There
might have been more than one hint, obvious to a mind like hers, by
which she might have divined from the Sacred Scriptures that the Holy
Ghost might work the wonder. But this would involve a new and unheard
of condescension, which could not be assured without a distinct
revelation. How then was this to be, seeing she knew not man?
Thus,
in these first recorded words of our Blessed Lady, we have an
evidence of her intense love for purity, of her prudence, of her
wonderful faith, and at the same time of her modesty and humility and
obedience. For when she asks how is it to be done, she implies that
same perfect surrender of herself to the will of God in all things,
which was afterwards more fully expressed in her second speech, "
Behold the handmaid of the Lord." This shows us that she
considered her vow as some thing which belonged to God, a pledge
which He had accepted, and which He would certainly preserve
unbroken, whatever might be the marvels required for the execution of
His great design in a new way.
The
third speech of the Angel is remarkable as leaving the ground of
prophecy and opening an entirely new revelation to the Blessed Mother
of our Lord. It has already been said that the Conception by the Holy
Ghost was not one of the features in the revelation concerning the
Incarnation as it had been already made. The doctrine of the Ever
Blessed Trinity itself \vas not known to the Jews with anything like
the fullness in which it is now presented to Christian faith. To say
this is the same thing as to say that the whole doctrine of the Third
Person in the Godhead must have been far less fully possessed by them
than that concerning the Eternal Father and His only-begotten Son. It
is not, therefore, unreasonable to look upon the Annunciation as
marking a great onward step in the manifestation of the doctrine of
the Blessed Trinity, and especially of the doctrine concerning the
Holy Ghost, as if this great and marvellous work of His, by means of
which the Incarnation was carried out by the Conception of our Lord
in the womb of His Mother, was to be made the occasion of a more
direct manifestation of His Person. At the same time it was most
fitting that this feature in the mystery should be first of all made
known to her in whom the Conception was to be wrought. In any case,
we have in these words of the blessed Angel a great advance on the
language of the Old Testament concerning the manner of the
Incarnation.
"And
the Angel answering said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and therefore
also the Holy which shall be born in thee, shall be called the Son of
God." These words form the divinely appointed answer to the
question of our Blessed Lady, and they therefore contain the
revelation of the manner of the Conception in her womb. "How
shall this be done, seeing I know not man?" It shall be done in
this way, that " the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," and
the rest. The Holy Ghost, therefore, was to come to Mary for the
purpose of bringing about in her this miraculous Conception. When He
is said to come to any with whom He is already by His presence in
grace, it is meant that He comes with a fresh array of graces, for
the purpose of the particular work for which He comes. In this case
it was for the purpose of the further and final sanctification of our
Blessed Lady, by which she was made fit for her part in this mystery,
that is, to minister of her most pure blood for the formation of the
Body of our Lord. The Holy Ghost was to sanctify also the Conception
itself, to form our Lord's Body, and prepare it completely in every
way for the infusion of the Soul which God was to create, that the
Soul and Body together might be united to the Eternal Person of the
Word. All this is conveyed by the words, "The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee."
The
words which follow, "the power of the Most High shall overshadow
thee," and the rest, convey the further specific truth that the
Child thus conceived was to be the Person of the Son of God in human
nature. For it is possible that a miraculous Conception might have
been brought about by the Holy Ghost, in which the Body and Soul
would not have had that Divine Personality. And the last words sum up
the whole effect of the operation of the Holy Ghost, and of that work
of Power of the Eternal Father by which the Hypostatic Union was
made. From these together issues the Incarnation of the Son of God.
"Therefore it is that the Holy which is born in thee, that is
formed in thee in perfect Man hood from the very beginning, shall be
called, that is, shall be and shall be known to be, the Son of God."
Before
speaking of the perfect faith and obedience which are the virtues
which shine out most conspicuously in our Blessed Lady's reception of
this magnificent revelation, it is natural to add the other words of
the Angel, though they refer to a different subject. It is found in
other such revelations that some proof or sign is frequently either
asked or given, by means of which the certainty of the truth which is
revealed may become more secure in the mind to which the
communication is made. Sometimes the sign is asked, sometimes it is
offered. But it seems as if it were a kind of rule in such cases,
that it should be given. In the case of our Blessed Lady, she did not
need anything more to make her grasp, with the most perfect faith,
the truth proposed to her, than the proof contained in the fact that
the communication was made by an angel of God. Although the truth set
before her so far transcended any other revelation that had ever been
made, and although it had about it all the difficulty which besets
revelations which concern most intimately the person to whom they are
made—for humble and holy persons are more ready to believe such
things of others than of themselves—still her faith was equal to
the demand made upon it. She did not therefore ask for or require any
sign. But what she did not ask for was given to her, not so much for
the confirmation of her faith in its intrinsic strength and
perfection, as for its confirmation by tidings of joy concerning
another great mercy of God, in the same kind as that vouchsafed to
herself, and also in order that an intimation of the will of God as
to her immediate conduct might be conveyed to her.
Before,
therefore, Mary gave her most joyful and most humble consent to the
execution of the mystery on herself, the Angel added the tidings
concerning the conception of the Blessed Baptist in the womb of St.
Elisabeth, a conception not so utterly super natural as that of our
Lord, but still impossible in the ordinary course of nature. "
And behold thy cousin Elisabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her
old age, and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren,
because no word shall be impossible with God." These last words,
again, presuppose in our Blessed Lady a perfect acquaintance with the
Sacred Scriptures. For they are a quotation of the words used to Sara
when she hesitated to believe the declaration that she was to bear a
son in her old age, 3 and thus they bring again before the
mind of Mary the whole series of such marvellous conceptions in the
history of the holy people, all of which had been in some sort
predictions of the miraculous Conception of our Lord, which was thus
shown to be the accomplishment and final crown of a long range of
such mercies. Thus, before the Incarnation had taken place, our
Blessed Lady was furnished with the line of conduct which she was to
pursue after it had come about, in going on her errand of charity to
console St. Elisabeth, and bring about the sanctification in her womb
of her unborn child.
It
must always be remembered that all these marvels which are spoken of
in the words of the Angel might have been brought about by an act of
the Divine Power alone, and without any consent or consciousness on
the part of our Blessed Lady. When Eve was formed from the side of
Adam, he was not informed beforehand of what was to take place, nor
was his consent asked. He was not informed beforehand because his
consent was not required. But in the execution of the decree of the
Incarnation God proceeded in a different way, not by the use of the
power of His Majesty, but by the gracious sweetness of His
condescension and reverence for His creature, so informing beforehand
our Lady of what He was to do, as to make the performance of this
great work an act in which she had her part, by her perfect and ready
submission, by a voluntary act of her own will, which was in itself
ineffably beautiful and meritorious. All through this scene of the
Annunciation, Mary is acting according to the instincts of her most
consummate prudence, purity, humility, and charity, and the virtues
which she has exercised all through are crowned and surpassed in
their merit by the perfect oblation of herself which is expressed in
her last words, '' Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto
me according to thy word." Thus she appears to ground her
consent to the proposal of the Angel on the will of God her Lord and
Master, though it was for her the highest of exaltations, the most
sublime of dignities, the greatest of joys. It was all these, but it
was these because it was the will of God, Whose handmaid she was, and
her words imply that if the message had contained abasement instead
of exaltation, and humiliation instead of dignity, it would have been
the same to her, because it was the word of her Lord. And indeed,
perhaps, even then, that most blessed soul, in her contemplation on
the prophecies, may have discerned that as the Christ was certainly
to suffer, so the dignity of being His Mother could not but bring
with it a chalice of suffering to herself. And the words in which she
signifies her acceptance are the largest possible, "Be it done
to me according to thy word." Whether she had divined it or not,
understood it or not, exactly all that was contained in the terms of
the message which conveyed to her the intimation of God's will, that
she wished to be done to her. These considerations must suffice to
set before us the first of the two points of which mention was made
at the outset of this chapter, namely, the wonderful sublimity of the
grace and merits of our Lady before the great mystery took place. It
is certain that the perfection of her virtues as here displayed must
have won for her, according to the ordinary rules of the distribution
of grace, a most marvellous confirmation and increase of all that she
had already received. But, besides this, as at this moment the
dignity of the Motherhood of God was actually conferred upon her, it
is equally reasonable to suppose that the collation of this dignity
brought with it immense gifts, in keeping with all the elevation
which it implied, and all the offices to God, to our Lord, and to
mankind which it involved.
Immediately
on the words of Mary followed the accomplishment of the Incarnation.
All came about as the Angel had said. The Holy Ghost formed the Body
of our Lord out of her blood. His Soul was created by the operation
of the Divine Power, the Soul and Body were at once united one to the
other, and the Divine Person of the Word of God took to Himself the
Sacred Human Nature thus produced. In that most absolute silence of
the night, in the little chamber of the cottage in front of the cave
where Mary dwelt, with no pomp or visible manifestation by which the
creation might know what was being done, the greatest act of the
power and mercy of the Creator was accomplished. In a moment God had
become Man, and the whole uni verse was renovated and elevated by His
Presence.
The
Sacred Heart of Jesus began to beat, the homage of the Incarnate Son
rose up to the throne on high, —a homage worthier of the majesty of
God than the adoration of a thousand worlds, summing up in itself and
adorning with its own beauty and merit the worship of creation. Who
can count up the difference between the world with Jesus Christ, and
the world without Him?
It
is by this measure that we must give an account to ourselves of the
elevation which came at the same moment to the Blessed Virgin, who
had been chosen as the instrument of this ineffable condescension. We
have seen how great Mary was in the designs of God and in His
prediction of the coming mercy on the race of men. We have traced her
from the wonderful grace of the Immaculate Conception and the
accompanying gifts bestowed on her soul, the anticipation in her case
of the power of using her faculties and graces, the capacity of
working, always with perfect meritoriousness, through her life in the
womb of Anne to her birth, her childhood, her education and training
in the Temple, on to the dedication of herself by her vow to God and
her final preparation for her office as His Mother in the mystery of
her Espousals. In the dialogue of the Annunciation she has manifested
the most perfect virtue, the most consummate intelligence and
prudence, and, after receiving with calm tranquillity the most
startling message, and taken in with unshaken faith the most
stupendous revelations, she has said the word on which the execution
of the great Counsel of God was made to depend. She has mounted up
ever higher and higher, until the magnificence of her beginning seems
dwarfed by the majesty which she has now reached. But the moment of
the Incarnation, as it was like no other moment in the past history
of the creation, and as its effects changed and left their stamp on
the whole future of that history, so was it unlike any other moment
in the series of the ascensions of Mary, a moment the results and
fruits of which in her were to last on for ever. When Jesus Christ
ceases to be Man as well as God, then will Mary cease to be the
Mother of God, and when the fruits of the Incarnation are wiped out
of Heaven and earth, then will the effects of the exaltation of Mary
fade away from her.
This,
then, which is the central moment in the history of God's dealings
with His creatures, is naturally the central moment also in His
dealings with His Mother. All that has gone before has been only her
preparation for that dignity. At this moment that dignity is hers,
never throughout eternity to be taken away from her. It is natural
that we should try to give to ourselves some account of what is
contained in the truth. Let us take the catalogue of her privileges
as they are counted over for us by the saints, and see how they all
depend on this one fundamental grace of her selection for the Divine
Maternity.
The
immunity from original sin, the sanctification of her soul which
accompanied her Immaculate Conception, the acceleration of her power
of know ing and loving and acting meritoriously, the graces she had
received at her birth and during her child hood, have been already
mentioned as given to her as the preparation for this crowning grace.
Now, then she is the Mother of God. She is made, in the first place,
a Mother in a new and unheard of way, a way which preserves to her
the glory of her spot less Virginity, together with the fruitfulness
of Maternity. Thus she is Virgin and Mother at the same time, a
Virgin beyond compare, in the beauty of her purity, which was not a
negative beauty only, but the beauty of the closest union with the
ineffable purity of God, and a Mother beyond compare in her
fruitfulness, which germinates no less a treasure than the Incarnate
God Himself.
It
must, moreover, be remembered that far more is meant when Mary is
called the Mother of God, as to her relations with her Son, than
could be the case as to the same relations in ordinary cases. The Son
Who was conceived in her womb was from the very first instant of His
Conception perfect in His Manhood as in His Godhead. We know that He
could not but have had, from the first, that complete and
uninterrupted use of all His inherent faculties and powers, which we
suppose to have been imparted to His Mother when she was a child, for
the more rapid advance of her sanctity, and for His sake. This must
have materially influenced and coloured her relations and inter
course with Him from the very beginning. It may be that we cannot
produce any certain proof that the heart of His Blessed Mother was
enabled to converse with Him intelligently while He was in her womb,
although, if St. Elisabeth could understand the joy of St. John while
he was yet unborn, it might seem in accordance with theological
reason to conclude that our Lady had the same or a higher and more
continual privilege. But in any case the relations between our Lady
and her Son were intimate, loving, intelligent in a degree which
could exist in no other case, because they were each capable of more
perfect and penetrating intimacy, more tender love, more entire
sympathy of heart and of mind than any other souls that have come
from the hands of the Creator. Thus her Maternity must have been a
greater and tenderer Maternity than any other, and His relations to
her as her Son were in a like manner most perfect in their kind. And
the ties between the parent and the child are ordinarily more or less
limited to the affections and mutual services of this life, whereas
the Motherhood of Mary and the Sonship of our Lord w r ere from the
beginning realities which belonged to the eternal Kingdom of God,
they have remained in Heaven as on earth, they are active and
operative now as of old at Nazareth, and thousands and thousands of
mercies and wonders in the realm of grace are continually issuing
from them.
Many
of the saints are fond also of the contemplation which dwells on the
relations which were begun at the moment of the Incarnation between
our Blessed Lady and the Persons of the Eternal Father and of the
Holy Ghost, and these also are relations which did not end with the
accomplishment of the mystery, but live on in all times in the King
dom of Heaven. As our Lord is the Son of the Father, so also is He
the Son of His Mother, and thus by a special act of the power of His
Father, which is the foundation of a peculiar relation of Mary to the
Father, which is expressed by saying that she is His daughter in a
way of her own. The Holy Ghost brought about the Incarnation in her
womb, and then she became in a special way beyond that in which it
can be said of all saintly souls, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost. He
had yet much to do in the consummation of that sanctity with which
she was to be clothed at the time of her glorious entrance into
Heaven, but all the history of the work of this grace in her must
have been a continuation of the sanctification now imparted to her.
In this sense the work of this moment lasted on for ever, and
increased continually in the gifts of the three Divine Persons to
this chosen Mother.
There
are other privileges of our Blessed Lady in the list of which we are
speaking, which may be considered as founded upon the grace of the
Divine Maternity which she now received, although the time at which
they began to manifest themselves in actual exercise was not yet.
Thus, for instance, she is called the Virgin of virgins, in various
senses, for her Virginity was altogether her own, and of a perfection
not shared by others, and in this sense the privilege we speak of was
hers at this time. But in another sense the name applies to her by
virtue of that large and most beautiful company of virgins who have
followed the holy counsel of continence as her children, of whose
praise and of the fruits of whose work in the world, the- Church is
full. In this sense the privilege was something yet future. So again,
when we speak of her as the Mother of the Redeemed, as the Gate of
Heaven, as the Queen of Mercy, as having the Passion communicated to
her, and as being exalted above all creatures, these are privileges
which flow from her Maternity, and are contained in it as in germ,
but the time for their development had not come at the moment of the
Incarnation. The privileges which are thus ex pressed are the fruits
and issues of our Lord's greatness, and of the accomplishment of His
work in the world. She has them from Him, and when she became His
Mother she received her right to them, and began to be, in relation
to those whom He has redeemed and exalted, what the names imply by
which she is designated in respect of them.
3
Genesis xviii. 14.
