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Homilies

St Photius the Great, tr. Mango, 1958

10. The Annunciation

VII

Of the Same Most-Blessed Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, Second Homily on the Annunciation of the Most-holy Mother of God, Delivered in the Emperor’s Presence

“How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts,”¹ the occasion invites me to cry out with the prophet David, as I behold the courts of the church thronged with the multitude of her rational flock, assembled together in the gaiety and variety of their many hues. Verily, “how goodly are thy habitations, Jacob, and thy tents, Israel, as gardens by the rivers, and as tents which the Lord hath pitched.”² These matters too have been well and fittingly expressed by the prophet who, though he stood outside our fold, yet included in his prophecy our state also.³ Rejoicing myself, and seeing fulfilled in deeds the oracles admirably delivered by those men in former times, I too proclaim them now by way of preamble in a proud voice and with gladness. Goodly indeed and fair to behold are the tents of the new Jacob, deemed worthy to see God in the flesh, and they are able to elevate the soul constantly towards divine love, to those whose zeal, aroused by the beautiful sights before their eyes, is drawn on to the intelligible and divine beauty.⁴

But wherefore, O God’s people and most Christ-loving of emperors, have you assembled thus eagerly and splendidly, and have adorned this holy and august temple, which⁵ one might well call, without missing the mark, the eye of the universe, and especially so today when, mixing the white with the black, out of which colours the natural constitution of the eye is wrought, you have filled with your bodies the voids of this wondrous place, forming, as it were, the socket of the eye?⁶ What is this haste of yours, and this graceful gaiety, and this smiling assembly? Surely you have come to celebrate the betrothal of the daughter of mankind, and to dance because of the joy of the Mother of the Word; and you have striven, after showing such fair and great preparation, to make into a magnificent festival the beginning and foundation of our common salvation. For verily, the betrothal of the ever-virgin is the foundation and groundwork of our salvation; it does not prop up the roof of one house threatening collapse, nor does it set up and hold together a village or a town that is falling to the ground, but it does raise, renew and support our entire human race, which had taken a great fall. For just as when the foundations of a house have been well and firmly established, joy and gladness, prevailing over all difficulties, already seize the prospective lodgers, so when the foundations of our salvation are laid in such wise and holy manner by Logos the artificer, humankind inaugurates the founding of its happiness and joy,⁷ and scraping off the senility of disobedience like a disease, servant of death, it bedecks itself instead with immortality as with a new creation. With good reason, therefore, does human kind betroth itself to joy; for it takes to itself the grace of being made divine, and having spat out the deceitful love of impiety like demoniac frenzy, it decks itself out like a pure bride for none other than its Creator and Maker. With good reason does human kind leap with joy and cry aloud;⁸ for it receives the glad tidings that its daughter has been designated as a chosen bride for her Creator. With good reason does human kind bear itself proudly and rejoice; for upon receiving the news of a marriage contract with the Lord, it casts off the shameful yoke of slavery.

This festival, therefore, is the beginning of all the other festivals, in that it gives us the contract for heavenly commerce, enriches the world with the inviolate wealth of the Lord’s advent, and both effects the cleansing of our human frame, and offers us the enjoyment of the undefiled goods. In it joyfully appears the choir of the prophets, strengthened with the eye of divine vision, and upborne on the wing of that spiritual life⁹ which, even in our present, material world they were known to have led beyond the ability of mortal men, and wearing the truth of their prophecies like a bright garment, they deck out the chamber of the Lord’s betrothal. In it the band of the apostles assembles too, and, as they gather together the ends of the world and establish the preaching of the salutary word, they display with pure hands the wealth of the Virgin’s dowry. In it the troops of martyrs also crowd together, and letting fall the dye of their martyrs’ blood, make bright the purple of the imperial bride-chamber. In it the contingents of the incorporeal beings appear also, and joining choir with the archangel Gabriel, bear as a gift¹⁰ the condescension of the divine sojourn among men, and life on earth puts on¹¹ heavenly raiment. For today the Virgin on behalf of our whole race is being betrothed to the common Lord, and human kind, having broken off¹² its intimacy with that alien adulteress and slave, sin, returns after a long time to its fellow and comrade, virtue, and embraces both temperately and passionately a conjugal love for her. Today the Virgin is being set apart from among men, offered to the Creator as the first-fruits of our human clay, and the great and eternal mystery of our re-creation¹³ is being accomplished in a wondrous manner. Today Adam’s daughter, having retrieved the transgression of the first mother Eve, and cleansed herself of the stain that emanated thence, fair and beautiful in the eyes of the Creator, pledges salvation to the human race. For today the commander of the incorporeal beings comes flying from the arches of heaven to Mary, and in announcing to the Virgin the glad tidings of the Lord’s coming, enfolds her with the glorious words: “Hail, much-graced one, the Lord is with thee,”¹⁴ and through her all Creation is enriched with joy.

The archangel comes to Mary, that fragrant and never-fading flower of the Davidic race, that admirable, great and God-carved ornament of human kind. For this virgin having been, so to speak, from the very swaddling clothes steeped¹⁵ in the virtues, and grown with them, devoted herself to leading a life of the spirit on earth, and having opened the gates of the road to virtue, made entrance possible by her example to those¹⁶ who have an inborn and unquenchable desire to wait on the heavenly bride-chamber. For who, from childhood up, was ever so self-controlled towards pleasures, not those only which disregard bounds and career beyond nature’s limits, nor those which, though we see them practised without the infringement of written laws, yet spring from human motives, but even such as have their seat in the mind and indulge their raptures no further? Nay, the blessed Virgin did not permit even her thoughts to incline towards any of those, but was entirely possessed by divine love, showing and proclaiming in these and all other respects that she had been truly set apart as a bride for the Creator of all, even before her birth. For moreover, having also fettered anger, like some uncouth beast, with her impassive mind as with indissoluble threads, she made her whole soul a holy shrine of meekness, having with steady judgment at no time appeared to weaken the strength of her fortitude, and even at the Lord’s passion, at which she was present, having let fall no word of blasphemy or indignation, which distressed mothers are wont to do at such great suffering of their children. Sufficient evidence of the fortitude and courage which she possessed from the beginning is her strength herein; and the exaltation of her soul was of noble growth. Her unequalled¹⁷ gift of sagacity and a clear understanding bloomed out in deeds and words, by means of which she prudently and on all sides composed and trimmed herself against all the storms of life’s temptations, even those which were roused by the violent hurricane of evil spirits, never allowing any of her wares as much as to touch for a moment the brine of evil.

Thus, while the Virgin by surpassing human standards showed herself worthy of the heavenly bride-chambers, and brightened with her own beauty our unsightly aspect, which the pollution of our ancestors had stained, there appeared Gabriel, ministering to the mystery of the King’s coming, and cried out with unconstrained voice and tongue, “Hail, much-graced one, the Lord is with thee, delivering through thee the whole race from its ancient sorrow and curse.” For this reason David also, the ancestor of God, as he holds his spiritual lyre, appears to dance in his soul at his daughter’s betrothal, and running his prophetic fingers over the psalmic strings, strikes up a sweet song, one that is worthy of the Virgin’s bridal-chambers, and brings salvation to the whole world: “Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and thy father’s house. Because the King hath desired thy beauty, and he is thy Lord,”¹⁸ and of us all; and along with the whole Creation we worship Him with all reverence as our common Lord and the Maker of everything. Hear, O daughter, and incline thine ear to Gabriel’s message, for it is through that, through the most pure tidings given thee, that we have washed off, like a briny sound with the sweet water of speech,¹⁹ the poison of disobedience which the Serpent’s advice instilled into Eve’s ears and so made all humankind to share of that venomous drop, and that we are enabled to submit and hearken only to the commands of our Creator. Hear, O daughter, and receive obediently the tidings of conception: for the substantial²⁰ and co-eternal Word of the Father, not departing from His own essence, nor turning into mere flesh (for that would have been both harmful to humankind, and an extreme insult to divine essence), but keeping²¹ each of the components unmingled in an indissoluble unity, has in a manner befitting God chosen to inhabit thee for our renovation, and mercifully opens wide the heavenly tabernacles for us to dwell in.

What is pleasanter than this joy? What is more splendid than this festival? What is more exalted than the present feast? We are lifted up from the earth; we are raised to the skies. We put off corruption; we put on incorruptibility. We have escaped²² the labours and thorns of the curse; we are enriched with the fruitfulness of the blessing. But having been endowed with the boons of divine grace, let us also contribute the fruits from our own good will: let the soul too be adorned with bridal ornament, and gleam splendidly, bringing in her train no meretricious work of darkness, nor obscuring and dimming the bright attire of our bodies with her own murkiness. Towns often make a marriage connection with other neighbouring towns,²³ and houses arrange a matrimonial exchange between one another, and attract a great crowd, especially persons belonging to the same family, and they are all happy, and flock together, even if no other benefit accrues to them through that exchange. For what great thing is there for them to gain when others are being bound in the child-producing bond of wedlock, and that without having a clear end? And yet each man with great readiness brings wedding gifts to the maiden, one man gold, another silver, another precious stones,²⁴ others strings of pearls, another something else of especial value to adorn and enrich the recipient. But how shall I liken the incomparable, or how shall I delineate that of which no example has existed from the beginning of time? Should not one be afraid to make a comparison,²⁵ and stand in amazement? Yet He who is God, and suffers me to be a man, has Himself mercifully provided me license to draw this comparison too.²⁶ The fellow citizens then, when a girl of their city is given away in marriage, do those things, and not those only, but they also carry lights, and perchance sing the wedding song, and clap their hands, and escort her, and perform every service which is pleasing and agreeable to their hosts. As for us, members of mankind, when the stainless maid, Mary forever virgin, the unblemished daughter of our race, is chosen, not from one city, nor from one nation, but from among all the other maids of the entire universe, alone as bride for the absolute King and Lord of all, what are we to do as an offering worthy of the bridal ceremony? Who will have the means to offer a gift that has attained such measure of value?²⁷ Shall I tell you? And let no one cry out on the hardness of the sacrifice! Hard indeed is the injunction on those who receive it in sloth of spirit; yet is it not the duty of those who proclaim and show to what height the dignity of our nature can attain?²⁸ Nay, the word is not mine, but is of the teaching of the Spirit. Let those not yet married offer virginity:²⁹ for nought is so sweet and pleasing as virginity to the Ever-Virgin. Let those who are bound in matrimony offer their experience of life, and indulgence of nature for procreation, and thereafter continence preserved intact,³⁰ nor insult the former with a second marriage: for continence is akin to, though somewhat different from virginity, fulfilling the blessing of God by the begetting of children, yet preserving traces of virginity by abstaining from wantonness. Let them who have slipped from these two virtues offer repentance for it, and tears, and forgiveness to their debtors, and charity to the poor: for it is good to offer these things as a gift to the Lord, even as a gift that is not owed; and if this be so, then to settle our debt, and thus convert our obligation into free gifts, both in name and in function—which is a windfall exceeding all hope,—is a task requiring great determination, and no lack of eagerness and effort. Let others offer righteousness and regard for alien property: for why dost thou hasten³¹ to cause thy neighbour things which, hadst thou suffered them at the hands of another, thou wouldst have bewailed and bemoaned in lamentation? Let others offer patience in misfortunes and endurance, for suffering these things patiently is not without recompense. Let others offer meekness and hospitality, for these too are conducive to seeing God.³² In any case, let each man who has come to this heavenly and kingly wedding contribute some gift agreeable to the Virgin and worthy of such a bride: for what is offered her, thereat the Bridegroom, our God, rejoices. And by bringing nothing³³ in honour of the betrothed, one will be harshly cast out of the wedding chamber for having insulted the Bridegroom.

If one takes to mind Gabriel, commander of the host, the Virgin’s initiator, the messenger and spokesman of our salvation,³⁴ if one considers that he is sent by the Lord that he may observe each man’s gift, do you think that the contest that lies before everyone of us is a paltry one, and that we are not to run for our very soul, seeing, besides, that he is accounting and busily inquiring as to which of the guests are bringing gifts? Furthermore, if he also put a seal on the one who bore a gift, and registered him worthy of the bridal-chamber and of this holy celebration, while thrusting away and driving out those who brought nothing at all, then would not the one who bore nothing, even before the examination reached him, have been struck and perplexed by the expulsion and condemnation of his like, and so have exposed his own self, even prior to the trial, by the pallor of his face,³⁵ and proclaimed himself unworthy of the festival? I, for one, am afraid lest even now in our midst (for it is not proper that the minister of the divine wedding should be left out of its celebration), indeed I am greatly afraid and alarmed lest even now he is come in our midst, although he is not visible to everybody, to inquire, and to proclaim some worthy of the bride-chamber, others to be thrust far away from its very doors. Therefore, I have fears for both yourselves and for me. As for you, I have for a long time and often advised you to be ready, nor do I cease now from such exhortations as lie in my duty and power; as for me, since I have prepared no worthy gift, I have decided to take refuge in the bridal song of the Ever-Virgin, a song not of passion and coupling, whereof I have as teacher and initiator the minister of this great festival and overseer of the celebration. Perchance, as I sing of him, and busy myself around him, the investigator will spare me and will not send me away, nor, binding me with fetters, inflict upon me the punishment of the guilty for having insulted the King’s wedding, but will count me among the choir of the gift-bearers. For there is, yea, there is such a thing before the merciful Judge, as intensity of desire to take the place of a gift for the otherwise destitute, even if the offering contains nothing worthy of the zeal. Hail, therefore, do I cry out with great striving and desire, both with my mind and my tongue, O Virgin, refuge of my weakness and indigence. Hail, much-graced one, through whom what had been diseased is strengthened, and what had been crushed is recreated, and the devil who strikes with the heel and is the cause of our crushing is slain, suppressed and trampled down. Hail, much-graced one, through whom the bitter verdict against our kind is wiped off by the sweetness of thy tidings, and putting off the ugliness of transgression, we are crowned with the beauty of the divine advent that is from thee. Hail, much-graced one, intelligible and God-made mirror of the inspired prophets’ mystical discernment, in which they mysteriously saw reflected the condescension of the Word to us, and, like trumpets resounding with the divine Spirit, they encompassed the ends of the entire world, noising abroad thy pregnancy. Hail, much-graced one, workshop of the world’s joy, in which the condemnation of the first curse has been melted down, and the dignity of joy through thee has been forged. Hail, much-graced one, whose beauty, kept pure in soul, body and thought, the King of all hath desired,³⁶ for the renovation and recreation of the image decayed through the devices and various rebellions of the Evil one. For this reason the nations will supplicate thee with gifts,³⁷ who through thee have been enriched with piety, and have rid themselves of those ugly wrinkles of alien semblance.³⁸ Mayest thou rejoice, palace not built by hand, in which the King of glory has put on our garment, dyed red with thy virginal blood like imperial purple, and has clothed the unseemly nakedness of our first father. Mayest thou rejoice, who didst lend flesh to the Creator and absolved us from our debt, who didst not undo the bonds of virginity and who torest up the document of sin. Mayest thou rejoice, living ark of God, in which the second Noah, having come to dwell, took in and saved well nigh our entire human race, that had been submerged by the storm of sins, and afforded us models and examples of a second life and a more divine conduct. Mayest thou rejoice, furnace forged by God, in which the Creator, having leavened anew our nature with thy most-pure and virginal substance,³⁹ has cleansed us of that sour and distressing staleness, renovating man into a new creature.

But why attempt to fathom in words a story which even angels are unable to tell, by which all strength of discourse is defeated, every law of laudation is proved inadequate, every human mind becomes dizzy as it begins to grapple with the subject,⁴⁰ and desists, and is held in perplexity? Wherefore it is better to honour the mystery with grateful silence than to incur the accusation of rashness in speech. Already the Bridegroom too, having prepared the time for the banquet, and inviting to the mystical and immortalizing table those who have not been wholly banished from it by their actions, mercifully grants my humble self to perform the sacrifice and act as priest, urging me to the ministration of the mystery. May we all without condemnation be deemed worthy of it through the mediation of the ever-virgin⁴¹ Mother of God, at whose intercession may Christ, our true God, born of her in a manner surpassing words and understanding, show our pious and faithful Emperor terrible to the foe, beloved by his subjects, and deem him worthy, along with us, of the heavenly bridal-chamber. For His is the kingdom, and to Him we send up glory, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost,⁴² now and for ever and ever. Amen.

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