As long as Adam was rich in obedience and humility, he could hardly distinguish between his own spirit and the Spirit of God, between his own will and the will of God, between his thoughts and the thoughts of God. He could neither feel, nor will, nor think anything that was not in God and from God. Like the angels of God, so Adam stood in the immediate vicinity of God and from the immediate vicinity contemplated the Primordial source of light, wisdom and love. Living within the sun itself, he had no need to light any of his own candles. His candle inside the sun would not burn and shine.

But when Adam broke his obedience and lost his humility – and they are always lost or gained at the same time – then his direct communion with God was interrupted, the bridge was destroyed, and he fell into a terrible darkness and rotten dampness, in which he was forced to shine with his candle, nevertheless given to him by the mercy of God, when God's righteousness expelled him from Paradise. Then he not only began to feel the difference between himself and God, between his own will and the will of God, his feelings and God's feelings, his thoughts and God's thoughts, not only did he begin to feel and realize this difference, but he could scarcely, in the rare hours of enlightenment, notice his God-likeness.

Alas, into such an abyss was thrown by his disobedience and pride the one who was originally created in the image and likeness of the Holy and Divine Trinity Himself! ("In the blameless man the image of God was the source of blessedness, in the fallen man it is (only) the hope of blessedness." Alas, we are all descendants of Adam, all are low shoots from the stump of a felled cedar, which once majestically towered and ascended above all God's creatures in Paradise, low sprouts, drowned out by the tall she-wolves of coarse nature, descending like a veil between us and the Ancestral Source of immortal love.

Just look at how, as if by magic, the disobedience and pride of the progenitor of mankind immediately change the entire creation around him and he is surrounded by a whole army of disobedient and proud people!

As long as Adam was obedient to his Creator and humble before Him, all those around him breathed obedience and humility. But what an instant change of scenery! At the moment of Adam's fall, Adam is surrounded only by the disobedient. Here is the naughty Eva next to him. Here is the main bearer of disobedience and pride - the spirit of disobedience, Satan. That's all nature, naughty, rebellious and insane. Fruits, which until then melted in the mouth of man with sweetness, begin to torment him with bitterness. The grass that has spread like silk under his feet begins to scratch him with thorns. The flowers, which rejoiced when their king inhaled their fragrance, begin to clothe themselves in the armor of thorns in order to push him away from them. The beasts that caressed him like lambs begin to pounce on him with sharp fangs and eyes burning with anger. Everything occupies a rebellious and threatening position in relation to Adam. Thus the richest of all created nature felt himself the poorest. Previously clothed with the glory of Archangel, now he felt humiliated, lonely and naked; so naked that he was forced to borrow from nature clothes for his nakedness, both physical and spiritual. For his body he began to borrow the skin from animals and leaves from trees, and for his spirit he began to borrow from all things - from things! - knowledge and skills. He who had formerly drunk from the full-flowing fountain of life now had to follow the cattle, bend down in the mud, and drink from the tracks of the beasts, both physically and spiritually thirsty.

Look now at our Lord Jesus Christ and His entourage. All of them are obedience and humility itself! Archangel Gabriel, representative of angelic obedience and humility; The Virgin Mary - obedience and humility; Joseph - obedience and humility; shepherds - obedience and humility; the Magi of the East - obedience and humility; the stars of heaven - obedience and humility. Obedient storms, obedient winds, obedient earth and sun, obedient people, obedient cattle, and the grave itself is obedient. Everything is obedient to the Son of God, the New Adam, and everything humbles itself before Him, for He too is infinitely obedient to His Father and humble before Him.

It is known that along with many earthly crops that man plants and cultivates, some other herbs and plants that have not been sown or cultivated grow willingly. So it is with the virtues: if you diligently sow and cultivate obedience and humility in your soul, you will see that soon a whole bunch of other virtues will grow next to them. One of the first is simplicity, internal and external. The obedient and humble Virgin Mary is at the same time adorned with chaste simplicity. In the same way, the righteous Joseph, and the Apostles and the Evangelists. Just look at the unparalleled simplicity with which the Evangelists describe the greatest events in the history of human salvation, in the history of the universe! Can you imagine how extensively and theatrically a worldly writer would describe, for example, the resurrection of Lazarus, if he happened to become an eyewitness to this event? Or what grandiose and pompous drama would he have written about all that was going on in the soul of Joseph, an obedient, humble, and simple man, at the moment when he learned that his ward and betrothed was pregnant? And the Evangelist in today's Gospel reading describes all this in just a few simple sentences:

The birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: after the betrothal of His mother Mary to Joseph, before they were united, it turned out that She was with child of the Holy Spirit. Prior to this, the Evangelist described the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, or, more precisely, the genealogy of the righteous Joseph from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of David. In this genealogy, the Evangelist enumerated people born of men, in the natural way and manner in which all mortal men in the world are born. Suddenly he begins to describe the Nativity of the Lord and says: ου ε ου ου ε ου ..., as if he wants to show by this ε (and, however, however) the extraordinary and supernatural nature of His Birth, which is completely separated from the image of the birth of all the enumerated ancestors of Joseph. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph. In the eyes of the people, this betrothal could be considered a kind of preface to married life; but in the eyes of Mary and Joseph it could not be considered as such. Praying to God with tears, the Virgin Mary, according to the promise of her parents, was forever dedicated to God. For Her part, She voluntarily accepted this promise of Her parents, which is also shown by Her many years of service in the Temple of Jerusalem. If it had depended on Her will, she would undoubtedly have remained in the temple until her death, like Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel (Luke 2:36-37), but the law prescribed otherwise, and something else had to be fulfilled. She was betrothed to Joseph, not in order to live in marriage, but precisely in order to avoid marriage. All the details of this betrothal and its meaning are contained in the Tradition of the Church. And if people valued the Tradition associated with the Mother of God, with the righteous Joseph and with all the personalities mentioned in the Gospel, as much as they value the traditions, often the most stupid, associated with worldly kings, generals and sages, the meaning of the betrothal of the Most Holy Virgin to Joseph would be clear to everyone. (St. Ignatius says that the Virgin was betrothed, "so that His Nativity might be hidden from the devil, and so that the devil would therefore think of Him as being born of a lawful woman, and not of a virgin." II homily on the Annunciation).

Before they were united, these words do not mean that they were then united as husband and wife, the Evangelist does not even think about it. In this case, the Evangelist is interested in the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ itself, and nothing else, and he writes the words quoted above to show that His Birth took place without the union of husband and wife. Therefore, understand the words of the Evangelist exactly as if he had written: "And without combining them, it turned out that She was with child of the Holy Spirit." Only from the Holy Spirit could He be conceived, Who was to restore the Kingdom of the Spirit of light and love in the midst of the kingdom of the spirit of darkness and malice. How could He fulfill His Divine mission in the world if He had come into the world through earthly channels, closed by sin and stinking mortal rottenness? In this case, the new wine would smell of old skins, and He Who came to save the world would be in need of salvation Himself. - Only by a miracle could the world be saved, by a miracle of God; the entire human race on earth believed in this. And when a miracle of God has occurred, one should not doubt it, but one should bow down before it and find for oneself in this miracle a cure and salvation. What does Joseph do when he learns that the Virgin Mary is with child?

But Joseph, her husband, being righteous and not wishing to make her public, wanted to secretly let her go. He acts in this way in obedience to the law of God. He is obedient to the will of God in the form and to the extent that the will of God has been declared to the people of Israel up to that time. He also acts in humility before God. Do not be too strict, warns the wise Solomon (Ecclesiastes 7:16). That is: do not be too strict with those who have sinned, but remember your weaknesses and your sins, and try to dissolve severity in relation to sinners with mercy. Nurtured by this spirit, Joseph did not even think of putting the Virgin Mary on trial for the suspected sin: and not wishing to make Her public, he wanted to secretly release Her. Such a plan shows us Joseph as an exemplary man, exemplary in severity and mercy, such as the spirit of the Old Testament law could have brought up. Everything is simple and clear with him, as it could be in the heart of a man who fears God.

But as soon as Joseph came up with a convenient way out of an uncomfortable situation, suddenly Heaven intervened in his plans, giving an unexpected command:

But when he had thought this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said, "Joseph, son of David! do not be afraid to receive Mary your wife, for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit. The Angel of God, who had previously announced to the Most-Pure Virgin the coming of the God-Man into the world, is now coming to prepare the way for Him and to make His paths straight. Joseph's doubt is one of the obstacles in His path, and a very strong and dangerous obstacle at that. This obstacle should be removed. In order to show how easy it is for the powers of heaven to do what is very difficult for people, the angel appears to Joseph not in reality, but in a dream. By calling Joseph the son of David, the angel wants to both honor and enlighten him. As a descendant of King David, you should rejoice in this divine mystery more than other people, but you should also understand it better than others. But how then does the angel call the Virgin his wife: do not be afraid to accept Mary your wife? Just as the Lord said to His Mother from the cross: Woman! Behold, thy son, and then to his disciple, Behold, thy mother (John 19:26-27)! Truly, heaven is thrifty in words and does not say anything superfluous. If this were not to be said, would the angel have said it? Although this designation of Mary as Joseph's wife is a stumbling block for some unbelievers, it is a protection of purity from evil forces. For the word of God is heard not only by people, but by all the worlds, both good and evil. Whoever wishes to penetrate into all the mysteries of God would have to have God's sight for all creation, visible and invisible.

That which is born in Her is of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of God, and not of man. Do not look at nature and do not be afraid of the law. Here acts the Greater of nature and the Stronger of the law, without which neither nature would have life, nor the law of power.

From what the angel reported to Joseph, it is clear that the Virgin Mary did not tell the latter anything about the previous appearance of the great archangel to Her; it is also clear that now, when Joseph intended to let Her go, She did not justify Her in the least. The message of the archangel, like all the heavenly mysteries, which were gradually revealed to Her, She preserved..., composing in Her heart (Luke 2:19; 2:51). In Her faith in God and obedience to God, She was not afraid of any humiliation before people. "If my torments are pleasing to God, why should I not endure them?" – said later some of the martyrs of Christ. Living in unceasing prayer and contemplation of God, the Most-Pure One could also say: "If My humiliation is pleasing to God, why should I not endure it? If only I were right before the Lord, who knows hearts, and let people do with Me what they will." She also knew that the whole world could not do anything to Her that God would not allow. What good-natured humility before the living Lord and what a premeditated devotion to His will! And besides, what heroism of spirit the gentle Virgin has! The Lord is the dominion of those who fear Him, and His covenant will shew them (Psalm 24:14). If sinners now, as in all times, seek for themselves even false witnesses, the Virgin Mary, having as a witness not a man, but the Most High God, does not justify herself, does not resent herself, but is silent - silent and waiting, that God Himself may justify her in due time. And God soon hastened to justify His Chosen One. The same angel who had revealed to Her the great mystery of Her Conception now hastened to speak in the place of the silent Virgin. So, having explained to Joseph what has already happened, the angel of God now goes on and explains to him what is about to happen: