The feast of the Annunciation
of the Virgin Mary is a feast of the Lord and of the Theotokos.
It is a feast of the Lord because Christ who was conceived in
the womb of the Theotokos. It is a feast of the Theotokos
because it refers to the person who aided in the conception and
Incarnation of the Word of God, that is, the All Holy Virgin
Mary.
Mary the Theotokos has great
value and an important position in the Church, precisely because
she was the person whom all generations awaited, and she gave
human nature to the Word of God. Thus the person of the
Theotokos is associated closely with the Person of Christ.
Furthermore, the value of the Virgin Mary is not only due to her
virtues, but also mainly to the fruit of her womb. For this
reason, Theotokology is very closely associated
with Christology. When we speak of Christ we cannot ignore her
who gave Him flesh. And when we speak of the Virgin Mary, we
simultaneously refer to Christ, because from Him she draws Grace
and value. This shows clearly in the service of the Akathist, in
which the Theotokos is hymned, but always in combination with
the fact that she is the mother of Christ: “Rejoice, for you are
the throne of the king. Rejoice for you bear Him Who bears all
things”.
This connection of Christology
and Theotokology shows in the lives of the saints as well. A
characteristic mark of the saints, who are the real members of
the Body of Christ, is that they love the Virgin Mary. It is
impossible for there to be a saint who does not love her.
The Annunciation of the
Theotokos is the beginning of all feasts of the Lord. In the
dismissal hymn of the feast we sing: “Today is the beginning of
our salvation and the revelation of the mystery from the ages…”
The content of the feast refers to the Archangel Gabriel’s (the
angel associated with all events having to do with the
Incarnation of Christ) visit to the Virgin Mary (with God’s
command) informing her that the time of the Incarnation of the
Word of God had arrived, and that she would become His mother
(see Luke 1:26-56).
The word “annunciation” [evangelismos] is
comprised of two words, good and message, and denotes the good
notification, the good announcement. This refers to the
information that was given through the Archangel that the Word
of God would be incarnated for man’s salvation. Essentially this
is the fulfillment of God’s promise, given after the fall of
Adam and Eve (see Gen. 3:15), which is called the proto-evangelion
(i.e., the first Gospel). For this reason the information of the
Incarnation of the Word of God is the greatest notification in
history.
According to Saint Maximos the
Confessor, the Gospel of God is the intercession of God and the
comforting of men through His incarnate Son. Simultaneously it
is the reconciliation of men with the Father, Who gives the
unborn theosis as a reward to those who obey Christ. Theosis is
called unborn because it is not born but rather is revealed to
those who are worthy. Consequently, the theosis that is offered
through the incarnate Christ is not a birth, but a revelation of
the enhypostatic illumination to those who are worthy of this
revelation.
The good announcement, the
Gospel, the Annunciation, is a correction of the events which
occurred at the beginning of man’s creation, in the Paradise of
Eden. There, from a woman the Fall and its results began; here,
from a woman all good things began. Thus, the Virgin Mary is the
new Eve. There was the sensorial Paradise; here, the Church.
There, Adam; here, Christ. There, Eve; here Mary. There, the
snake; here, Gabriel. There, the whispering of the serpent to
Eve; here the greeting of the angel to Mary (From a hymn by
Joseph Vryenios). In this manner the transgression of Adam and
Eve was corrected.
The Archangel Gabriel called
the Virgin Mary “full of grace.” He told her: “Rejoice, you who
are full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among
women” (Luke 1:28-29). The Virgin Mary is called “full of grace”
and is characterized as “blessed” because God is with her.
According to Saint Gregory
Palamas and other holy Fathers, the Virgin Mary had already been
filled with grace, and was not just filled with grace on the day
of the Annunciation. Having remained in the holy Temple, she
reached the holy of holies of the spiritual life,theosis, which
is firsthand experience of union with God. If the courtyard of
the Temple was destined for the proselytes and the main Temple
for the priests, then the holy of holies was destined for the
high priest. The Virgin Mary’s entry was a sign that she had
reached theosis. It is known that in the Christian age, the
narthex was appointed for the catechumens and penitants, the
main church for the illumined, the members of the Church, and
the holy altar is meant for those who had reached theosis.
Thus, the Virgin Mary had
reached theosis even before she received the visitation of the
Archangel. Toward this goal, she used a special method of
knowing God and communing with God: stillness, the hesychastic
way, as Saint Gregory Palamas interprets in a wonderful and
divinely inspired manner. The Virgin Mary understood that no one
can reach God with reasoning, with the senses, with imagination
or human glory, but rather only through the nous, the eye of the
soul. Thus she put to death all the powers of the soul that came
from the senses, and through prayer she activated the nous. In
this manner she reached illumination and theosis. And for this
reason it was granted to her to become the Mother of Christ, to
give her flesh to Christ. She didn’t have simply virtues, but
the divinizing Grace of God.
The Virgin Mary had the
fullness of God’s Grace, in comparison to other people. Christ,
as the Word of God, has in Himself the whole fullness of Grace,
but the Virgin Mary received the fullness of Grace from the
Grace of her Son. For this reason, in relation to Christ she is
lower, since Christ had this Grace by nature, whereas the Virgin
Mary had it through participation in Christ. In relation to
other saints, however, she is higher.
The Virgin Mary had the
fullness of Grace, from the Grace of her Son, prior to the
conception, during the conception and after the conception.
Prior to the conception this Grace was perfect, during the
conception it was more perfect, and after the conception it was
altogether perfect, says Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite. In this
manner the Virgin Mary was a virgin in body and a virgin in
soul.
No human is born delivered of
the ancestral sin. The fall of Adam and of Eve and the
consequences of this fall were inherited by the whole human
race. It was natural that the Virgin Mary would not be delivered
from the ancestral sin. The word of the Apostle Paul is clear:
“all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Rom
3:23). In this apostolic passage it shows that sin is considered
to be a deprivation of the glory of God, and furthermore that no
one is delivered from it. Thus, the Virgin Mary was born with
the ancestral sin. When, though, was she delivered from it? The
answer to this question must be freed from scholastic
viewpoints.
To begin with we must say that
the ancestral sin was the deprivation of the glory of God, the
estrangement from God, the loss of communion with God. This also
had physical consequences, however, because corruption and death
entered into the bodies of Adam and of Eve. When in the Orthodox
Tradition there is talk of inheriting the ancestral sin, this
does not mean the inheriting of the guilt of the ancestral sin,
but its consequences, which are corruption and death. Just as
when the root of a plant dies, the branches and the leaves
become ill, so it happened with the fall of Adam. The whole
human race descended from tham became ill. The corruption and
death which man inherits is the favorable climate for the growth
of the passions, and in this manner the intellect of man is
darkened.
Precisely for this reason the
adoption by Christ through His Incarnation of this mortal and
suffering body, without sin, aided in correcting the
consequences of Adam’s sin. Theosis existed in the Old Testament
as well, just as the illumination of the nous also did, but
death had not been abolished; for this reason the God-seeing
prophets all went to Hades as did every man. With Christ’s
Incarnation and His Resurrection, human nature was deified and
thus the possibility was given to each person to be deified.
Because with holy Baptism we become members of the deified and
resurrected Body of Christ, for this reason we say that through
holy Baptism man is delivered from the ancestral sin.
When we apply these things to
the case of the Virgin Mary we can understand her relationship
with the ancestral sin and her being freed from it. The Virgin
Mary was born with the ancestral sin; she had all the
consequences of corruption and death in her body. With her
entrance into the holy Temple, she reached theosis. This
theosis, though, was not enough to deliver her from sin’s
consequences, which are corruption and death — precisely because
the divine nature had not yet united with the human nature in
the Person of God the Word. Thus, at the moment when, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, the divine nature was united with
human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Virgin Mary
first tasted her freedom from the so-called ancestral sin and
its consequences. Furthermore, at that moment, what Adam and Eve
failed to do with their free personal struggle, finally took
place. For this reason, the Virgin Mary at the moment of the
Annunciation reached a greater state than that of Adam and Eve
prior to the fall. She was granted to taste the goal of
creation, as we will see in other analyses.
For this reason, for the
Virgin Mary, Pentecost did not have to happen, it was not
necessary for her to be baptized. What the Apostles experienced
on the day of Pentecost, when they became members of Christ’s
Body through the Holy Spirit, and what happened to all of us
during the mystery of Baptism, occurred for the Virgin Mary on
the day of the Annunciation. Then she was delivered from the
ancestral sin — not in the sense of deliverance from guilt, but
that she obtained theosis in her soul and body, due to her union
with Christ.
In these frameworks Saint John
of Damascus’ saying that on the day of the Annunciation the
Virgin Mary received the Holy Spirit, which cleansed her and
gave her power to receive the Word’s divinity, simultaneously a
birth-giving power, should be interpreted. That is the Virgin
Mary received from the Holy Spirit a cleansing grace, but also a
grace receptive and able to give birth to the Word of God as a
man.
The response of the Virgin
Mary to the information of the archangel that she would be
granted to give birth to Christ was expressive: “Behold the
handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be to me according to thy word”
(Luke 1:38). Here the obedience of the Virgin Mary to the saying
of the archangel shows, but also her obedience to God, for an
event that was odd and strange for human logic. In this way her
logic is submitted to God’s will.
Some maintain that during that
moment all the righteous people of the Old Testament, but also
all of humanity awaited with anxiousness to hear the Virgin
Mary’s response, fearing that she might refuse and not obey
God’s will. They maintain that because every time when man is in
such a dilemma, precisely because he has freedom, he can say the
yes or no, as occurred in the case of Adam and Eve, the same
thing could occur with the Virgin Mary. However it was not
possible for the Virgin Mary to refuse. Not because she didn’t
have freedom, but because she had real freedom.
Saint John of Damascus makes a
distinction between a natural and an opinionated will. One has
an opinionated will when he is distinguished by the ignorance of
a thing, by the doubt and in the end the incapability of
selection. He does not know what is truly right or wrong or
best. This refers to a wavering as to what to do. One has
a natural will when he is lead in acording to his true nature,
without wavering, without ignorance, to the realization of the
truth.
So it seems, that the natural
will is associated with wanting, whereas the opinionated will
with how to want, and furthermore when it is finished with
doubts and wavering. Consequently the natural will comprises the
perfection of nature, whereas the opinionated will comprises the
imperfection of nature, since it presupposes a person who does
not have knowledge of the truth, is not certain about what he
must decide.
So even though Christ had two
wills, due to his two natures, the human and divine nature,
nevertheless he had a natural will, from the viewpoint we are
studying here — and of course, He did not have an opinionated
will. As God He always knew the will of God the Father, and
there was no doubt and no wavering in Him. The Saints experience
this by grace also. Because the Virgin Mary had reached theosis,
for this reason it was impossible for her to reject God’s will
and not yield to the incarnation. She had perfect freedom, and
her freedom always acted naturally and not unnaturally. We,
because we have not reached theosis, have an imperfect freedom,
the so-called opinionated will. For this reason we waver as to
what to do. Her question, “How shall this be to me, because I
know no man” (Luke 1:34), shows humility, the weakness of the
human nature, but also the strangeness of the matter, because
there were miraculous conceptions in the Old Testament, but not
seedless ones.
On the day of Annunciation we
have a direct conception of Christ by the power and energy of
the All-holy Spirit. In one hymn we sing: “When Gabriel greeted
you, ‘Hail O virgin!’ the Master of all became incarnate in
you.“. This means that several hours and days for the conception
to occur did not intervene, but it occurred precisely at that
moment.
The archangel Gabriel told
Joseph, the betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos. “Do not fear
to take Mary as your wife. For that which is born in her is of
the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:20). The Virgin Mary gave birth to
Christ as a human, but the conception was of the Holy Spirit.
Basil the Great interpreting
this phrase, “is born of the Holy Spirit,” says that every thing
which comes from something else, is denoted by three words. The
one is “by creation”, just as the whole of creation was created
by God with His energy. The other one is “by birth”, as the Son
was born before all ages of the Father. The third is
“naturally”, just as energy comes out of every nature, that is
brilliance from the sun, and more generally the action from the
one doing the action. As regards the conception of Christ in the
Holy Spirit the true expression is that in his humanity Christ
was conceived with the energy of the Holy Spirit “by creation”,
and not by birth or naturally.
Saint John of Damascus teaches
that the Son and Word of God made for Himself, from the pure and
most clean blood of the Theotokos, a flesh which is alive with a
logical and noetic soul — not by seed, but created by the Holy
Spirit.
Of course, when we speak of
the conception of Christ in the Theotokos’ womb with the power
and creative energy of the Holy Spirit, we should not isolate
the Holy Spirit from the Holy Trinity. It is known from
patristic teaching that the energy of the Trinitarian God is
shared among the Persons of the Godhead. The creation of the
world and the recreation of man and of the world occurred and
occurs with the common energy of the Trinitarian God.
Consequently, not only did the Holy Spirit create the body of
Christ the Master, but also the Father Himself and the Son, that
is the whole Holy Trinity did. The formulation of this truth is
that the Father favored the incarnation of His Son, the Son and
the Word of God Himself worked His incarnation and the Holy
Spirit brought it about.
The conception of Christ in
the womb of the Theotokos occurred with silence and secrecy, not
with noise and disturbance. No one, neither of the angels nor of
men was able to understand at that moment these great things
which were performed. The great Prophet David prophesied this
event saying: “May he be like rain that falls on a fleece, like
showers that water the earth!” (Psalm 71:6). Just as rain that
falls on a fleece of wool does not cause noise or any
corruption, the same thing occurred also during the annunciation
and the conception. Christ with His conception did not cause
noise or any corruption in the virginity of the Virgin Mary. For
this reason the Virgin Mary was and remained a Virgin before the
birth, during the birth and after the birth. These are the three
stars, which the iconographer depicts always on the head and the
two shoulders of the Virgin Mary.
The union of the divine with
the human nature in the hypostasis of the Word, in the womb of
the Theotokos, comprises the theosis of the human nature. That
is, from the first moment when the divine nature united with the
human nature, there is the divinization of the human nature. The
saying of Saint John Damascene is characteristic: “At the moment
of flesh: at that moment, the flesh of God the Word.” This means
that a duration of time did not intervene after the conception
for the human nature to be deified, but this happened
immediately at the time of the conception.
A consequence of this event is
that the Virgin Mary must be called Theotokos, since she gave
birth truly to God, whom she bore for nine months in her womb,
and not merely a man who had the Grace of God. For this reason
the Virgin Mary is called Theotokos, precisely because she
conceived Christ in the Holy Spirit.
This must be stressed, because
in times of old a great theological controversy occurred as to
whether the Virgin Mary should continue to be called Theotokos,
or merely Christotokos [birth-giver of Christ] due to the
emergence of heretical teachings. In the end, the Third
Ecumenical Council finally validated the teaching that the
Virgin Mary gave birth to a single Person, the man who is God —
and that immediately with the adoption of the human nature there
exists its theosis. The heretic Nestorios, using philosophical
terms and human pondering, had asserted that the Virgin Mary was
a human and for this reason it was impossible for her to give
birth to God. The child who was in her, he maintained, was not
God, but merely a human; God simply “passed through” the
Theotokos. Of course, there was a problem in his theology about
the relationship between the two natures of Christ. Nestorios
believed that the flesh of Christ was simply joined with the
nature of the Godhead. To him, the Word was not the God-man, but
was joined to man and dwelt inside him. With such
presuppositions he named the Virgin Mary Christotokos and not
Theotokos.
However Christ is the God-man,
perfect God and perfect man, and the two natures each acted
“with the other in communion” in the one Person of the Word.
Here it must be underlined that human nature was deified
immediately with its union with the divine nature in the
hypostasis of the Word, in the womb of the Theotokos. For this
reason the Virgin Mary is and is called Theotokos, since she
gave birth to God as a man.
The direct theosis of human
nature by the divine nature of the Word does not mean that the
qualities of human nature are abolished. This shows that the
conception and carrying in the womb, but also the birth of
Christ occurred by nature and supernaturally. Supernaturally,
because it occurred creatively by the All-holy Spirit and not by
seed. Naturally, because the carrying in the womb occurred in
the manner in which the infant is carried in the womb.
There is however one point
which must be underlined. In every infant there are a few
stages, until the time for birth comes. To begin with there is
the conception, subsequently after a period of time the
depiction of the members of his body, afterwards little by
little they are developed, and according to the level of his
development movement follows. Finally, when it is completed, he
comes out of the womb of his mother.
The conception of Christ
occurred by the All-Holy Spirit in the womb of the Theotokos
creatively and not by seed, because Christ had to undertake the
pure nature that Adam had before the transgression. Of course,
in order to defeat corruption and death, Christ adopted a mortal
flesh, capable of suffering, as Adam’s flesh became after the
transgression, but Christ’s flesh was utterly pure and spotless,
as it was prior to the transgression. Thus, Christ’s flesh from
a viewpoint of purity was as Adam’s body was prior to the
transgression — while from a viewpoint of mortality and
corruption it was the body of Adam after the transgression.
Precisely this event is very
closely associated with the fact that the conception, carrying
in the womb and birth of Christ by the Virgin Mary was
effortless, without pain or pleasure. So Christ, was conceived,
without bodily pleasure, carried in the womb as a babe and was
born without travail and without pain. He was conceived seedless
for two basic reasons. Firstly, to undertake the pure human
nature, and secondly, to be born without corruption and
painlessly.
The Virgin Mary as she
conceived Christ without pleasure, in the same way held Him for
nine months in her womb without toil and without weight. She did
not feel weight, despite the fact that the divine infant was
developing naturally and had the weight of a developing embryo.
Thus the prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah was fulfilled: “Behold
the Lord is sitting upon a hollow cloud” (Is. 19:1). With the
term “hollow cloud” is meant the human flesh, which was so very
light that it did not cause any weight and toil to the Virgin
Mary during the time of the nine month carrying in the womb.
The seedless and
“pleasureless” conception of the Virgin Mary and the effortless
carrying in the womb is closely associated with the incorrupt
and painless birth of Christ. According to Saint Gregory Nyssa
there is a close relationship between pleasure and pain, since
every pleasure has pain connected with it. Adam felt pleasure,
and pain followed to the whole human race. Thus also now,
through Mary’s freedom from pleasure, joy comes to the human
race. The birth of Christ did not corrupt or harm the virginity
of the Theotokos, precisely as the conception did not occur with
pleasure, and the carrying in the womb did not occur with weight
and toil. There where the All-holy Spirit acts “the order of
nature is overcome”.
The duration of the carrying
in the womb of the Virgin Mary is a foreshadowing of the
ceaseless communion that the Saints will have in the Kingdom of
God.
It is known that the mother
who has a child in the womb has a close and organic relationship
with him. Contemporary scholars have proven that the infant is
influenced not only by the physical state of his mother, but
also by her psychological state. And because the divine infant
was conceived of the Holy Spirit, but grew up in the natural
manner, that is He had a communion with the Virgin Mary’s body,
for this reason there exists a close relationship between Christ
and the Theotokos. Naturally, we must see this from the
viewpoint that the Virgin Mary gives nourishment to Christ, but
also Christ gives His Grace and blessing to her. So Christ being
carried in the womb did not cease simultaneously being at God’s
throne united with His Father and the Holy Spirit.
The human nature was united
with the divine nature without alteration, unconfusedly,
indivisibly, inseparably, immediately from the moment of
conception. This means that first the Virgin Mary tasted the
goods of the divine incarnation, theosis. That which the
Disciples of Christ tasted during Pentecost, and we during
Baptism, at the time of the mystery of the divine Eucharist,
when we commune of the Body and Blood of Christ, and that which
the Saints will live in the Kingdom of the Heavens, the Virgin
Mary lived from the first moment of the conception and carrying
in the womb.
Consequently Christ for nine
whole months, day and night, nourished with His sanctified blood
the Virgin Mary. This is a foreshadowing of the ceaseless divine
Communion and of the ceaseless relationship and communion of the
Saints with Christ which will occur mainly in the next life. For
this reason the Virgin Mary is a foreshadowing of the future
age. From this viewpoint she is Paradise.
Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite,
speaking of the Annunciation of the Theotokos proceeds to a
personal and existential approach of this event. Because, it
does not suffice for us to celebrate only externally the events
of the divine incarnation, but we should approach them
existentially and spiritually. For this reason he gathered many
passages of Saints in which mainly there is speech about this
existential approach.
The saying of the Prophet
Isaiah is characteristic “we were with child, we writhed, we
have given birth. We have brought forth a spirit of salvation
upon the earth” (Is. 26: 18). According to the interpretation of
the holy Fathers the seed is the word of God and the nous is the
womb and the heart of man. Through faith the word of God is sown
in the heart of man and makes it pregnant with the fear of God.
This is the fear that man not remain far from God. Through this
fear the struggle for cleansing the heart and the obtaining of
virtues begins, which resembles a pain, childbearing pains. In
this manner the spirit of salvation is born, which is theosis
and sanctification.
The forming of Christ in us
happens with spiritual pains. The Apostle Paul says: “My little
children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed
in you!” Gal. 4:19). Travails are the ascetic struggle, and
formation is theosis and sanctification.
According to the holy Fathers
(Gregory of Nyssa, Maximos the Confessor, Symeon the New
Theologian, Niketas Stethatos, etc.) what happened physically in
the Virgin Mary, this happens spiritually to each one whose soul
is virginal, that is, is cleansed of the passions. Christ, who
was born once in the flesh, wants always to be born in the
spirit to those who wish, and thus He becomes a babe, forming
Himself in them through the virtues.
The spiritual conception and
birth becomes understood from the fact that the flow of hot
blood stops — that is, the desires to commit sin cease, passions
are no longer active in man, man hates sin and constantly wants
to do God’s will. This conception and birth is obtained by
putting into action the divine commandments, mainly with the
return of the nous into the heart and with unceasing prayer.
Then man becomes a temple of the All-Holy Spirit.
The Annunciation of the
Theotokos is an annunciation of the human race, an announcement
that the Son and Word of God has become incarnate. This
universal feast must lead to a personal feast, in a personal
annunciation. We must accept the preludes of our salvation,
which is the greatest notification in our life.
