Homily on the Annunciation of the Mother God

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

HOMILY ON THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

"And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shalt be called the Son of the Highest" (St. Luke 1:31-32).

When Tsar Soloman received from God the light of wisdom to study the mysteries of nature, after he had looked over all that is on the earth and in the heavens--the past, present, and future--he decided finally that there is nothing new in the world under the sun: "there is no new thing under the sun" (Eccl. 1:10). But God has now wrought a work that is completely new, which never was in past ages, and never will be in the future. It is the work in the Annunciation of Mary, full of grace, the Virgin and Mother, but Mother of God. The manifold miracle, the exceedingly great action of God's omnipotence, a most exalted mystery of Our Orthodox Christian faith. A Virgin and Mother! What more unlikely nature could be seen in creation? A Virgin--the Mother of God! What more wondrous thing could Divine grace bring to pass? One surpasses the bounds of nature, and there has been nothing else like it; another ascends to the heights of Divine grace, and nothing else can be compared to it. One is a great miracle, and this higher than a miracle; both are unfathomable, and both are fully divine. "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth 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 his father David" (St. Luke 1:31-32).

It is about this new miracle, or rather, about these two miracles--one, of the Virgin and Mother, the other, of the Virgin and Mother of God--that I would like to speak to you today, my dear listeners. Here is how they occurred in the Gospel history.

When the fullness of time had come, when God the Father deigned to sent His Only-Begotten Son and Logos/Word that He might be incarnate and become man, Gabriel, the champion of Angels, was sent to the Galilean city of Nazareth to the Virgin Mary who was betrothed to Joseph, in order to greet Her with the words, "Rejoice, thou who art full of grace" (St. Luke 1:28), and to tell her how God the Father has chosen Her to be the Mother of His Son and to give birth to the redeemer of the world. The Archangel brought her the announcement: "Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus" (St. Luke 1-31). At first, the Virgin was troubled and wished to know the manner of this miraculous occurrence: "and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be" (St. Luke 1:34). But when it was told to her that this would happen in a completely supernatural way, namely through the power of the omnipotent grace of the Holy Spirit, She bowed in her heart and accepted the command with deep humility: "be it unto me according to thy word" (St. Luke 1:38). At that moment, the Holy Spirit descended upon Her, and divinely prepared the habitation that would contain God. The Divine Logos/Word became flesh in Her pure womb, and signed Her with the power of the Most High, "strengthen Her," as Saint Athanasius the Great teaches (in his homily on the Annunciation), "So that marked from that time, She could contemplate, as much as that is possible, the unseen God Whom She bore in Her womb, and nurture the Infant conceived there." This is that new miracle that was made manifest under the sun: A Virgin and Mother, but the Mother of God; this is the subject of the present feast...

"...Could the mind conceive of a more exalted splendor? Now transfer your gaze from such a height to the world below, to all other rational creatures, as far from Her as the earth is from heaven, and look at how small and insignificant is all the grace and glory of the Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs compared to the grace and glory of the Mother of God. What does King Solomon say? That there is nothing new under the sun? But here is a new miracle--the Virgin and Mother. This is a new miracle, the likes of which there never was. A Virgin--the Mother of God--a miracle, which is for a Mother a most exalted honor.

This is a miracle of miracles, and one that no other faith can boast--only the Christian Faith, in which this mystery is the beginning and end of mysteries. For the Bride of God and Sovereign Queen, Who received the grace to be both Virgin and Mother, and the honor to be the Mother of God, it is perfectly natural to be also the Mother of Christians. At the right hand of Divine splendor sits the Queen of Heaven and earth, as the Prophet saw Her: "At Thy right hand stood the queen arrayed in a vesture of interwoven gold, adorned in varied colors" (Psalm 44:8). She is the Mother of God, Who is Her Son according to natural birth, and She is the Mother of Christians, who are likewise Her children by adoption. She intercedes before God for Christians; she intercedes before her son for their children. Thus, She prays to God with such boldness as is characteristic of a Mother in relation to Her Son, and she prays for Christians with such love as is fitting for Her own children. But the boldness and love of such a mother is boundless: Is there anything She could ever ask and not receive from such a Son? Is there anything we could ask and not receive from such a Mother? Orphans, strangers, captives, the sick, the humiliated, the sinful--do not be sad, for you have a mother, the Mother of God!

What Alexander the Great said to Antipater about his mother, Olympiada--that "One maternal tear cleanses from much slander," we can also rightly say of the grace-filled Mary, Our Mother and Mother of God. Our sins are numerous before God, and God's anger with us is great; but one tear, one word, one intercession of the Mother of God cleanses our sins and averts God's wrath.

We have such faith in Thee, we have such hope in Thee, All-Holy Virgin. We confess Thee to be both Virgin and Mother; we preach Thee as the Mother of God, and we accept Thee as the Mother of Christians, the source and intercessor of our salvation.

O, Mother of God and Mother of Christians! Intercede with Thy Son and God for us, Thy children, and vouchsafe us the grace and Kingdom of Thy Son. Amen. (Source: Holy Hierarch Ilya (Minyati). Translation by Nun Cornelia (Rees)

____________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George