Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Today the Virgin contains the Uncontainable One

Jesus Christ is the only person to be born from a Virgin mother and has no earthly father. He is the Beginning-less God with the Father before time and creation, who today was conceived not by man but by the Holy Spirit. His mother in humility accepts the miracle, and becomes the new Eden, the second Eve who was not led astray, the icon for the Church.
For this reason we celebrate and break our fast today, feasting on fish and drinking wine in joy.

Gabriel flew down from heaven *
and came to Nazareth; * and to the
Virgin Mary * he appeared and he
cried out, * ʺRejoice, O blessed woman,
for you will conceive * a Son,
more ancient than Adam is. * He has
created the ages, and He redeems *
those who cry to you, O pure one,
ʺRejoice!ʺ

Bringing good tidings from heaven,
* Gabriel cried out, ʺRejoice,ʺ *
unto the Virgin, saying, * ʺYou shall
conceive and will carry * Him, who is
containable in your womb, * and
whom the whole world cannot contain.
* You shall be seen as the Mother
of Him who rose * from the Father before
the morning star.ʺ

In His exceeding compassion, *
viewing with mercy our fall, * the coeternal
Logos * of the beginningless
Father * came down and appeared to
the things below, * never leaving the
things on high. * Having assumed
Adam’s poverty to Himself * He has
taken on the other’s form.

The Word transcending all essence,
* who has appeared to the world, * who
was eternally fathered * and temporally
mothered, * becoming flesh has taken
the form of a slave, * losing not His Divinity.
* And in the womb of the
woman who without seed * has conceived
Him He refashions man.

The age-old mystery is revealed
today, and the Son of God becomes
the Son of man, so that by partaking
of what is lower He may impart to me
what is superior. Of old, Adam was
deceived; and he did not become God,
though this was his desire. But now,
God becomes man, to make Adam
god. Let creation sing for joy, and let
nature be exultant. For the Archangel
is standing with awe before the Virgin
and is delivering the salutation, ʺRejoice,
ʺ the reverse of the pain and sorrow.
O our God, who in Your tender
mercy became man, glory to You!

What Glory has been showered on human nature! That man is remade by His Creator and that through a woman salvation has come to all the world.

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