The Annunciation of the All-holy Mother of God
O Virgin Theotokos, rejoice, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.
Long before the birth of Jesus Christ the Lord promised mankind that He would send a Redeemer, the Messiah, whom a virgin would bear, and who would be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is “God with us”. Truly, by God's becoming man, God is with us.
And so the Lord sent the Archangel Gabriel to the Galilean town of Nazareth, to the Virgin Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph, a descendant of the house of David.
The angel came before the Virgin and said to her: “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” Mary was troubled at his words and thought: “What manner of salutation is this?” — what could this greeting mean? The angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.”
To Mary's Son God promised the throne of David, that is, the royal throne of Israel, and an everlasting (eternal) reign over the house of Jacob — over the twelve tribes of Israel. Only God is eternal, and the “house of Jacob” is the faithful people who behold the Lord and are joined to Him in spirit.
Birth from a virgin without a man is beyond the reach of human reason. The Mother of God, since she had made a vow of virginity, asks: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” The angel answers: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee” — and gives her a sign as well: her kinswoman, the aged Elisabeth, is already in her sixth month.
When Mary had understood everything fully, she submitted, entrusted herself to the Lord and joined her will to the will of God: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” And straightway the Holy Spirit entered the undefiled temple of the Virgin.
How did the Virgin Mary deserve so great a grace of God, that out of all the race of Adam she was chosen to serve God's becoming flesh? By being adorned with every virtue, as far as human nature allows, and by being a true temple of God. Her humility and her meekness are singled out especially — it was for these virtues that the Lord chose her.
There is a tradition about the Virgin Mother of God: when she was reading the book of the Prophet Isaiah, at the place where it is written, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”, she is said to have paused and thought how blessed that virgin would be of whom this was said, and to have prayed God to make her worthy to see her, that she might serve her as a handmaid.
It was because of this very humility that the Archangel bore so patiently with the Virgin Mary when she asked the heavenly messenger to confirm and explain what he had said. Not long before, Gabriel had appeared to the priest Zacharias and told him the good news that he would have a son; but the priest did not believe him, because he and his wife were both very old. The Archangel was angered with him and struck him dumb until the prophecy should be fulfilled. The All-holy Virgin, however, he not only did not reproach, but persuaded with great reverence and patience, and did not leave her until he had heard from her words full of obedience and hope. The reason was that Zacharias by his doubt showed a deeply hidden unbelief, while the All-holy Mary showed obedience and humility.
God did not wish to make us do anything, or keep us from doing anything, by compulsion and fear. He is merciful, just and holy, and wishes us to be the same; but He does not force us to goodness — He leads us to Himself by exhortation, by counsel, by teaching and by love. He wishes us to do every good work of our own will.
With the very weapon the devil used to bring about our fall, Christ saved us; if Eve's deed made the race of Adam shed tears many times over, the Virgin Mary brought it the greatest joy. One of the epithets of the Mother of God is “Enlightener”, for through her the Sun of righteousness shone upon mankind that sat in darkness, and enlightened the minds of the faithful.
Prepared by Nikoloz Lanchava, the journal Karibche, April 2004
For a world weighed down by sin, the beginning of every good became the day when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the All-holy Virgin and brought her the good news: “Hail, thou that art highly favoured! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women.” On this day not only the Mother of God but all mankind was told that the good God, in His inexpressible love for mankind, had willed to redeem the race of Adam, held captive by sin.
Through the centuries gone by there have been many, and there are still today, who cast doubt on the Saviour's spotless birth — the more so since the Virgin Mary was betrothed. In answer to those who hold so distorted a view, we shall again call on the Gospel. The Evangelist Matthew says plainly that the righteous Joseph was greatly perplexed when Mary was found “with child” (had Joseph been in the ordinary relations of husband and wife with Mary, this would not have astonished him). And lest anyone should ask how a virgin came to be with child, St Matthew adds at once: “of the Holy Ghost”.
Let us not ask how the Holy Spirit conceived the child in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Can we, born of the earth, explain this mystery, which even the angels cannot reach? Let us be content to know that this mystery was wrought by the Spirit of God. The conception of Christ in the Virgin Mary is a great miracle of the Lord, holding a mystery that cannot be fathomed. How did the womb contain Him who cannot be contained, who is everywhere, who is uncircumscribed?.. All this is beyond the reach of human minds. Let us believe what has been revealed to us, and not try to search out what is hidden from us.
Why was the Son of God conceived in the holy Virgin before her betrothal was completed rather than after? Or, if Mary had given God a vow of perpetual virginity, why did the Lord think it needful that she be betrothed to a man? Here is buried the heart of God's providence: the Lord did not wish the Jews to learn, as soon as Jesus was born, of His birth from a virgin. It was better in God's sight to keep hidden until its time the mystery of His blessed Son's becoming flesh, so that it should not be revealed to the evil one that the All-holy Mary was the virgin of whom the holy Isaiah prophesied: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son” (Isaiah 7:14). Had the Jews learned this mystery, at the prompting of the evil one they would have judged the Virgin by the Law as a harlot and stoned her. If they were ready to stone Jesus only because He healed the sick on the Sabbath, how would they have forgiven Mary the birth of a son without a husband? If doubt of Mary's purity crept even into the righteous Joseph, to whom the Virgin was betrothed, how would the Jews, embittered and degenerate through sin, have received this mystery?
The righteous Joseph, having learned from God what was hidden, began to serve the Virgin with the greatest reverence. In him God gave Mary a visible guardian and protector, whom the All-holy Virgin needed especially during the flight into Egypt.
It is worth seeing, too, how this mystery was made known to the righteous Joseph.
After the Archangel had brought the Virgin the good news of the conception of the Messiah, Mary visited her kinswoman, the righteous Elisabeth, and stayed with her three months. Three months was, of course, time enough for the Virgin's pregnancy to show. Joseph noticed it before the others. It is easy to imagine what passed in his soul when he saw in such a state the Virgin, returned home, whom he meant to take as his wife. What must he not have thought of Mary, what tormenting doubts must not have troubled his soul! All the more unbearable was it that Joseph knew well how like an angel his betrothed Virgin had lived until then — he who had himself taken on the care and protection of her innocence. He must not have believed his eyes, and who knows how many times he looked intently, trying somehow to dispel this tormenting doubt. Perhaps he even resolved to ask Mary herself about it all, but could not bring himself to do even that… Perhaps he would wait for his betrothed to reveal the secret herself? But Mary said nothing… The All-holy Virgin was silent, because the Lord Himself was silent. What was Joseph to do? He had, it is true, the right to expose Mary and have her punished by the Law of Moses; but such severity was foreign to his kindly nature. He did not wish to expose the woman publicly, to shame her before all and hand her over to the highest court; and so he “was minded to put her away privily” — he decided to part from her in secret, without noise and without all the formalities the Law required in giving a bill of divorce. He had the right to do so, since betrothal was not counted as marriage, and no particular formalities were needed.
“But while he thought on these things” — as soon as the thought of sending the Virgin from his house had grown firm in him — “behold, the angel of the Lord (the holy Fathers suppose that this was the Archangel Gabriel, who had brought the Virgin the good news of the Saviour's spotless conception in her womb) appeared unto him in a dream”.
It is a wonder: even before His birth, while He was in His mother's womb, Jesus was already carrying the heavy cross of humiliation, which after His birth He was to carry all His life in this world…
At last the trial came to an end. The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in his sleep (for the God-obedient soul of the old man needed no more wondrous vision) and “said: Joseph, thou son of David!” Joseph was a simple carpenter, but the angel called him the son of the glorious king David, reminding him that he was the lawful heir of the promise made to David — that the Messiah would be born of his seed. The angel's words meant something like this: descendant of King David, why are you faint-hearted and troubled? Of course, but for this doubt you would never have thought of sending her away. Fear not, she is holy and guilty of nothing — “fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife” — I would not call her your wife had she not kept her virginity after the betrothal. Receive without fear into your house her whom in your mind you had already put away. “For that which is conceived in her” was conceived not of man but of God — “is of the Holy Ghost”.
So the mystery, beyond the reach of the mind, of the birth of the Son of God from a Virgin without seed was made known to Joseph. He was told what he could never have so much as imagined. The angel told him all this so plainly that not the least doubt could remain in the old man. And the vision came with one more sure sign that the revelation was true: the angel told him that Mary was carrying a son in her womb — this could not have been made known by a mere dream.
After this vision the seed of doubt vanished from the good soul of the righteous Joseph, and with joy and a quiet heart he set about doing the will of God.
