Everything else communicated by the archangel is calculated to assure the Virgin that Her Son will be the expected Messiah. He will be called the Son of the Most High, will receive from God the throne of David, and will reign over the house of Jacob forever - all this in the consciousness of every Israelite, especially in the consciousness of the spiritually educated Virgin Mary, refers exclusively to the expected Messiah. The Archangel does not tell the Virgin everything about the Lord Jesus Christ, but only what She knows and understands from the Holy Scriptures as a prophecy. He does not speak of the universal and all-human role of Jesus, does not speak of Him as the Saviour of all peoples and tribes, as the Founder of the spiritual Kingdom, the Judge of all the living and the dead, and still less as the Word of God, one of the Three Eternal Hypostases of the Holy Trinity. If he had told Her this, he would have embarrassed Her even more. She is not omniscient, despite Her chastity and purity. And She has much to learn from Her Son, both in time and in eternity, keeping all His words in Her heart (Luke 2:51; John 2:4). The archangel strictly adheres to the framework of Israelite ideas. He brings in an organic connection all that is scattered in the prophetic books and what She knows (Isaiah 9:6-8; 10:16; 11:1; Jeremiah 25:5; 30:9; Ezekiel 34:24; Hos. 3:5; Micah 5:4; Psalm 131:11; Dan 2:44; etc.). The Lord swears to David by the truth, and he will not deny it: "Of the fruit of thy womb I will sit on thy throne" (Psalm 131:11). The Lord sends the word upon Jacob, and it descends upon Israel (Isaiah 9:8).

Having heard this message from heaven, the Virgin Mary, in Her childlike chastity and innocence, asks the wondrous visitor: How will this be, when I know no man? ("She asked the angel well: "How is this possible?" - for She had previously read that the Virgin would conceive, but did not read how She would conceive. These words do not express Her disbelief in the voice of the Archangel, but only Her childlike chastity and innocence. What would any of you say to such an announcement received from the most extraordinary guest of all guests? The first thing that would come to your mind when your heart trembled, wouldn't it? But the Virgin Mary did not say anything superfluous. If Her question, let us suppose, is superfluous for Her, then it is not so for us. For our sake, Her grace-filled spirit asks what all of us, who are under the burden of the laws of nature, would certainly ask. A husband is needed for birth; Where is the husband? That is what each of us would ask, those who are far removed from the freedom that rejoices in the omnipotence of God, who are accustomed to the oppression of natural forces. Therefore, for our sake, it was necessary that the Virgin should ask this question, and we should hear the answer of the messenger of God. What does Gabriel answer?

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; wherefore also the Holy One who is born shall be called the Son of God. Behold, Elizabeth, thy kinswoman, who is called barren, and she conceived a son in her old age, and she is now six months old, for with God no word shall be powerless. A complete and completely exhaustive answer. Where God wills, the order of nature is overcome. Nature and its laws do not seem to exist when the living God does His will and His economy for human salvation. "Grace does not obey the law of nature," says St. Gregory of Neocaesarea (I homily on the Annunciation). The Spirit gives life (John 6:63), - testified the Renewer of all creation, the Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit gives life indirectly or directly. The Spirit of God directly gave life in Paradise, before the Fall. And God spoke, and it was so! After the Fall, the Spirit gives life indirectly, through created souls and created bodies. But the Spirit of God has a reserved right and unlimited power to give life both directly, according to His own will and in accordance with God's economy of human salvation. Nevertheless, even by giving life indirectly, the Spirit is the initiator and master of life. Nature, as it is, is only a shadow, a veil through which the Spirit acts. However, even in cases of indirect influence of the Spirit, there are different degrees, more direct and more indirect influence. This happens with fertile and infertile women. Indirect, but less indirect, is the case of the aged Elizabeth, as well as of the mothers of Isaac, Samson, and Samuel. For the conception of aged wives cannot be called the direct action of the Spirit, since all fertile and barren women, beginning with Eve, are partakers of sin, bound to this world by lusts and lusts, to a greater or lesser extent. The only conception under the direct inspiration or influence of the Spirit of Life is the conception of the Most-Pure Virgin Mary. In the entire history of the created world from Adam to Christ, there was no such case. There is only one such case in time and only one in eternity. Both of them refer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

For with God no word will remain powerless. This means that every word of God is always fulfilled in its fullness. Through the divinely inspired prophet Isaiah, God said: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son" (Isaiah 7:14). And this is coming true. Since the creation of the world, God has only to say once. And God spoke, and it was so! The word of the Lord, the word is pure, the silver is kindled, the earth is tempted, it is cleansed by the week (Psalm 11:7).

The Virgin Mary did not doubt the words of the Lord, announced to Her by the Archangel. For if She had doubted, as the priest Zechariah doubted, then She too would have been punished, just as Zechariah was punished. And although the questions that both Zacharias and Mary put to the angel are quite similar, nevertheless, their hearts are completely different. And God looks at the heart of man. Two very different hearts can say similar words.

Having listened to the explanation of the messenger of God, the humblest of the humble virgins concludes Her conversation with the archangel with the touching words: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to Me according to thy word. She did not say: "Behold, thy servant, archangel"; but he says: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, for he knows that the archangel is only the herald of the will of God, and that he, too, although majestic and immortal, is only a servant of the living God. And on the other hand, She did not say: "May it be done to me according to the word of the Lord," but: "May it be done to Me according to your word," so that She may honor the immortal Archangel of all the immortal host. Meanwhile, both thoughts express the greatest readiness for obedience and the most complete humility. Such a wise answer could only be given by a heart full of purity, because true wisdom is most readily poured into such a heart. In the hour of her temptation in Paradise, Eve instantly forgot such a language. For in the hour of her temptation she inclined her ears to the words of Satan, and her heart was defiled in the twinkling of an eye, and because of impurity wisdom was withdrawn from it. From pride and disobedience, Eve's heart was defiled and her mind was darkened; from pride and disobedience to God, the Old World perished, the human race was disfigured, and all creation was destitute. A new world will be built on humility and obedience. Indescribable is the humility and obedience of the Most Holy Mother of God, Her only Son, the Savior and Renovator of all creation, will surpass Her in His immeasurable humility and obedience.

Finally, the winged herald of the primacy of our salvation flew up to the heavenly world, to his immortal brethren. And his annunciation was not only a word, but also, like every word of God, a deed. And God spoke, and it was so. Never did any messenger bring more joyful news to a land cursed for its alienation from God and for its union with the gloomy Satan than the radiant and wondrous Archangel Gabriel. Whose lips will not praise him, whose heart will not thank him!

Never has any spring water been such a pure mirror of the sun as the Blessed Virgin Mary was the mirror of purity. ("O purity, joy that creates the heart and transforms the soul into heaven! O purity, good acquisition, not defiled by beasts! O purity, which abides in the souls of the meek and humble, and creates these men of God! O purity, in the midst of soul and body, like a flourishing flower, and filling the whole temple with incense!" Ephraim the Syrian. About cleanliness.) And the morning dawn, which gives birth to the sun, would be ashamed before the purity of the Virgin Mary, who gave birth to the Immortal Sun, Christ our Saviour. Who will not bow the knee before Her, whose lips will not cry out: "Rejoice, O Thou of Grace! Rejoice, Dawn of human salvation! Rejoice, O thou more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious than the seraphim! Glory to Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, One-in-Essence and Indivisible, now and ever, unto all times and unto the ages of ages. Amen."

The Nativity of Christ (I). The Gospel of the Firstborn

Matt. 2 rec., 1:18-25.

Whoever approaches the Lord Jesus Christ with obedience and humility will never again wish to be separated from Him.

The initial exercises of the recruits of the army of Christ are exercises in obedience and humility.