Sermons to the People 291.1–291.6

What day we are celebrating today there is no need for me to tell you, since you all heard when the Gospel was read. Today we have received holy John, the Lord’s forerunner, the son of a barren woman announcing the son of a virgin, yet the servant announcing the Lord. For because God made man was to come through a virgin, a wonderful man from a barren woman went before him; so that, when the wonderful man says he is unworthy to loosen the strap of his sandal, God made man may be recognized. Admire John as much as you can: what you admire profits Christ. It profits Christ, I say, not because you give anything to Christ, but so that you may advance in Christ. Admire John, then, as much as you can. You have heard what to admire. He is announced by an angel to his father, a priest; the angel takes away the voice of the father who does not believe; he remains mute, waiting for his tongue at his son’s birth. A barren woman conceived, an old woman conceived: a double infertility, barrenness and age. The angel says what he will be; what is said is fulfilled in him; and what is most to be wondered at, he is filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. Then, when holy Mary comes, he exults in the womb; and whom he could not greet with words, he greets with movements. He is born; he gives his father his voice; the father, speaking, gives his son his name: all marvel at so great a grace. For what else but grace? For how had John deserved God? How did he deserve God before he existed to deserve? O grace freely given!

All marvel, they are astonished, and in the stirring of their hearts they say, so that it might be written for us to be read: “What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.” What, do you think, will this child be? He goes beyond the limits of human nature. We know children; but what, do you think, will this child be? Why do you say, “What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him”? That the hand of the Lord is with him we already know; but what he will be, we do not know. Surely he will be very great, who began so great. What will he be who, so little, is so great? What will he be? Human weakness grows dull; the hearts of all who consider it tremble: “What, do you think, will this child be?” He will be great: but what will he be who will be greater than he? This one will be very great: but what will he be who will be greater than this great one? If he who has only now begun to be will be so great, what will he be who was? But why did I say, “who was”? Before John Zechariah also was; much more before John were Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Before John certainly heaven and earth were. What will he be who was in the beginning? For in the beginning, which is before John and before every man, “God made heaven and earth.” But do you ask through what he made them? In the beginning God did not make the Word, but the Word was: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was”—not just any word, but “the Word was God. All things were made through him.” And in the last time he who was, was made, so that what he had made might not perish. “What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him.” If the child will be so great because the hand of the Lord is with him, what is the hand of the Lord itself? For Christ is the hand of the Lord: the Son of God is the hand of God; the Word of God is the hand of God. For what is the hand of God, if not that through which all things were made? “What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him.” O human weakness, what will you do before the judge, you who hesitate so before the herald? But even here, what did I say? I return to considering human usage. And what did I say? I said herald, I said judge; and the herald is a man, and the judge a man. I said what was visible; what was hidden, who could say? “The Word became flesh”; yet the Word was not turned into flesh. The Word became flesh by taking what he was not, not by losing what he was. See, we have admired the birth of his herald, which we celebrate today; but let us see him for whose sake it took place.

The angel Gabriel came to Zechariah, not to Elizabeth his wife, John’s mother: the angel Gabriel came, I say, to Zechariah, not to Elizabeth. Why? Because John was to come into being in Elizabeth through Zechariah. So the angel announcing that John would come by birth did not come to the receptacle of the womb but to the source of the seed. He announced the future son of both, but he announced it to the father. For John was to come from the union of a man and a woman. See, again the same Gabriel comes to Mary, not to Joseph: the angel came to her from whom that flesh was to begin, from whom it was to have its beginning. But how did the angel foretell the future son to the father, the priest Zechariah? “Do not be afraid, Zechariah,” he said; “your prayer has been heard.” What, my brothers? Had that priest entered the Holy of Holies to pray to the Lord for children? Far from it! Someone says, “How do you prove this? For Zechariah did not tell what he asked.” There is one thing I say briefly: if he had asked for a son, he would have believed it when it was announced. The angel says that a son would be born to him: does he not believe it? Surely he had asked for this? Who asks without hope? Or who does not believe in hope? If you do not hope, why do you ask? If you hope, why do you not believe? What then? “Your prayer,” he says, “has been heard: for behold, Elizabeth will conceive and bear you a son.” Why? Because your prayer has been heard. If Zechariah were to say, “Why? Did I ask for this?”—surely the angel was neither deceived nor deceiving when he said, “Your prayer has been heard: for behold, your wife will give birth.” But why was this said? Because he was offering sacrifice for the people: the priest was sacrificing for the people, the people were awaiting the Christ; John was to announce the Christ.

But the same angel says to the virgin Mary: “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you”: he who will be in you is already with you. “Blessed are you among women.” Holy Scripture bears witness that by an idiom of the Hebrew language all females are usually called “women” (mulieres), so that those who are not used to hearing the Scriptures may not be surprised or scandalized. The Lord says openly in a certain place of the Scriptures, “Set apart the women who have not known a man.” Finally, recall our very origin: when Eve was made from the man’s side, what does Scripture say? “He took a rib from him and built it into a woman.” She is already called a woman, though only just drawn from the man, not yet joined to the man. So when you hear the angel say, “Blessed are you among women,” take it as if it were said in our usage, “Blessed are you among females.”

A son is promised to Zechariah, a son is also promised to holy Mary, and she too says almost the same words that Zechariah had said. For what had Zechariah said? “From where shall I know this? For I am old, and my wife is barren and advanced in her days.” And what did holy Mary say? “How will this be?” A similar voice, a dissimilar heart. Let us hear the similar voice with the ear, but recognize the dissimilar heart as the angel declared it. David sinned, and, rebuked by the prophet, said, “I have sinned”; at once it was said to him, “Your sin has been forgiven.” Saul sinned, and, rebuked by the prophet, said, “I have sinned”; his sin was not forgiven him, but the wrath of God remained upon him. What is this, if not that the voice was similar and the heart dissimilar? For man hears the voice; God inspects the heart. So in those words of Zechariah the angel saw that there was not faith but doubt and despair; the angel showed it by taking away his voice and condemning his unbelief. But holy Mary: “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” Recognize the virgin’s resolve. When would she say, if she was going to lie with a man, “How will this be?” For if it were to happen in the way it usually happens for all infants, she would not say, “How will it be?” But she, mindful of her resolve and conscious of her holy vow, because she knew what she had vowed, saying, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?”—since she did not know that it could happen that children are born except to those who are married and lie with their husbands, which she had resolved not to know—by saying, “How will this be?” asked about the manner; she did not doubt the omnipotence of God. “How will this be?” What is the manner by which this will be? Announce a son to me: you have my mind ready; tell me the manner. For the holy virgin could fear, or at least not know, God’s plan, how he wished her to have a son, as if he disapproved of the virgin’s vow. What if he were to say, “Marry, be joined to a husband”? God would not say it; for he accepted the virgin’s vow, as God. And he received from her what he himself had given. Tell me, then, messenger of God, how will this be? See the angel knowing, her asking, not distrusting. Because he saw her asking and not distrusting, he did not refuse to instruct her. Hear how: your virginity will remain; only believe the truth, keep your virginity, receive integrity. Because your faith is whole, your integrity too will be untouched. Finally, hear how this will be: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Such a shade knows no heat of lust. Therefore, because the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; because you conceive by faith, because you will have in the womb by believing, not by lying with a man: “therefore the holy one that will be born of you will be called the Son of God.”

What are you, who are later to give birth? How did you deserve it? From where did you receive this? From where will he who made you be made in you? From where, I say, comes this great good to you? You are a virgin, you are holy, you have made a vow; but great is what you have deserved—or rather, great is what you have received. For how did you deserve this? He who made you is made in you; he through whom you were made is made in you; or rather, he through whom heaven and earth were made, through whom all things were made: the Word of God becomes flesh in you, by taking flesh, not by losing divinity. And the Word is joined to flesh, the Word is coupled to flesh; and the bridal chamber of so great a marriage is your womb—of so great a marriage, I say, that is, of the Word and the flesh, the bridal chamber is your womb: from where the bridegroom himself comes forth from his chamber. Conceived, he finds you a virgin; born, he leaves you a virgin. He gives fruitfulness; he does not take away integrity. From where do you have this? I seem to question a virgin impudently, and as it were to strike modest ears unseasonably with this voice of mine. But I see the virgin blushing, and yet answering and admonishing me: You ask me from where I have this? I am ashamed to tell you my own good; hear the greeting of the angel himself, and recognize in me your salvation. Believe the one I believed. You ask from where I have this? Let the angel answer. Tell me, angel, from where does Mary have this? I have already said it, when I greeted her: “Hail, full of grace.”