Homily II on Saint Mary the Mother of God

1The memory of the righteous is always praiseworthy, and every gathering of those who love God is glorious. All have excelled in piety, endured pains for the true confession, and been crowned with the wreaths of truth, intoxicated with the dangers they faced. But the present day of the feast is most glorious, for it celebrates the virgin who surpassed all others, even willingly receiving God the Word, contained by her uncontainedly.

The archangel Gabriel was the first to cry out to her, saying 'Rejoice, favored one, the Lord is with you; behold, you will conceive in the womb and give birth to a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel' (Luke 1:31). This announcement was the beginning of joy for her, as it removed the painful consequences of the first virgin's transgression, which had enclosed all women in pain and bitterness. Through Gabriel's gospel, the second virgin stopped every source of pain in childbirth and scattered the cloud of sadness in childbearing, surrounding her fellow women with the lights of joy.

She did not quietly accept the greeting, but having heard such a voice and seen the archangel in her house unexpectedly, and her thoughts about the birth being shaken by the voice, she spoke some words to the archangel, saying, 'All things I see today are paradoxical and strange to me.'

She said, 'How did you dare to approach a virgin who is not betrothed and proclaim the message of your unbelievable words? You say I will give birth to a child without seed, without marriage, without union and conversation with a man, and the womb will bear fruit.' She also asked, 'Who has seen or heard from ancient times that the previously uncultivated earth has blossomed with a grain, or that an unplanted vine has produced a cluster, or that wine has been produced without a vine, or that a river has flowed without a source? No one has seen or heard such a thing from the beginning of time. How can I trust you when you are mocking me?'

The archangel said, 'I spoke what I learned, I say what I heard: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the one to be born will be called holy, the Son of God' (Luke 1:35), as the creator and maker of all things, as the father of the ages, as the generator of the world, as the poet of all, as the more ancient of the heavens, as the maker of angels, as the shaper of humanity, as the savior of the ransomed.

I was not commanded to speak in a particular way, but rather to serve the gospel to you, virgin.

3The prophets are being dragged and stoned, the righteous are being slaughtered with swords and divided by saws, and the hands and feet of the pious are being cut off. The defenders are being held by bloody hands, and the palms are being stained with the continuous slaughter of the righteous. Those who have come to such a level of impiety against our Savior that they dare to interrogate him openly are saying, 'We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from.'

Whenever I want to flee from their abomination, they clearly oppose me, either by accusing the words of the prophets, or by insulting the syllables of the law, or by railing against the books of the revered Gospels. As now the divine pages have brought them before us, they utter shameless voices and say boldly what you have heard. They say, 'We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from.' Oh, the shameless audacity! Oh, the uncovered gluttony of the robbers! Oh, the blind opposition of words!

Christ cried out to them, saying that he had played the flute for them, but they did not dance, and he had mourned for them, but they did not lament (Matthew 11:17). Who can reprove their ignorant and contentious attitude? Christ performed numerous miracles for them, healing the paralyzed, cleansing lepers, curing the afflicted, healing the demon-possessed, opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead from their tombs, turning water into wine, and providing many other wonders, which are too numerous to mention. Despite all this, there is not even a spark of faith among them.

Let the Jewish scriptures be read and the pages unrolled. Do not accept the testimony of Peter or Paul, and reject the accounts of the evangelists. Instead, listen to Moses and what he wrote in the law. What did he write in the law?

4The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from your brothers, like me; you will listen to him, as Isaiah prophesied when he declared, 'Behold, the virgin will have in her womb and will bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel' (Isaiah 7:14).

Jeremiah also cried out, proclaiming, 'This is our God, and no other will be reckoned besides him' (Jeremiah 10:6-7, 10, etc.), and furthermore, he stated that after these events, God would appear on earth and live among humans.

Zechariah signified the coming of a man whose name would be the rising sun, and Malachi announced that the sun of righteousness would rise, bringing healing in its wings, saying, 'The sun of righteousness will rise for you who fear my name, and healing will be in his wings' (Malachi 4:2).

The hemorrhaging woman, who was healed after many years, confirmed the word of God, along with others, when she touched the hem of his garment and received healing.

To understand the prophecies, one must carefully read Ezekiel and the 'man of desires', where Ezekiel says, 'This is the gate of the Lord, and the Lord will enter through it and go out, and the gate will be closed' (Ezekiel 44:2).

Daniel, on the other hand, saw a vision of one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven, saying, 'I saw, and behold, one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven' (Daniel 7:13).

Jacob, when blessing his sons, said that a ruler will not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes to whom it has been reserved, and he is the expectation of the nations (Genesis 49:10).

David, inspired by the Spirit, sang that a mother, Zion, will say, and a man was born in her, and he founded her, the Most High, and that the mother was a virgin and remained after childbirth, keeping the seals of virginity which nature had placed, unbroken.

Let us consider the words of David, who proclaimed that righteousness will rise in his days, and that he will rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth (Psalm 72:8).

This prophecy was foretold by one of our teachers, and written down by one of the Savior's disciples, and the children of circumcision, who preached about him before, proclaimed these things, as did the descendants of Abraham.

Should we not rejoice to believe in these things?

We should be ashamed, for even the demons cry out and say, 'What do we have to do with you, Son of the living God?' (Matthew 8:29, Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34).

All creation, including angels, humans, and demons, should be ashamed of their confession about Lord Christ.

But if we reject the testimony of these witnesses, we should accept the testimony of the Father, who thunders from heaven, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matthew 3:17, 17:5).

Glory to him forever and ever, Amen.