In annuntiationem sanctissimae deiparae

On the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. Let us celebrate the feast of royal mysteries today; the whole creation rejoices, gathered together. Heaven guided those hastening to the festival by the hand of its stars; earth, through the shepherds, ran to worship; Isaiah walked with the swift step of prophecy, to point out the virgin to the festival; Jeremiah, declining, yet pointing out the Lord Himself of the festival, saying: This is our God. Zechariah, bearing joy to the festival-goers, ran down, manifesting the command of the Lord’s presence: Rejoice, he said, daughter of Zion; for your king comes to you gentle, mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt. Mary and Joseph placed a precious pearl in the manger as a setting; the Magi, seeing it and amazed at the beauty of its nature, reported him to Herod as a worthy king. When he heard this, and concealed a deadly adoration with deceit, he hastened to see the pearl; but since he was unworthy, he failed to obtain what he desired; and he, as if mocked, considered what to do. Angels of incorporeal natures, dancing in the festival, said: Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth. O the strange and paradoxical wonder! The subject of the feast surpasses every tongue in speaking the praises of Mary, to whom the angel, sent, cried out: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. And she, rising up, looked askance at the speaker with a sidelong glance; and while she was astonished at the sight of his appearance, she weighed his words in her own mind, saying: What kind of greeting is this?

O stranger, you speak a strange word with a strange voice. Either you are ignorant of the custom of those who greet, or you are testing me, to see if I am easily caught. For "Hail" is common to all who greet; but "Full of Grace" is strange, especially for those who profess piety in the seriousness of their life. Therefore, with a stern face and an angry look, she threatened and drove away the speaker: "Go away, go away, man, from my porch; you have come with your opening words; you do not please me, thinking as you do. You wish to lead me astray, as you did Eve, the mother of our race; you will not conquer the beauty of my face, nor the conscience I have toward my poor betrothed. Before the old man comes, flee from my house; leave what is here, lest the old man blame you; for he is jealous. It is better for you to withdraw; for if he sees you speaking, and promising me such things as are beyond human nature, you will bring distress upon yourself, and grief and tears to me." But he, "Hail, Full of Grace," spoke unceasingly. When the virgin saw the persistence of the one present, she opened her ear more widely, wishing to learn more precisely the earnestness of the speaker, and having heard "Hail, Full of Grace," she then waited for what followed. And he added, "The Lord is with you." As soon as the virgin heard "The Lord is with you," she called the speaker quickly within. "You have brought the Lord with you," she said, "come inside, and quickly tell me the reason for which you have come." And the angel said, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel.

He will be great, a mighty God, a ruler of peace, a sovereign, Father of the coming age. And the virgin: Not yet the marriage, not yet the bridal chamber; and already the birth? You have nothing to do. If you need something as a stranger, take it and go, and do not untimely prophesy what you do not know. Yet even if I should conceive a son, it will certainly be from Joseph. And the angel: Do not be deceived. He will be great. And the virgin: What great? My betrothed is poor, and I am very poor; I have no possessions, we lack money, we are not of noble birth, and after this we are dragged to the census. Certainly the tax collector will exact the two drachmas; and you say, He will be great? Cease, cease promising such things. And the angel: Do you not believe the lesser? The greater, even if you do not wish it, accept: He will be called Son of the Most High. And the virgin: Leave my house now, lest Joseph hear and report to the priests, and the one deprived of marriage cut off your neck with an axe, since you speak to me closely and at the threshold of my cell. Do you promise to bring me a bridegroom from heaven? And what nature in heaven is desirous of marriage? All the heavenly spirits are incorporeal; how then will the incorporeal mingle with bodies? And the angel: From body and incorporeal he will be called Son of the Most High. And the virgin: From where then will he have a father, as you say, who is about to be born from me? And the angel: This is, virgin, the very paradoxical thing, that you will not know a man, and you will bear the one I tell you of, and the child will not be found an orphan.

And from your womb he will come forth, and he will not press against the gate, and you will not lose your virginity, and you will nurse the one born from you, and you will carry the infant in your arms, and you will see him seated upon the Cherubim. To this one born from you, the Lord God will give the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom. And the virgin: How unwilling you are; in speaking you have fallen. Your own mouth accuses you, and your lips have become your reproach; for a short while ago you said, The one born will be called Son of the Most High; and now you say, Son of David; what is this word? When you wish, you raise my mind to the heavens; but when you wish again, you bring it down to earth. Which word shall I believe? The first or the second? For you say, The Lord will give him the throne of David his father, and there will be no end to his kingdom. No king has been immortal, no one has escaped the common end; death removes all, as a master; worms audit all; no king has escaped the gate of Hades; it holds all, guards all in tombs; no one has leaped over its nets, no one has escaped its snares; not Saul, who first inaugurated the diadem of kingship; not David, who was revealed by the horn; not Samuel, the father of kings, who by oil recognized the worthy and rejected the unworthy; not Solomon the wisest, who by a sword exposed the lies of the harlot; not Hezekiah, who overturned death's decree with tears.

And how will my son reign for all eternity? And the angel: This, Mary, is the strange mystery, that all have died, and your son will conquer death, will raise the dead, and will resurrect the departed, will open tombs, will shatter the bars of Tartarus, and will raise many bodies of those who have fallen asleep; for from the immortal one, the immortal one born will put death to death through his own death. Therefore, do not disbelieve any longer, lest you fall under accusation. For he of whom I speak to you has already leaped into your womb through your ear, celebrating the consecration of your belly. And the virgin: That I may agree to these things, first inform me fully: how is he both Son of the Most High and son of David, the one who is to be born from me, as you say, and who is fatherless; and how have you proclaimed two fathers? And the angel: First learn, and then contradict; when I say to you, Son of the Most High, I have indicated the one born impassibly from the Father before the ages; and when I say to you, Son of David, I have spoken because you are from the line of David. Having received this full assurance, guard my words; for I am a servant of that one whom you are about to bear. Having said these things to the virgin, the angel left her. And she reasoned with herself, saying: Shall I announce it to Joseph, or

Should I rather conceal the mystery? If the one who came has lied for now, I provoke the old man's tongue against myself. And as the virgin pondered these things, her womb swelled and grew, and the infant within danced. Mary considered this, and placing countless veils over her belly, she wished to escape Joseph's notice; but she could not hide a city lying atop a mountain. The sight of her belly pricked Joseph, and with a sidelong glance he weighed the virgin's belly. He wanted to reproach her, yet was forced to be silent; he wanted to reproach her, as one who had sold the treasures of her virginity; and his former life prevented him. So he tormented his own soul with afflictions: "Alas," he said, "what shall I do? The face of a virgin, the bearing of a virgin, the eyes of a virgin, the laughter of a virgin; and the belly not of a virgin, but of a mother; the speech of a virgin. Alas, alas! I can no longer bear to look. Shall I then denounce the matter, shall I accuse Mary? For the shame is common. Shall I cry out with a shout, lest I be called the father of the seedless child?

No one accuses the maiden, since the one she carries has no father who begot him. Perhaps for me both silence and speech are dangerous. What then shall I do? Shall I call her and ask, or shall I show before asking? But the scripture bears witness; I will rather refute. Did he not do it? So, calling her with a stern face, he sat as judge of the judge in the womb. "Tell me," he says, "with precision what has happened to you; do not hide from me what has befallen you; no one present is a hearer of these words; I know how to keep secrets; no one learns of the matter, only inform me. Whence is this thing that is seen in you? Show me the father of this child, and I free you from the fault; for you will be deemed worthy of pardon, as a woman overcome by desire." And the virgin answered him: "If you seek a father for this child, you will never find one; but if you think him an orphan, you have also failed in that." And Joseph said: "You have been able to speak no falsehood, Mary; for how can he be both not an orphan and have no father?" And the virgin said: "But if you ask who, Joseph (for you are ignorant), if I tell you the truth, I am not believed. You see a womb, and you do not see the hidden Lord; you observe a belly, and you do not reckon the one born from a belly before the morning star from the Father, and dwelling in me.

If I tell you what the angel told me, you will say that you bear witness for yourself, and your witness is not true. And Joseph said, "Bring those who have heard, produce those who were present, bring truthful witnesses." And the virgin said, "If you seek these things, you will never find them; for one was sent through one to one, and spoke alone in private; no one was present, since no one was to be the father of the one being born." But as the virgin was disbelieved, Mary, having suspected something else, then came to another reasoning, saying, "My belly betrays me, my child accuses me, rejoicing in the womb; why then do I further provoke Joseph against myself? I will stifle my lips with silence, and I will plead invisibly with the angel: Where are you now, you who uttered, 'Hail, graced one'? In what places do you dwell? Speak, so that I may go there and hang upon your neck, until you come and fully inform Joseph whose son it is that frolics in the chamber of my womb. I cannot bear the old man's suspicion and grumbling; and I do not know in what place you tarry; come, and plead my case." As Mary said these things, the angel quickly came to Joseph, and having fully informed him, prevented him from casting out the virgin, saying to Joseph, "Do not fear to take Mary as your wife; I speak not of a marriage union, but of an economy of divine mysteries. But are you not a father? Seek no father on earth, nor a mother in the heavens. Nature is freed from all orphanhood; for he alone exists from the alone, alone, before the ages. Now he alone is from the alone, as he alone knows. Do not be faint-hearted at

Mary, do not grieve the one from Mary; do not inquire how, lest the infant harm you; do not examine the case, lest you lose the deposit. The vessel is undefiled, the treasure is spotless, the alabaster is unclouded, the birth is without seed, the maiden is unwedded, the virgin is unbedded, the rock is uncut, the garden is closed, the spring is sealed, the land is unsown, the vine is unplanted, the birth is inconceivable. But if you disbelieve me who speaks, await the time of pregnancy. And if Mary weeps or groans, as other women do, then the one born from Mary is a man, and not God. And Joseph said, "If these things are so, as you have said, O archangel, why did nations rage, and peoples devise vain things?" And the angel said, "If you wish to learn, be taught quickly: because the Lord said to the one being born, 'You are my Son, I have begotten you today'; for glory befits him for the ages of ages. Amen.