, and for this cause was not comprised among all the things that are.

776. And from the things we said above — namely that of the joy poured abroad everywhere the deceiver alone is without a taste — and from the things that shall now be said, one may see this to be the cause, and see how God saved man when he had fallen, but did not set the tyrant upright again. For Adam and the helper neither wrought the dreadful thing newly of themselves, and, having been robbed, neither did they let fly an envious dart at others; and they hid themselves, which was the act of those who lament the deceit and the calamity. For they were ashamed on account of their nakedness, endeavouring as it were to make themselves vanish, stung at what things they had chosen in exchange for what, and how they had chosen things most shameful instead of things venerable. But the evildoer both was the first to dare wickedness, having looked to no such example — though not least many good things drew him the other way, for all things were preserving the Fashion-worker's decree — and imparted to others the cup of depravity. And he did not, when he had cast headlong one or two, or even a hundred, stand still, glutted with the slaughter; but if it had been possible to set forth all men as a pitiable ruin, and to sever them from God, and to consign them to Gehenna, the accursed one would not have thought his wickedness sufficient, but would have reckoned the wealth of the calamity his luxury rather and his pleasure.

And this too would have been done, so far at least as his part went, had not God pressed hard upon his madness against us, ever showing forth his providence on our behalf. Then he is not even ashamed at doing such things; nor did he devise any words of pity, nor, because his deeds are abominable and worse than everything hateful, has he practised hiding himself; but he speaks out boldly, and rejoices in his villainy, and prides himself upon his contrivances, and shamelessly hunts after the blameless, as the history concerning Job also sets forth.

7. Therefore man, who had neither discovered wickedness nor imparted it when it had appeared, but had both suffered and lamented, was worthy of pity and has obtained it. For by deed, even if not by words, he called forth mercy. For his being hidden was the act of one who showed that he counted the wrong a great one, so that he did not so much as dare to send forth a voice, or to show himself. But for the utterly wicked one, who both devised the worst things and wrought them against himself and against the others, and has not let go one whit of his madness from that day, but cherishes his disease, and overlooks the physician, and turns away from mercy — how could healing ever come to be, seeing that he accounts the very medicines of others his own torture? For what, he says, have I to do with thee, Jesus?

Thou art come before the time 80to torment me — when he saw the disease that was held fast by him being driven out. [NT Matt 8:29 Τί ἡμῖν καὶ σοί, Ἰησοῦ υἱὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ; ἦλθες ὧδε πρὸ καιροῦ βασανίσαι ἡμᾶς, plural and with "Son of God"] Then, having left the Saviour, being driven to seek out flowery places for a dwelling, or some other of the things that delight, he for his part chooses the swine for his splendid house. So swinish and full of mire is the all-wretched one; and ever digging up wickedness, he luxuriates in it, but to look up and to call back health has never once entered his thought. Whence he lies miserably sick, accounting his depravity a beauty, and the haughty one turns away from the healing that is freely given. But not so we who fell; for having received the blow, we called often upon the most man-loving physician, and having seen him standing over us, we received him as servants, and prayed that all should come to pass, so much as the Saviour had devised.

8. And the words of the All-immaculate one make this plain: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says; be it unto me according to thy word. Whose virtue has taken up this great trophy, our own salvation. For since pleasure took us captive, and since, having fled from God — alas! — our benefactor, we attached ourselves to the wicked serpent, having pitiably become captives, and yielding to the counsels of the runaway, and there was nothing among the evils whereof the deceiver was not a counsellor and wherein he did not have us under his hand — whence a storm of wantonness burst forth, and a brew of lawlessness was poured out, and a squall of injustice shook the ends of the earth. But God, seeking, leaned down out of heaven, whether there might anywhere be upon earth one after his own mind, who should appear sufficient to deliver men from that deceit and from the bonds; and there was not so much as one to be found, since all assuredly lay there unprofitable and rusted through with the serpent's venom.

But after many generations, when the supernatural statue was shown forth — the All-blameless one, I mean — whose virtue covered even the heavens, to speak in the prophet's manner, and the earth also had become full 81of the splendour that came from thence, so that the ray which shone out was small beside the flashing of the All-pure one: when these things had so come to pass, God works prodigies past all measure through the Virgin; and he looses the prisoners from the tyrant's hands, and sets them up as masters instead of slaves, whose chattels they formerly were; and he frees the race from squall and from darkness, and bestows the peace that surpasses all understanding, and makes his enemies God-formed. So brilliantly did the Virgin flash forth, so wondrously did she shed her light upon men!

9. And I think that it was because she was in this way to be set against the greatest wickedness that the All-pure one had been kept back until much time had flowed by, so that the surpassing measure of her virtue might be shown forth by the multitude of the wickedness — in that she conquered so great a wickedness, of so many generations, and so manifold, and so utterly unholy, since time kept supplying wickedness with fresh inventions besides. For if she had not been to be born, long ago, I think, close upon the Adamic slip, the work of man's restoration would have been wrought by another power, though a small one perhaps; since the divine goodness, for whose sake all things are, had it not foreseen that there would afterwards be a vessel to set aright great things, and such as those that pertain to the Virgin, would never have endured that man, the most honourable creature — whence also comes the marvel that belongs to God — should be corrupted. And if God had not decreed beforehand to tread the earth also through her, neither would the earth have been able to bear the human being who is above the Seraphim.

But even if this too was great-worked by God after a new fashion, yet she would not have remained long making her sojourn in common with men, she whose mind was in nothing after their manner; but having appeared only so far as to show that God is able to fashion out of the earth beings even above those that have not been begotten from thence, she would most swiftly have flown away above the heavens, taking possession of the place that befitted her. 84But because she was also to quench much wickedness, and to receive upon earth God coming down, and to contain this very one who is uncontainable, and to bring men into kinship with him — for these causes the long later age brought forth the supremely glorious one, and earth bore that splendid treasure, awaiting also to receive through her the greater thing. And having received her, and having no other way to preserve what belonged to reverence toward the Virgin, it gives her its choicest place to dwell in, the Holy of Holies, and of these the most venerable part. And it did not think it holy even to supply its own fruit for her nourishment, having known the All-pure one to be the only such human being, concerning whom the prophet also was initiated to say that he ate the bread of angels. It yields this, therefore, to heaven by means of angels, to whom it fell a little after to minister to her the good tidings of a yet more wondrous mystery, as assuredly the present things most conspicuously bear witness.

10. For there was sent, it says, by God the angel Gabriel to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the name of the Virgin was Mariam. And the angel, having come in unto her, said: Rejoice, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. [NT Luke 1:26–28 has ἀπεστάλη ὁ ἄγγελος Γαβριὴλ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ, "the angel Gabriel was sent by God," and adds εἰς πόλιν τῆς Γαλιλαίας ᾗ ὄνομα Ναζαρέτ, "into a city of Galilee named Nazareth"] The greater of the mighty works were rendering to the Mother of the Creator, as to a Queen, the service owed to her who was to minister the supernatural mystery. Earth showed forth the most venerable dwelling, heaven the food, an angel the steward of the food. But he also displayed his own title now, as never before, at its fairest; for never had there been a messenger of such good things. But by God, it says, the angel was sent. This hints that the present things are as contrary to those of old. For Gabriel does not now come of himself, as the deceiver came to the first mother, nor does he suggest the trampling of God's bounds; but he both was sent, and accomplished the things that were according to the divine will. And he was sent that by this ministry he might become more brilliant than himself. For otherwise, had this not been to be, she who is first after the First would not have needed the lesser one for a go-between, when it was needful for her to hear that address.

For either the God Word would have addressed her 85[The rest of this sentence is lost from our Greek source. After Ἦ γὰρ ἂν ὁ the column dissolves into glyphs bled across from the Latin, and the scan's own Greek column of the same plate breaks at the same point and likewise drifts into Latin, so the wording is not recoverable from our files; Migne's Latin column is itself broken here. Nothing is supplied.]

11. But if it lay before them that the one who was to minister should be made bright, then the greater ought to have undergone this, someone might say, and least of all Gabriel, so that the splendour might pass over into the lesser also. What then is the reason?

Because the surpassingly hymned one, given to this life that she might make him who is above all a partaker with those below, used the whole universe as it were for a ladder for her ascent. Since, then, the blessed one had earth for her first step — she to whom it belonged that heaven should bear her going forth, or, if there be anything else loftier than heaven itself (for she was a heaven of heaven, an inheritance belonging to the Lord alone) — this too would be among the things that follow, as indeed it came out: that she should meet with the first order of the bodiless ones after earth. And besides, since the much-hymned one made the earth a heaven, she must first converse with those immediately above the earth, and after this show the new way to the higher ones. And the intellectual order nearest to us is said to be that of the divine Gabriel. Then there is nothing marvellous if it befell the lower angels to be first illumined by the splendid mystery; since men also were counted worthy to revel in things whereof not even a taste had been granted to the angels, and a vehement longing urges these to peer into those things at least — and that though they stand apart from the immaterial ones by a great measure both in dignity and in purity. And just as, if a man should search for anything by a lamp, it shows the things lying near brighter than the things far off: in the same manner, when that drachma had been found for whose sake the most all-radiant lamp was kindled, it was likely too that whatever things were nearer to what had appeared should enjoy the light more than the things lying far away. And to that most royal image — I mean the All-pure one, who flashed forth in the midst of her kindred befouled with mire — nothing else comes nearer than men; and the bodiless host of Gabriel is said to be the one nearest to them.

For these causes, then, it was likely that this commander-in-chief also should be made bright 88before all the minds.

12. This one, then, is made bright first, both by his nearness and, beside this, on account of the joy he was bringing, inasmuch as he had himself partaken of what he brought — just as he who imparts an ointment shares with the receiver in the virtue that comes from it. Rejoice therefore, thou that art highly favoured, he says; the Lord is with thee. Gabriel could not bear the greatness of the joy; and, as though hastening to lay that great matter of joy off from himself upon her who was able to bear it, he forgot the name of the All-pure one; and straightway he gives the "Rejoice," which was what he was carrying, having as it were failed to remember the appellation. Thou, then, art she that is highly favoured, he says; thou art blessed among women, and for this cause, rejoice. For with thee is the Master of all things, and I know nothing more fitting to address to thee than "Rejoice." For him whom heaven and earth, even if they could be stretched out to many times themselves, have not been able to contain — his house, O wondrous wonder! thou hast wrought thyself in gold. And so I do reverence to thee as the Queen of all, and, as I was commanded, I proclaim to thee "Rejoice." Mayest thou rejoice, because for this cause I too now rejoice, not in the pleasantness of the message alone, which attends upon all who announce the most delightful things, but because from this moment I am better than myself, and become more translucent for the understanding of loftier things. And these things are thine, than which nothing is either more wondrous or more exalted. But if, should a man converse with things pleasant, he rejoices, even though the delight is wound about himself alone: when thou enjoyest a sweetness beyond conceiving, and together with thee all creation, and God the Fashioner rejoices, what could a man say concerning thee?

[The section number ΙΓʹ (13) is lost from our Greek source at this point; it is restored here from the scan's own Greek column of the same plate, where Migne's Latin column likewise numbers the section XIII.]

13. Rejoice therefore, thou that art highly favoured, and enjoy a joy beyond every delight, O blessed one. I have no more honourable salutations than these to bring thee. And I know indeed that thou shalt be called blessed, on account of him whom thou shalt bear according to my good tidings, and that thou shalt be magnificently hymned by many for ever, even as assuredly the wondrous things concerning thee have been proclaimed beforehand with marvelling by the prophets. But neither did any of those of old preserve the praise that was due, nor shall any of those present or to come attain to the acclamation as befits thee; and further, not even if it had come to pass that all — both those that are, and those that were before, and those that shall be — should come together for this, would it have been possible to weave the fitting hymn.

Rejoice henceforth for these things, O depth of knowledge, and height of wisdom, and wealth of joy, and sea of graces, 89and greatness of wonders, and ocean of beauty, and treasury of mysteries! The Lord is with thee. Who would not be astounded at the newness of thy majesty? What mind shall worthily dwell upon these wondrous sights? What understanding shall contend toward the height of the things that now course through the aether beyond all flight? What reasoning, having spread its wings among these unutterable things, shall come down and boast that its initiation is sufficient? What tongue, culling the flowers of utterance — gold-gleaming in its sound and full of delight in its phrase — shall weave out a weaving befitting the present things? The Lord is with thee: not merely as being the sustainer among the rest of created things, nor as he was with Moses and Elias and the other saints — he shall dwell with thee great-working wonders; nor will he, having found thee out for a house for himself, make thee bright now, and then, having afterwards accomplished the dispensation, not give light for ever, bearing the torch with thee over all things; but the Lord is with thee in a strange manner indeed, which no eye perceived, and to which ears opened no door, but which is also higher than the ascent of a human heart. For with thee, on account of the flashing beauty of thy divine soul, he shall shine forth upon men the rays of the unutterable divine nature; on account of the most radiant beauty of thy virtue, he shall appear clothed about with thy form, which he loved; and having been made one with thy immaculate blood — O strange mystery! — he shall become out of thee and because of thee what he was not, bearing thy whole image, and not knowing himself to be God. And thereupon, vying in bounty divinely and magnificently, that very thing which the Maker is by nature he shall in a new fashion bestow upon thee in return by grace; and unto the ages he shall remain with thee, through the things wherein he has communicated with thee, resting in the bosom of the invisible Father. Thou shalt also wondrously gush forth milk, since all thy things too are full of wonders: thy coming forth among men, thy sojourn in the place, thy growth to this present age, which was furnished thee not after the manner of men, this present unutterable salutation, and the new birth that shall follow after it; and with milk thou shalt give drink to him who fills every living thing with good pleasure, granting liberty with his hand; thy hands shall bear him whose hands also fashioned thee, and who by a mere thought gave subsistence to the visible world and the invisible. But if the Lord is with thee, what need is there to say much? Wondrous things altogether, and loftier than all understanding, shall the sun behold, and the ends of the earth shall applaud because of thee.

Rejoice therefore, thou that art highly favoured; rejoice, 92thou blessed one, who bearest off the prize of victory over every nature after God.

14. But she, when she saw him, it says, was troubled at his word, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this might be. The most lofty mind of the All-pure one discerned the difference between God and men; then she was astounded, considering how great such a condescension was, and the mystery besides. And she leapt for pleasure reverently, but she was not afraid, neither was she shaken, nor did she become unsettled in soul. For she was altogether most penetrating, so as to be able to know very quickly who it was that had approached. For the "when she saw him she was troubled" gives me this to understand: that, having as it were looked steadily and considered with a God-minded reasoning what the greatness of God is, and what the nothingness of men, she leapt, rejoicing in heart; and she was amazed at the divine and marvellous things and applauded them, hearing of so great a condescension of God.

For these causes she cast in her mind what manner of thing it might be — how great the salutation was, and how it set the human mind below itself. For in Holy Scripture there is the being shaken, which has the same force as the being troubled, and which also hints at a notion of joy, as in: Let the sea be shaken and the fullness thereof; the plains shall rejoice, and all things that are in them. Here too, then, from the "she was troubled" there is shown both the exultation and the most fervent outleaping of that marvellous soul toward astonishment at the prodigies of God and applause of them — and that with a most seemly fear. For though the All-august one was unrivalled in chastity, and had in herself nothing wherein she might discern that she was not sufficient also to be greatly loved by God — yet she was a human being, who stands toward God as falsehood toward truth, even as the prophetic ecstasy somewhere determines. For that cause, then, she reasonably thought it a most novel thing that a womb having a small boundary should bear him who is beyond all boundlessness; and she considered it past wonder, this new communion of the Fashioner with his own contrivance. So long, then, as she looked to the body — that it is of the things below, and of clay, and the offspring of that father who transgressed — she counted that lofty announcement fearful, and was wholly full of amazement: how out of clay, and such a vessel as the fall had shattered, such a one then should contain within itself the uncontainable.

And her pondering was altogether, in its very intent, 93unspotted: how she kept herself surpassingly pure, how she refuted every περὸν; and by the lofty ascents of her heart, flying up to a heavenly height, she gave the astonishment place to withdraw, and untroubled she submitted herself to the message; and, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she cried; be it unto me according to thy word.

15. And I think that the All-unblemished one could, even from our own composite frame, open a little door to the supernatural salutation. For just as the bond of soul and body is beyond reason for us, and yet we confess such a conjunction by our very reasonings: so also she took thought to reason concerning the greater communion, procuring from that natural growing-together no small assent concerning this new mystery also. For as it seems to me, it is not only that the manifold quality of the Maker's unspeakable wisdom might be shown forth that man received his twofold composition, but also for the sake of this mystery, that he might bring in from himself some little faith for himself. And if, as my argument runs, the human contrivance had not been fashioned from above for this reason too, God would have had no need of the dust, so that from it we should bear the being a little lower than the angels; but we should have been an appendage to the immaterial ones, some other small order perhaps, and apart from earth. And further, if — when we had brought in nothing beforehand (for what could we bring in, not yet being?) — his more-than-good bowels of compassion both brought us forth for this very cause alone and set before us a bountiful table, the variety and abundance drawn from heaven and earth and the things between: what gifts might we not come to enjoy, if we should do the things that are dear to our Maker?

That most translucent vessel, then, the supremely glorious one, since she had nothing to conceive of that she had not bountifully brought to the Master for purity's sake, could not be altogether at a loss when she heard herself named the minister of things beyond understanding.

[The section head Ιϛʹ (16) and the words that open it stand at the foot of the Greek column on the plate, and our source has lost them: the scan's own Greek column of the same plate reads them only as far as `Ιϛʹ. Πλὴν διὰ τὸν λόγον ἐκεῖνον, ὅτι μη…`, where the OCR breaks off. Migne's Latin numbers the section XVI. The number is restored here; the missing words are not supplied.]

16. 96… to reckon the interval between God and men; but she was a human being, and since she looked to what is fearful in the mystery, she hears an angelic tongue once again: Fear not, Mariam; for thou hast found grace with God. Now Gabriel comes to remember the appellation. For he had laid down the burden of joy that he had been holding up, and, as though breathing lightly after the setting-down, he converses freely; and, Fear not, he says, Mariam — now naming the name itself. Fearful indeed is the mystery altogether, and full of wonder; and there is not one in created nature who could reason concerning it as is fitting. But thou alone, he says, Mariam, fear not. The reverence that goes with astonishment, and the Virgin's august applause, and her exultation joined with modesty — these Gabriel here calls fear, as David also said: Exult before him with trembling. Be not astonished, then, he says, at the excess; nor think thyself powerless for so great a majesty; nor, looking to the greatness of the rite, be overcome by astonishment and fear; nor, because thou art a human being, on that account deem the salutation fearful for thee or impossible. Altogether reasonable indeed are the things thou reckonest, and worthy of thy lofty understanding. For a human being — so far from being able to bear God, and to clothe with his own flesh, as with a tunic, him who arrays himself with light as with a garment — cannot so much as come a little near to him before whom stand a thousand thousands of angels, and ten thousand times ten thousand minister, and at the presence of his power all things shudder and tremble. But thou — I know not how I should say it — art not a human being, art not an angel, but some other lofty nature, and such that, after the divine nature, nothing can be compared with thee even for a likeness. For this cause, to thee alone, Mariam, the height of my message is not fearful. The all-pure quality of thy virtue is not unfitted for so great an announcement; the splendour of thy strange soul does not thrust away the receiving of the good tidings; the Maker does not decree thy beauty unworthy of himself; the all-beholding One has not passed by the brightness of thy radiance; the Fashioner does not reckon the shining purity that is thine unapproachable for himself.

Fear not henceforth, Mariam; 97for thou hast found grace with God. God becomes the judge of thine affairs; and since he could not find any other recompense worthy of the trophies of thy brightness, the Master offers thee himself for the prize. For the steward of the games does not pass the athletes by; nor does he give a reward less than the labours; nor does he weave crowns that fall short of the contests. But since neither things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor the whole world, nor any other creature was a counterweight to thee, thou dost obtain that very recompense of which alone thou art worthy. And it is this — O thine unutterable glory, All-pure one! — that: Behold, thou shalt conceive in the womb, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob unto the ages, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. This is the recompense for the most shining rays of thy soul; this is the return-grace to thee for the more-than-heavenly and God-befitting ascent; this the sojourn in the untrodden places foreshadowed for thee: that thou shouldest meet with him who alone is untrodden, and shouldest make ready thy womb, like a meadow of strange delight, for his dwelling, and shouldest newly work heaven to be passable for those below, while for those whose portion the dust is not, thou shouldest spread out the earth for a new walking-place. This too the heavenly food sketched out for thee, that out of a loftier fare thou mightest have wherewith to set a supper before the Most High.

17. And Mariam said unto the angel: How shall this be unto me, since I know not a man? [NT Luke 1:34 has Πῶς ἔσται τοῦτο, "How shall this be," without "unto me"] Thou announcest a conception, thou bringest good tidings of a son, Gabriel; but another manner knows how to dispense these things, of which I am altogether without taste.

How then shall thy good tidings come to pass for me? For even if thou announcest that what is to be born is great and wondrous, yet as many of the marvels as we have known to have been wrought as prodigies on earth up to now have been wrought newly by some small natural and human sequence. So too Moses, when he clove the sea, had need of a rod; and Elias of oil and a little meal, when he fed the woman of Sarephtha for a long while; and for Tobit, Raphael brought about the recovery of sight by means of a fish, and by the same he drove away a demon too. And I do not say that a rod, or a fish, or any one of the rest wrought those splendid things; but that God went on working the wondrous, while men used the accustomed means.

That something of the unutterable things will come to pass in me also, God willing, I am not able to disbelieve; but "conception" and "son" — the words thou hast surely used — are human words, and their sequel requires 100the fellowship of a man. How then shall the message be mine, if he be not taken as the mean between? Do thou declare it to me, who know not the manner.

18. And the angel answered and said unto her: Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also that which is begotten holy shall be called Son of God. I have not, he says, words answerable to the mystery, to give it; and for this cause I use words drawn from men in matters that are above man. And besides, there is nothing unfitting in his sharing in such names, who for unspeakable love of man deigned both to be called man and to become one. A true conception, then, and truly he is thy son — this present mystery. But the manner: Holy Spirit shall come upon thee; wherefore also that which is begotten holy, even if it be thy son, yet shall also be called Son of God. Hearken therefore, O daughter — with me the prophet too entreats thee, having assuredly been initiated beforehand into this very questioning of thine to me — and incline thine ear, and forget the reckoning of what is above man after the manner of man, and whatsoever things belong to thy father's house and thy kindred's: because the king hath desired thy beauty, and through thee looses the race from the grievous sentence of old, and today makes supernatural graces shine upon the ends of the earth. And behold, for assurance to thee of my words, Elisabeth also thy kinswoman, she too having conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren; for no word shall be impossible with God. Do not therefore, having learned of God's sojourning in thee, seek out the how.

19. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. Well done, the answer! Right well done, the mind that had been made ready beforehand to bear the marvellous things! "How shall it be?" — I was seeking, she says, the manner of the conception, having this very thing, a conception, sounded in my ears. But since I have heard of a coming of the Holy Spirit, I doubt not. Thou hast me obedient: one who from her youth has longed for God, and imagines nothing whatever besides God, and who long ago chose to be servant to God's will. As handmaid of the Lord, therefore, behold, readily I fall beneath the salutation: be thy good tidings henceforth unto me, O angel.

For that nothing is impossible with God, I too join in declaring.

10120. Such wonders, and higher than every other, did the blessed one's new ascent toward virtue frame! Thus from the fruit of her works — and by works I mean the lofty contemplations, whose fruit is the most sweet Jesus — she has made both earth and heaven and all things together to be satisfied. This is truly the earth whose foundations are sure, and unswerving unto the ages, and which for this cause bore up also the exaltation that was built above the heavens; for we hear that another earth and heaven shall pass away. This is the earth out of which truth sprang up, and on account of which righteousness looked down out of heaven. And blessed David declares that man is like unto vanity, and that every man is a liar — reckoning, I think, vanity to be the same thing as falsehood. But this choice bloom, that she might most plainly testify that she is not after the manner of men, sent up truth alone, having tilled the true vine. For I am, says Christ, the true vine. This earth brought forth the true bread, and the wine that gladdens the heart of man — which things my Jesus plainly is for us, both stay and gladness. Wherefore concerning her David the prophet trumpeted this also beforehand: We shall be filled with the good things of thy house. She too is way, and truth, and life, because these things is he also who is of her. Through her also is the resorting to the heavenly Father; since no one comes to him save through the new offspring, and no one shall come in to him without the Mother.

21. And God, I think, when he was fashioning man, both conceived and uttered that saying on her account: Let us make man after our image and likeness. For such a one — that all should firmly concur in this verdict, namely that man has attained very conspicuously unto the divine likeness, so far as the clay allowed, whence comes his unsuitedness both toward God and toward the angels — neither has there been of those from the beginning of the age, other than the All-pure one, nor shall there be another for evermore. For neither Adam, nor any other of those from him, has completely filled up the measure of the human height. And if this greatness — since it had also come to be, we should be able both to conceive it and to seek it out — yet experience would never have furnished the knowledge of it, nor granted it to fall plainly beneath the eyes, the dust, that is to say, not having shaped the All-honored one, then the divine voice would have seemed to fall to the ground. It is on her account, therefore, that man has been heard to attain that lofty likeness.

And this, then, is 104the treasure which we have in earthen vessels — in the primeval skins, I mean.

22. And further, on her account also was man fashioned from the beginning, and heaven spread out, and earth, and all things whatsoever that came into being for man's sake. For if God was not ignorant that Adam would fall, yet would never have brought him forth apart from the ἐπαρνόρθωσιν being foreordained, and the all-pure one is the ground of the healing: it is plain that he too was for her sake, and whatsoever was for his sake, both before him and after him. And besides, since to loose man from his ill estate there needed a man of the same nature with him, and such an one as should be competent, through the surpassingness of his virtue, to use God also as ally — for the fall was greater than that a man alone should be able to bestow freedom as a benefit — therefore it was needful that a new man be fashioned, one reaching far toward God, who should be able to lay on the remedy. And that newest man was assuredly this much-hymned one, concerning whom, because she was to be able to do so much, God took thought both to foretell it and to have made a man after his own likeness, who, as being God working together with God, might be able to save the great moulded work, man. So that it is possible to gather this also: that the divine good would not have poured itself forth from the beginning, nor would any of God's created works have declared his glory, had not the multitude of her graces shone forth beforehand in the creative mind. For neither would God have given subsistence to that which was not able, so far as might be, to attain unto the bettering of itself.

And since no other has both set man upright, and made the incorporeal ones more radiant, and disposed whatever else there was to a brighter estate, save that hymned, supernatural and divine soul — it is altogether plain that God has been made manifest as Maker through her, and as many things as 105a sea. [Several words are lost here from our Greek source at the column turn: it runs straight from "and as many things as" to "sea." The scan's own Greek column of the same plate carries further words at this point, and Migne's Latin column has a full clause; the exact Greek wording is not recoverable from our files. See the notes on this work.]

23. And she is not the mother of the creating Word only, because she bore him, but is as it were the mother also of that Word's creative goodness, as being the ground and the cause of the good-working power's being made manifest. And — if it be a bold thing to say — the blessed one would be God's fellow-Fashioner even before her coming forth into the earth, and fellow-producer of the creatures, both visible and invisible, that were brought to this pitch of beauty; even as, once she had appeared, she became fellow-embroiderer and fellow-beautifier of that world-wide robe which had been woven together beforehand. And not only did the things now present have their generation through her, but whatsoever of the things that abide shall thereafter be splendid — those too are her achievement. Since those things also are for our sake, and we, as has been shown, are for hers; or rather, the most delightful of the things that shall be ours is the consummation of the good tidings now announced to her. Than which what could be plainer, that the good things to come also are through her?

24. This message has prepared us both to be called children of God and to be so. For as many as received him, he says, to them gave he power to become children of God, to them that believe on his name. And even as not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, did the salutation come upon her that is highly favoured, so also for us the refashioning is God-wrought through her, unmingled with any fleshly root at all. And even as she consecrated wholly to God our ancestral tunic, whereof she too had a share, in the same manner she hastened to impart to those of her own nature the God whom a womb such as ours encompassed, because she had received him within herself. And it in no way followed that, because we had a skin in common with her, therefore we should share equally with her in the God-working splendours wherewith she was enriched, or should fall but little short of her.

But just as there was nothing among lofty things which filled that longing of hers, until she should swallow down God himself — and this too David most vividly applauded beforehand concerning her, saying, I shall be satisfied when thy glory is seen by me — she having found here alone a stay for her thirst after good things: so nothing stands in the way of the sea of the all-pure one's love toward our race, that she should not will to impart to us also the like splendours that are hers.

10825. But that she may be displayed, as in little, both Maker and good Master, after the Fashioner who is her Son, she imparts ungrudgingly of all the greatest things. Or rather, that she may show that she came into life for our sake, that stretching out a hand to us she might knit us to God from whom we stood apart, readily through her own offspring she calls us to be partakers of the union with him; that what God became to her through that strange conception — for she bore him, having as it were swallowed him down and grown together with him — this we too might undergo toward God through the partaking of that flesh which her Only-begotten took to himself from her. For he that eateth my flesh, he says, and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him; and, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. And this most sweet and life-bestowing supper that truly supercelestial human being tilled, and made ready that this very thing should become a supper for us. So that when her Son both draws us to this table, and spares not his own flesh, and rejoices to see us become such, these things too must be granted to the Mother: because she also was wrought into blossom as the fruit of men, that God might partake of her flesh, and by that flesh might nourish the Mother's kindred. For neither, had this not been to be, would an earthen statue have imaged forth this vessel most conspicuous above all matter; nor, having gone under the dust, would she — since she had a great likeness toward God — have been reaching after any other thing than that which God also desired. And since there was a tasting of a tree, which — alas! — estranged man from God, while she saw her own flesh to be a remedy sufficient to bring one who should taste in turn unto familiarity with God, which remedy she loved to furnish freely to the sick man, and God loved the same thing, namely to set himself, if it might be, as food before the fallen — yet it was not among things possible that a man should use either of them unmingled so as to come back again, but both had to come together, that through their kinship also the remedy might be serviceable to him that used it: this too the surpassingly blameless one was in no wise ignorant of, and would ask of God to compound the healing. But to overlook her that asked was not God's part, both because she was worthy to obtain, and because God himself was in love with this.

For this cause the wondrous mystery was dispensed; and we men partake 109of the flesh of God, which the all-pure one wove out, and wherewith she clothed the Saviour.

26. And I think that for these two causes she who conceived him that is above every name was called a daughter of men: both that she might share with God the glory that is on earth — for even the things that are lowly with us are glory to the Master — and further, that it might become plain to men how far the clay is able to fly up. For neither, apart from the surpassingly pure one, was the help of the race a thing impossible for God; nor did any necessity draw it, that the all-pure one could not otherwise be richly filled with divine things, had she not obtained the things below. For this too was easy for God, to measure out delight to the Virgin from above, even if she at least had no need of earth — she whom the radiance that came from herself was joining to the immaterial ones. And even if she had not been made known here to men, of what things the blessed one was worthy, not even on that account would she have failed of the glory befitting her in heaven. But rather, that even as God is glorified in the high places and among earthly things also, this same might befall her too, as being in great measure like unto him, and that she might be found lacking in nothing that tends toward glory, whereof God too is not lacking; and that men might not be so far ignorant of the height that is theirs from themselves — for these causes the surpassingly glorious one both trod the earth, and was clothed about with the sheath that came of her.

27. And therefore, Magnificent things, she says, hath the Mighty One done for me. [Gk NT μεγάλα, "great things"] But these she plainly possessed already, and that which had come to pass had no need to be done; rather he manifested it, he set it plain to all — this is what the word done declares. And for some such cause, perhaps, did Gabriel, by the ministry of the tongue, cry aloud: Rejoice, thou that art highly favoured, and blessed — that he might both teach us with what manner of words we must address her, and set forth, inscribed in this announcement, how great her magnificence is. For he might have discharged that ministry by the tongueless speech of the mind, and have heard the Virgin's splendid words while she used that same instrument. And indeed there was no other manner, but this one: that the Master, while putting on lowliness, might not trumpet the matter forth too loftily and unanswerably to it; and besides, because we too had to be initiated into the things that smite the proud, for whose sake the dispensation was also of this kind.

28.

All the angelic ordering too, I think, and heaven and sun, and earth and sea, and all the creation then — each thing being refashioned with a tongue — would have cried out the "Rejoice" to the Virgin together with Gabriel; and, as in a chorus, taking up the melody from the leader of the file, would many a time 112have both unrolled and hymned the same things, and joined their voice with the chorus-leader.

For so great is the magnificence of the all-pure one, and thus ought all creation to have addressed the Virgin. But if not with a tongue, for the reason that has been stated, yet by deeds they made their joy plain, in that they perceived themselves transformed to a brighter estate; and thus the whole making proclaimed the magnificences of the all-hymned one more distinctly than a tongue. For that which not one of the things upon earth could have had — nor could it, even if anything else had come to be — namely to come so near to God that one should set itself as a seat beneath God, and another as a couch, and another as food, and another for his feet, and one thing should furnish one use and another another, and another should hear a tongue sounding out a divine operation, while man should share both speech and manner of life with God, and so all things be made splendid by the strange sanctification: this they have most easily, and any one of them without labour, been able to obtain through the all-pure one. For without their removing elsewhere, and without their being sundered from their accustomed state, and without their meeting with any unwonted place or manner, but with all of them abiding in their own place in every respect — the much-hymned one has caused the Creator to be united with them after a new fashion.

29. And these things are the gift and offspring of the present festival. The salutation of this day has become the maker of the new wonders. Gabriel's good tidings have made another sun, brighter than the former, to shine upon all. This address, having rent the earthen tunic, clothed men about with a God-working garment. This greeting is the proclamation of the riddles of old, and now the splendour of new graces. This, even before the consummation — I mean the Saviour's resurrection — was to the venerable men below a delight and a graceful stirring. For as on earth, being prophets, they foretold this most gracious of all announcements, so in Hades too they could not, I think, be ignorant of the most delightful good tidings. And knowing it, and having as it were heard the new greeting when Gabriel cried aloud, it was fitting that they should rejoice and leap, beholding as in a mirror that freedom had drawn near. This message, not to say much, wrought all creation bright.

30. And this fairest of the seasons subscribes the plain proof, by the means whereby it bestows upon all a most excellent change and, as it were, a coming back to life — as though ashamed if it should not display in splendour, by the means it has of shining, that message of joy; and, so to speak, that no one may indict her for ingratitude, by her own beauty she hastens to announce distinctly that this is the season in which the world-wide joy came upon us.

For now the sun scrapes the cloudiness off his ray as though it were rheum, and sends forth a more translucent radiance, 113and begins to draw nearer above the earth, all but proclaiming to all the appearing of this new and great light, and how he too now receives the renewal, and is willing to hide his ray but a little beneath the earth's back. Now heaven, wrapping itself about as with a new garment, strips off its gloom and puts on translucency, and puts forward the stars as a kind of ornament of its own raiment, setting itself forth as a varied and shining image for those whose zeal it is to embroider furnishings; and now more than before it writes that it declares the glory of God. Now earth sends up herbs into a strange and, as it were, inimitable beauty, weaving her surface with the manifoldness of colours, and supplying to those who choose to paint her flower-wrought dyes, whereby it is possible for painters' figures to vie with the truth. And she bids all plants come back to life, and hymn the splendour of the festival. And she rejoices, arrayed in her own flowers, and lays herself down as a gentle couch — she that before was savage. Now the sea, which a little while since was hostile, smiting with her waves the neighbouring land, has ceased from threatening terrors, and laughing, seeks reconciliation, testifying that the peace which passeth all understanding has now overrun all things. Now the air sounds its unkindly blast gently, and having shaken off the loud-crashing thunder, and breathing as it were tamely, calls all men out of their little houses and their burrows, promising to breathe friendly upon them. Now the herds of four-footed beasts rouse themselves to leap, and to sport with mother earth, and to bound like colts. And the kinds of nestlings spread their unwearied wing toward the air; and the many-voiced ones make ready to harp melodiously, all thereby signifying that they rejoice. Even so we men too, in that we now lay aside the greater part of the body's clothing, and in that we begin to sail and to lead armies, and to set out upon journeys, and in general to put our hand to new works; because now — so we announce — the weight of the old estate has been scraped away, and the refashioning has been completed, and joy has been poured out, for which one man bids another rejoice, like a herald traversing the regions, and gives and receives in turn the pledges of the union.

But these things are so ordered, that they may show forth that fragrance of joy which was emptied out and has taken hold of the ends of the earth; and never would they shrink from declaring the tokens of the grace, until that newest refashioning, stronger than old age, shall receive us last of all — whose luxury is the fruit of this mystery.

11631. But let us — from whom the much-hymned one sprang, the common delight, and for whose sake the Mighty One wove the magnificences together with her — even as we received the joy, so render back the rejoicing to her that gave it, not only uttering aloud Gabriel's initiation, but also sweeping ourselves out within, and putting every counterfeit way beyond our borders, that we may taste the supper purely, that strange and all-pure delicacy which this salutation wrought newly. For thus does the surpassingly glorious one most rejoice, when she sees us filled from that table with the flesh of her Only-begotten Son. For since it was for this that the All-pure one came to earth, and put on the Saviour as her own fleshly tunic — that the Saviour might become this supper for us, and that through her flesh, which is akin to ours, we might draw near to God, whom, apart from the Theotokos, we were not able to attain because of sin — she assuredly rejoices when we use this table, which she prepared for this cause, and for whose sake all those awful mysteries were brought to their accomplishment, and through which we are transformed by the gift from men into gods.

32. But if her rejoicing comes thence, the contrary would be grievous to her that is highly favoured: when we seat ourselves far from the sacred table and famished — which is estrangement from God, and the taking away of life. For he that eateth my flesh, he says, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me and I in him; and, He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing; and, If a man abide not in me, he was cast forth as the branch, and was withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and it burneth. And he that partakes not of these things becomes far from God, and — alas! — is set up as a herdsman of swine along with the avenging fiend, or at the last as fuel for gehenna. And again: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. And with reason: for as he who has withdrawn from his accustomed diet stands away also from the fleshly life, in the same manner he who feeds not on those things as well is dead, pitiable, without part in true life, and the procurer to himself of everlasting torments.

33. But since the salutation of this day is the procurer of joy — the same that brought forward also the new offspring — and since this offspring has become for us a most sweet table and the cause of unceasing life, let us too fill our own souls with joy, saying Rejoice to the Mother of God, joining our voice with Gabriel's; saying, Rejoice, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. And let us beseech the all-pure one, that we may worthily attain also to the life-giving food which the present joy sent up, and through which rejoicing is ours eternally.

And so the surpassingly glorious one rejoices for this cause, and so does her 117Son; and may it be granted that we all become partakers of the unceasing joy, by the intercessions of her that is highly favoured and Mother of God, of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom belongs all glory, honour and worship, together with his Father who is without beginning, and his all-holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.