By St. Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Smyrna
"Rejoice, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!... for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus" (Lk. 1:28, 31).
Though few, these words of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary are radiant and immortal, proclaiming the whole lofty and wonderful mystery, which is hidden beneath the present feast, which with great joy and gladness the Orthodox Christian world celebrates today.
These words contain the radiant and joyful announcement of the highest and most wonderous event, which has ever happened in the world since the world came into existence.
This event of the Annunciation is in the religious and moral world the center of a certain spiritual gravity for all creation; all the great world-historical events before it were nothing but a preparation for it, and all the subsequent global changes in the universe were nothing but the result of this. And for this reason, celebrating today this greatest and most wonderful historical event of the Annunciation, which is the radiant prelude of salvation and joy and happiness for the whole human race, let us study it at the same time with respect and admiration, mixed with affection and deep gratitude. And for this let us turn our thoughts backwards; let us return mentally and come to the first March 25th, which is nine months before the beginning of the new chronology from when Christ dawned upon earth. Let us go to Nazareth, and see what this saying is, because the Angel is evangelizing.
I call your attention to three points.
a) The scene unfolds in the beautiful and dew-dropped Galilee, whose beauty and the innumerable colorful flowers, which at that time adorned the dreary land of that country, were at that time a beautiful earthly paradise, very suitable and worthy of receiving that heavenly messenger, the bearer of these tender and joyous greetings "Rejoice, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!... for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus."
In such a pleasant and dew-dropped place, it was God's will to be heard for the first time the radiant message of this heavenly visitor, a message that opens up new horizons of the grace, goodness and mercy of God in the world, a message that will make people brighter, happier, kinder, holier, truly blessed and graced in Christ, worthy citizens of the coming kingdom of God.
This message reached myrrh-fragrant Nazareth on a pleasant spring day on the 25th of March, when the hot and mild climate of Palestine the land is clothed with its radiant and elegant verdant attire, when the rays of the spring Palestinian sun gilds the peaks of the surrounding mountains, when the song birds sing their sweetest songs as a prayer to our heavenly Father, the flowers exude their secret fragrance, and the gentle breaths of the zephyrs joyfully raise all from the slumber and death of winter awakening exterior nature.
All these were symbols of the brightness and joy with which the visitor from heaven came and evangelized to the poor and humble, but pure and spotless maiden of the people, the Virgin Mary, saying to her: "Rejoice, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!... for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus."
b) The goodness of God did not want, as you see, to designate any glorious city and any royal palace and mansion as the place of residence of the Mother of the God-man, nor did the God on high accept to look upon the daughter of a rich Pharisee or a brilliant Prince of Israel, and to designate her as the mother of the Lord.
The Angel found a poor hut, in a country farm, Nazareth, and there he chose a poor virgin, betrothed to a humble working carpenter, to offer her this excellent and unique honor.
For this we the poor of the people are obliged to be grateful to our heavenly Father, for the Son of God who was so impoverished for us! Wherefore this preference for the poor daughter of Nazareth is full of profound significance, and hence its influence on the fortunes of the world has been beneficial and saving!
This election of the poor daughter of Joachim and Anna spreads consolation in the ranks of the poor and needy, ennobles true poverty, honors, elevates and magnifies the greatest majority of the human race, that is, those who honorably and with the sweat of the face eat the honorable bread of impoverished working people.
May the angel sent from heaven oppose the royal palaces, the priestly houses, the Pharisaic cathedrals, the rich and glorious and gilded palaces, where the magnificence and opulence speak to the greatness of the titles of officers, before which people bow, and to choose a pure daughter from that humble social class, to which the great majority of humanity belongs and will always continue to belong. Does it not seem to you that this is one of the highest and most comforting teachings, which are hidden behind the sacredness of this feast?
The heavenly messenger wanted to teach us that a life that is calm, humble and invisible but full of innocence and a peaceful conscience, the life of a worker or farmer is the truly blessed life and worthy of preparation for heavenly life. Thus the Son of God assumed human nature from a poor and humble daughter of the working people!
For Him it would be the ultimate humility to be born in the middle of glittering palaces and on a glittering golden throne as king of the whole universe.
But for Him to come to earth, and to take on flesh and be incarnated from a mother living in a poor hut of a carpenter, this is greatness and wondrous, surpassing our understanding and our wonder. For this reason we ascribe lofty language to such a humble daughter of the people: "Rejoice, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!... for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus."
c) However, the manner in which the Angel appeared and the content of the angelic greeting show that here we are before the most amazing event in world history.
Many times, as we read both in the Old and in the New Testament, angels of God were sent into the world to declare to men the divine counsels; but always and everywhere we see that those to whom these heavenly messengers were sent, even if they were the greatest of the prophets and the most holy of the apostles, bowed down with the greatest reverence before these ministering spirits and listened to God's commands through them.
It is only here that we see for the first time the Archangel Gabriel presenting himself full of reverence before a humble Virgin, and full of admiration addressing this greeting to this maiden full of grace: "Rejoice, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!... for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus."
This greeting is the highest and most magnificent encomium, of which nothing higher or more magnificent has been heard nor will ever be heard on earth.
This encomium was not drawn up on earth; it was established in heaven, in the council of the Holy Trinity. Each of its words is full of supreme and unfathomable greatness and contains profound mysteries about Her, who alone of all creatures was worthy of being received above as full of grace and blessed in the chorus of all women.
Out of the infinite millions of women of the human race, this greatest privilege of God's grace and blessing was given to you, O Virgin, who today is found worthy to conceive and give birth to the Son of God. If Eve was a woman, in whose person the curse was given to the human race from her, You, O Virgin, are the One through whom the blessing, grace and eternal life will come.
Many women produced power, as the wise Solomon says, many produced glory, many conceived and gave birth to great and glorious men: Isaac by Sarah, Jacob by Rebecca, Joseph by Rachel, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon among others, and John the Baptist, the greatest born to a woman, by Elizabeth.
But the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth, who is called Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, the Liberator of our immortal souls, the miracle of history, the Lord of heaven and earth, at whose name the heavens and the earth bow, you conceived today in a womb by the Holy Spirit, O Virgin Theotokos, who is beautiful as the sun, perfect as the dove, refreshing as the dawn, chosen as the Moon, white as the lily, the maiden full of grace, the blessed among women.
Rejoice for this, you who are full of grace, and plant this joy of yours also in our hearts, so that rejoicing there we may enter after our departure into the joy of our Lord. Amen.
Source: Sacred Polycarp, Year 2 Smyrna, no. 103; March 23, 1913, pp. 1668-1672. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.