Homily on the Annunciation of Our Most Holy Maiden God-bearer and Ever-Virgin Mary #
The Annunciation is a joyful feast, for in it is proclaimed the coming into the world of the Saviour, who brought tidings of reconciliation between man and God. He opened the radiant gates of paradise, which had been shut to the human race because of the transgression of God’s commandments, and He declared the endless bliss of paradise, which our forefather Adam had lost.
God, the all-wise Creator of all, made the bodiless ranks of Angels and Archangels, created the heavens and kindled in them the bright stars, established the earth, adorned it most excellently, and finally, taking dust from the ground, made man in His own image and likeness. God breathed into him a soul and placed him in paradise, that he might reign as king and have dominion over all creation. The Lord clothed our first parents, Adam and his wife Eve—whom He had made as a helper for the man—with glory, adorned them with many gifts, and subjected all things beneath their feet: “All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas” (Psalm 8).
But not long after, man fell into dark and ruinous deprivation, hearkening to the soul-destroying deceit of the devil, who beguiled Eve with the words, “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Adam and Eve possessed every good thing in paradise; they were immortal. Yet, desiring to know and to have even more, they fell into such a sinful state that “man being in honour understood not: he is compared to the beasts that perish” (Psalm 48:13).
But the Creator did not abandon His creation—man, who by the devil’s deception had fallen from blessedness into misery, from immortality into death, from the blooming beauty of paradise into thorns and thistles of the earth. God sent His Son into the world, that by taking on human nature from a Virgin, He might raise man again to his former state and restore him to his original honor: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).
“In the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God… to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26–27). The name Mary, translated, means “lady,” and it proclaimed the dignity of the Virgin and reflected the pattern of her life—purity, and chastity of both soul and body. She was filled with true majesty; she was the sovereign over her own pure soul. When the Archangel appeared to the Virgin, he greeted her with the words: “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”
The Archangel declared to the Virgin Mary that God the Father had chosen her to be the Mother of His Son, to give birth to the Redeemer of the world: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). This message was truly astounding, even fearful to the Virgin’s soul. With trembling and confusion, she desired to understand the manner of this wondrous event. Mary asked the Archangel Gabriel: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34). “How shall I conceive, being a virgin? For I have not known a man; I am untouched by wedlock” (Canon for the Annunciation).
The Archangel answered her with reverent fear: “The manner of Thy conception is incomprehensible. Why fearest thou me, O All-Immaculate one, when thou thyself art more fearsome than I?” (Canon for the Annunciation). The state of the Archangel Gabriel, who brought to the Virgin the message of a seedless conception, is sometimes depicted in icons of the Annunciation, where two images of the Archangel are shown: one facing the Virgin with the message, and another turned away from her, sharing with her the awe and trembling.
And she answered the Archangel with deep humility, entrusting herself to the will of God: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). And immediately the Holy Spirit descended upon her and made the All-Pure One a dwelling place fit to contain God. The Divine Word was made flesh in her pure womb, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, “strengthening her,” as Saint Athanasius the Great writes in his Discourse on the Annunciation, “that, being sealed from that moment forward, she might behold—as far as is possible—the invisible God who dwelt in her womb, and might fashion the Infant conceived within her.”
O how great is the humility of those lips that spoke: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word!” By these words, she as it were declared: “I am not worthy to contain the Almighty, to give birth to my Creator, to be the Mother of my Maker—yet I bow with all humility, and let the Divine Word be inscribed in me.” O depth of humility that lifteth up unto the heavens! Without her humble fiat—her word of assent—the incarnation of the Son of God, and thus our salvation, would not have been possible. Saint Gregory Palamas affirms that the incarnation would have been impossible without the free human consent of the Mother of God, just as it would have been impossible without the Creative will of God. At the Annunciation, the Virgin, with humble mind and heart, entrusted herself entirely to God—and in her dwelt the Lord, “who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (Proverbs 3:34).
If a man is proud, then the grace of the Holy Spirit cannot dwell in him, for “every one that is high-minded is unclean before God” (Proverbs 16:5). This is why the All-Immaculate Virgin, when she heard from the mouth of the Archangel Gabriel that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, responded with all humility: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” And by these meek words, she drew down from heaven to earth the Son of God.
To the modern, unchurched person, pride often prevents any agreement with the idea of being a servant, for he sees in this only humiliation and lack of freedom. But Christians, on the contrary, strive to become worthy servants of God on the path to salvation, entrusting their lives into God’s hands. The God-bearer truly gave herself wholly to God—her life, her will, her destiny—receiving with full trust the message that she would become the Mother of the incarnate Son of God. Concerning her, the righteous Elizabeth exclaimed: “Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45).
In the Mother of God we find an unfathomable, wondrous ability to entrust herself in humility to the very end. And what is more, this ability was not natural to her—that is, it was not given to her by nature. Such faith she acquired through the labor of purity of heart and love for God. The height of her dignity is beyond description. Turning to the Holy Fathers, we find that they marvel in reverent awe at her perfection; even the Angels fall silent when they behold the glory of her who is “more honourable than the Cherubim, more glorious indeed than the Seraphim.”
And the Virgin herself, filled with the Holy Spirit and bearing the Saviour in her womb, explains this wonder with divine words: “He that is mighty hath done to me great things” (Luke 1:49)—and nothing more. Infinite majesty, a wondrous miracle: Virgin and Mother. A miracle that for the Virgin is the highest grace, and for the Mother, the loftiest honor.
Having received the grace and honor of becoming the Mother of God, the God-bearer also became the Mother of all Christians, who became her children by adoption at the Cross of the Saviour. Interceding before God with that boldness proper to a Mother before her Son, she entreats Him for all the orphans, the lonely, the captives, the sick, and the broken-hearted—that He might save them, cleanse them from sins and passions, and make them worthy of the Kingdom of her Son.
Today, the Holy Church, celebrating the Annunciation of the Most Holy God-bearer, proclaims that our salvation has begun, that the Conqueror has come into the world—the One who delivers us from evil. The first promise of this salvation can be seen in the Book of Genesis, where it is written: “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head” (Genesis 3:15). And indeed, she became the Conqueror of death and evil. She is also likened to the New Ark, for she saves from the darkest depths of sin all who call upon her most pure name. The Virgin Mary is compared to the ladder reaching to heaven, seen in a dream by the Patriarch Jacob, by which we are given to ascend to the throne of God.
Let us praise and magnify the Holy Virgin, who has given us the Saviour, who by her purity and humility became the unwedded Bride, the Mother of the Son of God, the Glory and Joy of all who dwell on earth and in heaven, the Adornment of all creation, the Beginning and Source of the heavenly blessings prepared for us, which we receive through her prayers according to our faith and hope.
Let us praise and glorify her today with the words of the troparion of the feast:
Today is the beginning of our salvation, and the manifestation of the eternal mystery: the Son of God becometh the Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel proclaimeth good tidings of grace. Wherefore, we also cry with him to the Theotokos: Rejoice, O thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee!