Today we celebrate the beginning, the starting point of our salvation. This feast, which arose no later than the 5th century, was originally called the Day of the Incarnation; its modern name appeared...
Today we celebrate the beginning, the starting point of our salvation. This feast, which arose no later than the 5th century, was originally called the Day of the Incarnation; its modern name appeared later, not earlier than the 7th century. This ancient name expresses for us both the main meaning of the feast and the main Person who acts in it. We rejoice today because Almighty God desired to become incarnate in order to save us, and He fulfilled this will of His. And today we rejoice over Her who received Him in Her womb, over His Mother. We are not celebrating the anniversary of the event, because we do not know exactly when it happened: the date was set quite conventionally, simply exactly 9 months before Christmas. But we rejoice over the Incarnation as an accomplished fact. Once proclaimed by the prophets, it became an event of real history, and because of this everything became a participant in eternity. Let us cite the words of two great saints about this event, in translation from Greek.
Here is what St. John of Damascus says: "Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice: for He who is coessential with the Father, without beginning with Him and sharing His throne, in compassion and man-loving mercy emptied Himself, by the good pleasure and counsel of the Father, and dwelt in a virgin womb, purified beforehand by the Spirit. O wonder! God among human beings, the Uncontainable in a womb, the eternal in time: how glorious are the seedless conception, the ineffable self-emptying, and such a mystery! God is made small, and is incarnate, and is formed, when the angel tells the Pure One of the conception: Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you, He who has great mercy."
And here are the words of St. Andrew of Crete: "Now is the joy of the Annunciation, the virgin celebration; earthly things are joined with heavenly things, Adam is renewed, Eve is freed from the ancient sorrow, and the dwelling of our nature, deified by the One who took our composition, becomes God's temple. O mystery! Incomprehensible is the way He made Himself small! Ineffable is the manner of conception! The angel serves the wonder; the Virgin womb receives the Son; the Holy Spirit is sent down; the Father from above is well pleased; reconciliation for all is created by [His] will! In Christ, saved by Christ, together with Gabriel let us cry out to the Virgin: Rejoice, O favored one, through You the Lord has come, our salvation, Christ our God, who received our nature and raised us to Himself; pray to Him for the salvation of our souls."
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1:26 In the sixth month - After Elisabeth had conceived.
1:27 Espoused - It was customary among the Jews, for persons that married to contract before witnesses some time before. And as Christ was to be born of a pure virgin, so the wisdom of God ordered it to be of one espoused, that to prevent reproach he might have a reputed father, according to the flesh.
1:28 Hail, thou highly favoured; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women - Hail is the salutation used by our Lord to the women after his resurrection: thou art highly favoured, or hast found favour with God, Luk 1:30, is no more than was said of Noah, Moses, and David.The Lord is with thee, was said to Gideon, Jdg 6:12; and blessed shall she be above women, of Jael, Jdg 5:24.This salutation gives no room for any pretence of paying adoration to the virgin; as having no appearance of a prayer, or of worship offered to her.
1:32 He shall be called the Son of the Highest - In this respect also: and that in a more eminent sense than any, either man or angel, can be called so. The Lord shall give him the throne of his father David - That is, the spiritual kingdom, of which David's was a type.
1:33 He shall reign over the house of Jacob - In which all true believers are included.
1:35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee - The power of God was put forth by the Holy Ghost, as the immediate Divine agent in this work: and so he exerted the power of the Highest as his own power, who together with the Father and the Son is the most high God.Therefore also - Not only as he is God from eternity, but on this account likewise he shall be called the Son of God.
1:36 And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth - Though Elisabeth was of the house of Aaron, and Mary of the house of David, by the fathers side, they might be related by their mothers. For the law only forbad heiresses marrying into another tribe.And so other persons continually intermarried; particularly the families of David and of Levi.
1:38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord - It is not improbable, that this time of the virgin's humble faith, consent, and expectation, might be the very time of her conceiving.