ON THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY
By St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, known as Thaumaturgus O Thaumatourgos, The Miracle-Worker) (+275).
Today the choir of angels sings strains of praise joyfully,
and the light of the advent of Christ shines brightly upon the faithful. Today
is the glad springtime to us, and Christ the Sun of righteousness has beamed
with clear light around us, and has illumined the minds of the faithful. Today
Adam is made anew, and moves in the choir of angels, having winged his way to
heaven. Today the whole circle of the earth is filled with joy, since the
sojourn of the Holy Spirit has been realized to men. Today the grace of God and
the hope of the unseen shine through all wonders transcending imagination, and
make the mystery that was kept hidden from eternity plainly discernible to us.
Today are woven the chaplets of never-fading virtue. Today, God, willing to
crown the sacred heads of those whose pleasure is to hearken to Him, and who
delight in His festivals, invites the lovers of unswerving faith as His called
and His heirs; and the heavenly kingdom is urgent to summon those who mind
celestial things to join the divine service of the incorporeal choirs. Today is
fulfilled the word of David, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be
glad.
The fields shall be joyful, and all the trees of the
wood before the Lord, because He comes. David thus made mention of the trees;
and the Lord’s Forerunner also spoke of them as trees that should bring forth
fruits meet for repentance, or rather for the coming of the Lord. However, our
Lord Jesus Christ promises perpetual gladness to all those who believe in Him.
For He says, I will see you, and you shall rejoice; and your joy no man takes
from you.
Today is the illustrious and ineffable mystery of
Christians, who have willingly set their hope like a seal upon Christ, plainly
declared to us. Today Gabriel, who stands by God, came to the Pure Virgin, bearing
to her the glad annunciation, Hail, thou that art highly favored! And she cast
in her mind what manner of salutation this might be. And the angel immediately
proceeded to say, The Lord is with you: fear not, Mary; for you have found
favor with God. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son,
and shall 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 His father
David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever: and of His kingdom there shall be no end.
Then saw Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Shall
I remain a virgin, she asks? Do I not then lose the honor of virginity?
And while she was yet in perplexity as to these
things, the angel placed shortly before her the summary of his whole message,
and said to the Pure Virgin, The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power
of the Highest shall overshadow you; therefore also that holy thing which shall
be born of: ou shall be called the Son of God. For what it is, that also shall
it be called by all means; for with God nothing shall be impossible.
Meekly, then, did divine grace make election of the
pure Mary alone out of all generations. For she proved herself prudent truly in
all things; neither has any woman been born like her in all generations. She
was not like the primeval virgin Eve, who, keeping holiday alone in paradise,
with thoughtless mind, unguardedly hearkened to the word of the serpent, the
author of all evil, and thus became depraved in the thoughts of her mind; and
through her that deceiver, discharging his poison and refusing death with it,
brought it into the whole world; and in virtue of this has arisen all the
trouble of the saints.
In the holy Virgin alone is the fall of that (first
mother) repaired. Yet this holy one was not competent to receive the gift until
she had first learned who it was that sent it, and what the gift was, and who
it was that conveyed it. While the holy one pondered these things in perplexity
with herself, she says to the angel, Whence have you brought to us the blessing
in such wise? Out of what treasure-stores is the pearl of the word dispatched
to us? Whence has the gift acquired its purpose toward us? From heaven you have
come, yet you walk upon earth! You exhibit the form of man, and (yet) you are
glorious with dazzling light. These things the holy one considered with
herself, and the archangel solved the difficulty expressed in such reasoning by
saying to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest
shall overshadow you. Therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of
you shall be called the Son of God. And fear not, Mary, for I am not come to
overpower you with fear, but to repel the subject of fear. Fear not, Mary, for
you have found favor with God.
Question not grace by the standard of nature.
For grace does not endure to pass under the laws of nature. You know, O Mary,
things kept hidden from the patriarchs and prophets. You have learned, O
virgin, things which were kept concealed till now from the angels. You have
heard, O purest one, things of which even the choir of inspired men was never
deemed worthy. Moses, and David, and Isaiah, and Daniel, and all the prophets,
prophesied of Him; but the manner they knew not. Yet you alone, O purest
virgin, are now made the recipient of things of which all these were kept in
ignorance, and you learn the origin of them.
Where the Holy Spirit is, there are all things readily
ordered. Where divine grace is present, all things are found possible with God.
The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow you. Therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of you
shall be called the Son of God. And if He is the Son of God, then is He also
God, of one form with the Father, and co-eternal; in Him the Father possesses all
manifestation; He is His image in the person, and through His reflection the
(Father’s) glory shines forth. And as from the ever-flowing fountain the
streams proceed, so also from this ever-flowing and ever-living fountain does
the light of the world proceed, the perennial and the true, namely Christ our
God.
It is this that the prophets have preached:
The
streams of the river make glad the city of God. And not one city only, but all
cities; for even as it makes glad one city, so does it also the whole world.
Appropriately, therefore, did the angel say to Mary the holy virgin first of
all, Hail, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you; inasmuch as with
her was laid up the full treasure of grace. For of all generations she alone
has risen as a virgin pure in body and in spirit; and she alone bears Him who
bears all things on His word. Nor is it only the beauty of this holy one in
body that calls forth our admiration, but also the innate virtue of her soul.
Wherefore also the angels addressed her first with the salutation, Hail, thou
that art highly favored, the Lord is with you, and no spouse of earth; He
Himself is with you who is the Lord of sanctification, the Father of purity,
the Author of incorruption, and the Bestower of liberty, the Curator of
salvation, and the Steward and Provider of the true peace, who out of the
virgin earth made man, and out of man’s side formed Eve in addition. Even this
Lord is with you, and on the other hand also is of you.
Come, therefore, beloved brethren, and let us take up
the angelic strain, and to the utmost of our ability return the due share of
praise, saying, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with you! For
it is yours truly to rejoice, seeing that the grace of God, as he knows, has
chosen to dwell with you—the Lord of glory dwelling with the handmaiden; He
that is fairer than the children of men with the fair virgin; He who sanctifies
all things with the undefiled. God is with you, and with you also is the
perfect man in whom dwells the whole fullness of the Godhead. Hail, thou that
art highly favored, the fountain of the light that lightens all who believe
upon Him! Hail, thou that art highly favored, the
rising of the rational Sun, and the undefiled flower of Life! Hail, thou that
art highly favored, the mead of sweet savor! Hail, thou that art highly
favored, the ever-blooming vine, which makes glad the souls of those who honor
you!
Hail, thou that art highly favored!—the soil that, all
untilled, bears bounteous fruit. You have brought forth, in accordance with the
law of nature indeed, as it goes with us, and by the set time of practice; and
yet in a way beyond nature, or rather above nature, by reason that God the Word
from above took His abode in you, and formed the new Adam in your holy womb,
and inasmuch as the Holy Ghost gave the power of conception to the holy virgin;
and the reality of His body was assumed from her body. And just as the pearl
comes of the two natures, namely lightning and water, the occult signs of the
sea; so also our Lord Jesus Christ proceeds, without fusion and without
mutation, from the pure, and chaste, and undefiled, and
holy Virgin Mary; perfect in divinity and perfect in
humanity, in all things equal to the Father, and in all things consubstantial
with us, apart from sin.
Most of the holy fathers, and patriarchs, and prophets
desired to see Him, and to be eye-witnesses of Him, but did not attain hereto. And
some of them by visions beheld
Him in type, and darkly; others, again, were
privileged to hear the divine voice through the medium of the cloud, and were
favored with sights of holy angels; but to Mary the pure virgin alone did the
archangel Gabriel manifest himself luminously, bringing her the glad address,
Hail, thou that art highly favored! Thus, she received the word, and in the due
time of the fulfilment according to the body’s course, she brought forth the
priceless pearl.
Come, then, you too, dearly beloved, and let us chant
the melody which has been taught us by the inspired harp of David, and say,
Arise, O Lord, into Your rest; You, and the ark of Your sanctuary. For the holy
Virgin is in truth an ark, wrought with gold both within and without, that has
received the whole treasury of the sanctuary. Arise, O Lord into Your rest.
Arise, O Lord, out of the bosom of the Father, in order that You may raise up
the fallen race of the first- formed man. Setting these things forth, David in
prophecv- said to the rod that was to spring from himself, and to sprout into
the flower of that beauteous fruit, Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline your
ear, and forget your own people and your
father’s house; so shall the King greatly desire your beauty: for He is the Lord
your God, and you shall worship Him. Hearken, O daughter, to the things which
were prophesied before time of you, in order that you may also behold the
things themselves with the eyes of understanding. Hearken to me while I
announce things beforehand to you, and hearken to the archangel who declares
expressly to you the perfect mysteries.
Come then, dearly beloved, and let us fall back on the
memory of what has gone before us; and let us glorify, and celebrate, and laud,
and bless that rod that has sprung so marvelously from Jesse. For Luke, in the
inspired Gospel narratives, delivers a testimony not to Joseph only, but also
to Mary the mother of God, and gives this account with reference to the very
family and house of David: For Joseph went up, says he, from Galilee, unto a
city of Judea which is called Bethlehem, to be taxed with Mary his espoused
wife, being great with child, because they were of the house and family of
David. And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished
that she should be delivered; and she broughtforth her son, the first-born of
the whole creation, and wrapped him in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a
manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
She wrapped in swaddling clothes Him who is covered
with light as with a garment. She wrapped in swaddling clothes Him who made
every creature. She laid in a manger Him who sits above the cherubim, and is
praised by myriads of angels. In the manger set apart for dumb brutes did the
Word of God repose, in order that He might impart to men, who are irrational by
free choice, the perceptions of true reason. In the board, from which cattle
eat, was laid the heavenly Bread, in order that He might provide participation
in spiritual sustenance for men who live like the beasts of the earth.
There was no room for Him in the inn. He found no
place, who by His word established heaven and earth; for though He was rich,
for our sakes He became poor, and chose extreme humiliation on behalf of the
salvation of our nature, in His inherent goodness toward us. He, who fulfilled
the whole administration of unutterable mysteries of the economy in heaven in
the bosom of the Father, and in the cave in the arms of the mother, reposed in
the manger. Angelic choirs encircled Him, singing of glory in heaven and of
peace upon earth. In heaven, He was seated at the right hand of the Father; and
in the manger, He rested, as it were, upon the cherubim. Even there was in
truth His cherubic throne; there was His royal seat. Holy of the holy, and
alone glorious upon the earth, and holier than the holy, was that wherein
Christ our God rested.
To Him be glory, honor, and power, together with the
Father undefiled, and the altogether holy and quickening Spirit, now and ever,
and unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
Orthodox Heritage.MARCH-APRIL 2018
Orthodox Heritage.MARCH-APRIL 2018
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