St. John of Ávila: Sermon 65.1 on the Annunciation / Treatise 1 on Mary: Part II

 For an introduction to St. John and this text, as well as Part I of the text, see my previous post here: https://thesaurostesekklesias.blogspot.com/2024/01/st-john-of-avila-sermon-651-on.html

What Bush Is This, Which Burns and Is Not Consumed?

Who will speak?¹ Who will speak the powerful deeds of the Lord (Ps 106:2)? Who will understand His mercies? Have you encountered any book in which you have read the mercies of God? Have you seen a book which tells them?

Moses wandered, pasturing his herd, and set it there in the deepest part of the desert, and, wandering, he, very careless, saw a bramble which burned and was not consumed; he was frightened at how it burned and was not consumed. “Certainly, I have to go there and see this great marvel.” Is there not more, Moses? Is there not more? He goes there, and, as soon as he draws near, he finds that God was in the bramble. See, through your life, he who saw God in the bramble, and [God] spoke to him from there: “Moses, do not come here; you are coming very close; see how the earth where you are is holy.” Is there nothing more except coming to see? “Unshod yourself.” Was he holier by becoming unshod? “Unshod yourself, do not bring your sense, nor your reason, nor your force, nor your knowledge; set aside what avails nothing; you have need of another spirit, another force, another understanding: unshod yourself; you are nothing, you avail nothing; did you think that there would not be more? Glean that you are near God, near Him at Whose Majesty the angels tremble.” God speaks from the bramble: Ego sum Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac, Deus Jacob [I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob] (Ex 3:6). “Marvelous God, and you are in the bramble? What does Your Majesty command?” “I have ears to hear and eyes to see the pains which My people suffer: I have heard the voices which they make to Me in Egypt: I have seen their affliction, and, come what may, I have descended here to free them. Glean that I command you to go to Pharaoh, and tell him this, and this on My behalf.” Admirable is the vision, certainly, but marvelous is its completion. Who will understand the mercies of the Lord (Ps 107:43)? Who His counsel? What is this? What is this? If we enter into the desert, if we take our sheep to the most secret [place], if we retreat to the deepest interior of our hearts, we will see the vision of God, that He is near, that He burns and is not consumed, that our eyes see a pregnant maiden; God is in her, and she is not consumed; she is pregnant and a maiden: if we do not approach to see this mystery, they will say that we go about like fools; remove your reasons and natures, unshod yourselves of your shoes of animal leather, set aside the knowledge and understanding of flesh: Go forth, daughters of Sion, and you will see King Solomon crowned with the crown, with which his mother crowned him on the day of his betrothal (Sgs 3:11). Let us ask our Lady for the grace to know how to receive, and to delight in, and to understand something of this mystery.

Do not come with a profane and dishonest heart: denude your reason, come with feet unshod, untrusting in yourself, separated from yourself, closer to and asking help from God. What is this? Approach a little: what does this Maiden have? What fire is this which she has within her? They will respond to you: “Not an angel nor an angel, but the Lord Himself Who is in her.”² “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, God of Jacob.” O blessed be You, Lord, and glorified forever, and may the angels adore and revere You forever! What does the great God do, enclosed in a maiden? The name of the city of God: Dominus ibidem [the Lord is there] (Ez 48:35): the name of the Son of the Virgin and of God: Emmanuel (Is 7:14). You call the city, you come to the Virgin thinking that there is nothing more; God will respond to you in her: “Behold.” What are You doing, Lord, here, in a maiden? “I saw the work and pains of My people, and the labors and anguishes which they suffer, and I have descended to free them Myself.” O marvelous God! Men and the Prophets, give voices, so that He Who is to come would come already!

The world was captive to the power of the demon, and in great anguish; great were the forces of the demon, and great sorrow was it to see what sin worked in the hearts of men, with efficacy. “There is no other remedy,” says God, “I know what My people suffer, I know their anguishes, I have had compassion on men, on the Holy Fathers in limbo, on the seats which are to be repaired: I have descended and come to free them.” O, glorified be You, Lord, Who comes from one to the other! He sent Moses over there so that His people would be freed by him from their captivity by Pharaoh, and God remained Himself without costing Himself anything: is He here in the same way? No. Descendi ut liberarem populum meum [I descended so that I might liberate My people] (Ex 3:8). “I descended to liberate My people.” What will it cost You? When Moses liberated Your people, You threw many plagues at Pharaoh: You throw dog flies at him, then frogs, then other things which give them great pain and labor: but what must it cost You? What thing is this, Lord? Propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem descendit de cœlis, et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est [For us men, and for our salvation, He descended from the heavens, and He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit from Mary the Virgin, and became man].³ Men, there is a reason to no longer have a heart of stones instead of flesh (Ez 36:26), since the Word of God is become flesh for us men, and for our salvation. God incarnated and became man: over there He remains in the bramble, and they do not touch Him; here, He descends from the heavens, and has become man.

There Is No More; It Was a Marriage For Love

What does God have [in common] with man? Join those extremes for me.

Give me the desire today (if it were not [already] with him who knows so much) to say to Him: “Lord, do You know what You are doing?” What thing is higher than God? What thing lower than man? God and man! Since Adam sinned, “man” is a name of dishonor, since man and sinner are one and the same thing. And when Saint Paul wants to rebuke someone, he calls him “man”:⁴ Non ne homines estis [Are you not men]? (1 Cor 3:4). And the Psalmist: Ut sciant gentes, quoniam homines sunt [That the nations may know that they are men] (Ps 9:20). May they know that they are men, that they are sinners, and miserable. Who could ever think such a thing? That heaven is with the ground? That the high is with the low? That the rich is with the poor? That the pure is with the dirty? That the gold is with the mud of man? What is this, Lord, that you have so truly joined with man? Erunt duo in carne una [The two will be one flesh] (Mk 10:8). What is it to become man? He becomes man, and He does not leave off being God; two natures and one person; in such a manner that He is called God, God man, and man God, and that which is said of the one, is said of the other. They are married. O mira Dei usque ad hominem exinanitio! O mira hominis usque ad Deum exaltatio! [O marvelous emptying of God towards man! O marvelous exaltation of man towards God!]⁵ God descends unto becoming man, and raises man towards God: how low, and how high!

So that you might know how much God and His goodness can do, God is abased to become man, as far as joining with humanity, and [as far as] giving it the hypostasis⁶ and personality of God, and there are not two hypostaseis, but two natures joined, human and divine nature; and the human is impersonal, it is hypostasized and joined to the divine Word, not two persons, but one, in order to make you understand that the goodness of God could, without any reward, raise that humanity to hypostasize it in God, and to adorn it with so many excellences and graces; and that He Who had goodness for this, will have it to raise you yourself from the dung, so that you might be a son of God by participation; that He did this for this [reason], so that you would see in the head that which was to pass in the members. That, as He thus came to it without rewards, so He will come to you yourself without yours: Præclarissimum nobis proponitur exemplar prædestinationis nostræ Dominus Jesus [The Lord Jesus is proposed to us as a clearest exemplar of our predestination].⁷ The example of predestination—if you are predestined, if God calls you—is justifying and saving, because it is predestined by grace.

Today the Word is wedded with that holy soul and body. Wedded, Lord? For this reason He said [it], so that I would tell it to you if you did not know it: “wedded.” Take that equality away from me! Are there those here who understand marriage? Take that equality away from me in the manner of lineage! Are they equal in one? What goes from lineage to lineage? From knowledge to knowledge? From riches to riches? A greatest difference, which all the angels are terrified to hear of. Who sees God descend today and abase Himself? (I say God abases Himself, not by changing place, but rather, I mean to say, by taking that humanity.) It was an unequal thing; but, to the end, that soul and body were most clean and holy: Your love, Lord, undergoes all of it, suffers all of it, enriches all of it in exchange for performing mercies. O great good, O great honor! Do you think that there is nothing else [to do] except wedding Yourself with that humanity? O my King, even the relatives of the Spouse are very unequal, poor and disobedient! If one would come from the Indies with much money, if they knew that he gave alms, what would the poor relatives do in order to demand it and take it from him! Then see, Lord, that Your Spouse owes nothing, never sinned, was most clean in her conception: then see how much we, the relatives, owe, how weighted with debts we are, how infirm, exiled, condemned to death, unraveled, and enemies of God, with a thousand debts and traps, and all would be laid upon You. If You were not, Lord, Who You are, I would tell You: “Lord, do You know what You are doing? All the sins of men would be laid upon Your shoulders: You would have to pay it, upon You would all fall, since nothing would be remitted You.

“Do You know with whom You are wedded? Do You not dishonor Yourself with the relatives of the betrothed? Son of the Father, so rich in heaven, do You come here, to earth, to wed Yourself, and to live among so poor a people? If You were, Lord, some avaricious man whom the needs of others would not move, there would not be much in it; but, being Yourself, Lord, so amorous, so merciful, and You Who gives Your heart⁸to him whom You see in need, how do You place Yourself among such poor men? What have You done? That the needs of all would be laid upon Your shoulders, and that which the other sinned in his flesh, and that which the other sinned in his madness, and the other in his adulterizing and in his blaspheming. What have You done, Lord? I have to say it, Lord. Blessing the heavens and the earth: I will do it, since You love the ugly, and he appears handsome to You.” There is nothing more; it was a wedding for love, the Father well loved, so that He gave even the Son to us in such a marriage: Sic Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret [God so loved the world, that He would give His only-begotten Son] (Jn 3:16). The Father well loved us, the Son well loved us, He Who consented to such, the Holy Spirit well loved us, He Who ordered such. Why did the Father give Him? So that He would die and they would skin Him, so that they would wed Him with the slave. Here I am, the slave of the Lord. He who is born of a slave woman is a slave, although He be the son of a free man, because birth follows the womb. Is it not so? The Virgin calls herself a slave, and He Who is born of her calls Himself a slave: O Domine quia ego servus tuus sum, et filius ancillæ tuæ [O Lord, for I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid] (Ps 116:16). O Father, I am Your slave, and the son of Your slave! You were a slave, Lord; who shackled You to that cross with nails? The Son of God did not come to be served, but to serve (cf. Mt 20:28). You were a slave of men, since You served them, and they want to thank You for it with hard pains.

O blessed [be] Your goodness, and cursed our illness! That God would send His Son to the world to heal men! What was it, Lord, which moved You? Quæ te vicit clementia, ut ferres nostra crimina ]What clemency conquered You, that You would bear our crimes]?⁹ Would it not be enough to send a Moses? Non angelus, non legatus, ego feci, ego feram, ego portabo, ego salvabo [Not an angel, not a legate, I Myself did, I will bear, I will carry, I will save] (cf. Is 63:9, 46:4).¹⁰ “Hear Me, My people, those whom I bring, reared in My womb,” says the Lord: “I did, I will suffer you, I will carry you, I will save you, I will carry you between My shoulders; because I made You, I will carry you, and I will save you unto old age, unto your canes I will give you hope.” Blessed be You, Lord, since He Who made the vase came to solder it, and He in Whose mold it was made, He Himself came to remedy and mold it! “I want to descend,” says God—what was this? God guard you with love! The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit well loved us. This matter is all love. You do not ask for equality, You do not place Yourself in that work, You do not ask a reason for love: it is love; will there be eyes to see this, that, because of the grand love which He had, He abased Himself and enclosed Himself in the womb of the Virgin, determined to pay and suffer and die for men, and to pay all his debts, even though it costs Him His life?

1Here the “treatise” version of this sermon cuts out numerous lines. The original sermon reads: “Ecce ancilla Domini, etc. ubi supra [Behold the handmaid of the Lord, etc., as above]. The words which, through the mediation of divine favor, will give our sermon a base, the holy Gospel says them in the Mass that is said today, as you have heard. Quis loquetur potentias Domini, auditas faciet omnes laudes eius; quis sapiens custodiet hoc [Who will tell the powerful deeds of the Lord, will make all of His praises heard; which wise man will guard this]? (cf. Ps 106:2)”

2 This line is based on Is 63:9, as found in the Septuagint, which reads (in part), “Not an elder nor an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them.”

3 A quote from the Nicene (Niceno-Constantinopolitan) Creed.

4The sermon version adds another Pauline quote: “Contentiones et rixae [Contentions and strifes] (Gal 5:20), etc.”

5 See St. Thomas of Villanova, Conferences on the Lord’s Natal Day IV.12, in St. Thomas of Villanova, Opera Omnia, Volume IV, Conciones Omnes in D.N. Jesuchristi ac B.V. Mariæ Festa Complectens (Manila: Amigos del Pais, 1883), 47: “Marvelous emptying of God towards flesh, marvelous, too, exaltation of flesh towards God.”

6 In this paragraph, St. John seems to use the word supuesto as a literal translation of the Greek hypostasis, with the related verb supositar meaning “to hypostasize.” Among the older Fathers, the term was used to refer to a nature, substance, or essence, but it later developed the meaning of “person”; where the older Fathers might have spoken of two hypostaseis, the later ones would speak of two ousiai (singular ousia, “essence”), with a single hypostasis, hence the term “hypostatic union.” Since hypostasis literally means “standing” (stasis) “beneath” (hypo), it lent itself to the understanding of the base substance, essence, or nature, but that meaning was changed; it is the later meaning, equivalent to “individual” or “person,” which St. John is referring to with his translation of supuesto (from the Latin suppositus, literally “placed” (positus) “under” (sub), etymologically identical to hypostasis). The DRAE gives a philosophical meaning of supuesto as “every being which is the principle of its own actions,” which also applies to a hypostasis in the later sense. See Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española, 22^nd ed. (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, S.A., 2001), 2112. “Hypostasize” means, at least here, “to unite with a hypostasis,” or “to form a hypostatic union.”

7 See St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, XV.30 (PL 44:981): Est etiam præclarissimum lumen prædestinationis et gratiæ, ipse Salvator, ipse Mediator Dei et hominum homo Christus Jesus [For a clearest light of predestination and grace is the Savior Himself, the Mediator of God and men Himself, the man Christ Jesus]. See also St. Augustine, On the Gift of Perseverance XXIV.67 (PL 45:1033): “There is no more illustrious example of predestination than Jesus Himself, wherefore I also argued this in the first book, and I have decided to recall it at the end of this one: there is, I say, no more illustrious example of predestination than the Mediator Himself.”

8 Literally “innards” (entrañas).

9 Two lines from the hymn Jesu, nostra redemptio, the Office Hymn for the Feast of the Ascension, dating from the 9^th or 10^th century.

10 See n. 6 above on the quote from Is 63:9.

 

 

Sources: Tercera parte de las obras del padre maestro Juan de Ávila... (Madrid: Pedro Madrigal, 1596), II:161-185.
Obras completas del B. Mtro. Juan de Ávila, ed. Luis Sala Balust (Madrid: La Editorial Católica, S.A., 1953), II:1004-1019.

(References given are for the full sermon.)

Translation and Notes ©2024 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.

St. John of Ávila: Sermon 65.1 on the Annunciation / Treatise 1 on Mary: Part I

 Introduction

St. Juan de Ávila (1499-1569) was an Andalusian priest and preacher, brought to new prominence upon being named a Doctor of the Church by the late Pope Benedict XVI on October 7, 2012.  Though he tried to arrange a fraternal community of priests, little came of it outside his immediate circle, and, towards the end of his life, he started sending his interested disciples to the Jesuits.  The majority of his work was focused on being a preacher, for which he was nicknamed the "Apostle of Andalusia."  He was also the first rector of the University of Baeza, which became a model for Jesuit seminaries.  His process of veneration was slow: declared Venerable in 1759 (during the investigation for which the Vatican misplaced manuscripts for dozens of his works), he was not beatified until 1894 and not canonized until 1970.

Being primarily a preacher, it is fitting that a large portion of his writings consists of sermons.  Oddly, when many of these were originally published, shortly after his death, they were instead labelled "Treatises" (tratados).  The most well-known of these is the set of "Treatises on the Most Holy Sacrament," consisting of many, many sermons given around the Feast of Corpus Christi.  There were also groups of "treatises" related to Mary and the Coming of the Holy Spirit.  The sermon begun below was originally published as the first treatise of a set of 10 on the feasts of Mary; in the critical edition of St. John's works, it is labelled Sermon 65.1.  (There is another partial draft of this sermon, which is given the number 65.2.)  I originally translated this sermon from an early edition, where it was labelled a "treatise": there are many textual differences between this and the critical edition of the text, which is taken from a manuscript.  The version I have given below is the text of the original "treatise" edition, though I have broken it up with subheadings borrowed from the critical edition.  Sources for both versions are given at the end.

First Treatise: On the Incarnation of the Son of God

Sermon 65.1: "This Business Is Full of Love"

 

Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. (Lk 1:38)

[Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to your word.]

Exordium: A Day of Good News

Today is the day of good news: if we are silent, a great fault will be ours. Today God became man for men; if He became a stone, what would the stones do today? What thanks they would give Him for such a great mercy and compassion!

The good news that such a day as today brought into the world was first made known to the most sacred Virgin Our Lady, and the true Mother of God. And because, each day that we preach, we say the salutation, asking grace for the Virgin, it is good that we should say it today, since, on such a day as today, it was said.

Gospel of the Annunciation

The holy Gospel recounts today this holy salutation and happy news. Missus est Angelus Gabriel a Deo [The Angel Gabriel was sent by God] (Lk 1:26). When God willed to perform mercy for the world, when He willed to show how far His love reached, I wandered, looking for what day it was, how to name it, and I could not find or know how to give a name to the day which is today. A day of such news, let us call it the day of the mercies of God. Bless the Lord, all His works (Dan 3:57). If we call it the day of the mercies of the world, it is so: if the day of the redemption of captives, it is so; if we call it the day of dispensation, it is so: if the day of giving great alms, it is so too. He Who knew and performed mercy, He knows what will make us understand the day which is today, and He makes us understand how great is the grace which the world received today, and He places it in our hearts, so that we would recognize it and give thanks.

When the time came for God to unfold His mercies in the world, the time to teach men how far it reached, when His mercy was extended—how far?—St. Ambrose says: “You who read this, see the letter and note the most holy mystery; married and pregnant, married with a man, and pregnant with God: married, and pregnant by the Holy Spirit: note so high a mystery.”¹ Each one of our Christian Churches is married with one, and pregnant with other: married with the Prelate, with the Pastor, and pregnant with the other, Who is God eternal: married with man, and pregnant with God, Who is the Prelate, and the Preacher. Souls are married with Him, but there, within, Jesus Christ enters into his innards, and makes them fecund with His virtue and with His word, so that they produce salutary fruits. I do not know how to speak this holy mystery.

“I will hide” (says God) “this from your eyes, this which I do, this great secret no one will know how to speak, no understanding of flesh will reach it (cf. Is 6:10). I know it well, that, on that day, I will remove the ill of the earth, I will remove the sins of the world, I will wash all your stains (cf. Zac 3:9).” Glory be to You, Lord, forever.

The Prophet Daniel said the same thing about today: Consummetur prævaricatio, & finem accipiat peccatum, et deleatur iniquitas, & adducatur justitia sempiterna, & impleatur visio, & prophetia, & ungatur Sanctus Sanctorum (Dan 9:24): he said, that, at this time, the prevarication would be finished, sin would be removed, sempiternal justice would be brought, visions would be completed, when the Holy of Holies were anointed. Today, sin is removed and will be removed, and justice is given. Thus if, in every sermon, we say the salutation to the Virgin, today there is much more reason for it to be there than at any other time.

Since the time came in which God willed to give His mercy, and to teach how far the love which He has for men reached, God sent His messenger, an Archangel, with the embassy, so that he would go bring it to the Virgin. Thus Abraham did when he sent for a spouse for his son Isaac (Gen 24). God calls a Great One of His house, an Archangel, gives Him an embassy, which he goes to bring to a maiden betrothed with a man, whose name was Joseph, and her name was Mary. Oh, blessed be God, that there is a Nazareth, a province very low according to the world’s honor; there God sets His eyes, there the Archangel came, and knew well the house! He takes the figure of a man, enters into the house, finds the Virgin alone and in prayer, falls before her on his knees, there, very close to her, where there are signs unto today: a little marble where the Virgin was, and another were the Archangel was.² He speaks to the Virgin, proposes his embassy to her, and says: Ave gratia plena, Dominus tecum (Lk 1:28): “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you, the Lord be with you (since all is good).” He greeted her as it was usual to greet at that time: “Peace be with you.” The Lord commanded him thus: “When you enter into another house, say: ‘Peace be in this house’” (cf. Lk 10:5). The Gloss says afterwards: “Whoever says peace, let him desire peace, and say all the goods together.”³ Peace be to you, Lady. Saint Luke says, “delight”: all is good. Delight be with you, peace be with you, since He Who will pacify, rejoice, and give delight to the world is coming to you. It is the reason that you should delight, it is the reason, Lady, that you should taste of the fruit that you will give to the world. May God maintain you, God hail you, full of grace, the Lord be with you. A great salutation was that, good news was it.

The blessed maiden was not fickle in belief, like Eve: she raised her eyes and her heart to God, and did not respond. She who is later troubled has virginal modesty. The Virgin saw a man before her, he said to her that she was full of grace, and that she was gracious, and he, praising, troubled her. There is nothing that so troubles the humble, and sounds more ill to her eyes, than to see herself praised. “What will this be? Is it of God, or is it not of God?” Good counsel. What fresh deceit will it be to think that the Holy Spirit comes to one, and for the evil spirit to come instead? And, for this reason, when you see yourself in doubt, ask for light from Our Lord so that you can recognize if that which comes to you is a good spirit, or an evil spirit; and so the Virgin responds nothing.

And as the Archangel saw her so troubled, he provided for her trouble, and said to her: “Ne timeas Maria, invenisti enim graciam apud Deum [Do not fear, Mary, for you have found grace with God] (Lk 1:30). This grace which I tell you is not here, in the eyes of men; I do not bring an embassy of men, I do not come on an ill behalf; the grace which I bring you is not of men, but of God.” Then God assured her. The Angel proposes his embassy: the greatest embassy, the greatest and highest which was ever given. Blessed the woman who thus heard, and the womb which thus received!

“Be attentive, maiden”—the Lord commands you to say—“Ecce concipies, & paries [Behold, you will conceive, & you will give birth] (Lk 1:31). Hear, Lady, these greatnesses: you will conceive and you will bear a Son, and He will be called Jesus, which is to say, ‘Savior.’ He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High, and He will reign, and His kingdom will not have an end, forever.” Oh, blessed be she who gave us such a Son! He will be Great, and He will have, not that small kingdom of Judea, of a hundred leagues: see what a great kingdom, see what a kingdom of a hundred leagues will be given Him, the seat of David His Father, not that kingdom, but the one figured by it; for that kingdom of David was very small, this one [is] very large: that [kingdom] of David [was] temporal, this one [is] spiritual: that [kingdom] of David was ended, the other will never be ended. “The kingdom of David will be given Him, and He will reign in the house of Jacob forever.”

Why did he say “in the house of Jacob,” instead of in that of Abraham or of Isaac? Because, of those who descended from Abraham, Isaac was faithful, Ishmael unfaithful. Among those from Isaac, Jacob was faithful and a great friend of God, and Esau was evil: in the house and family of Jacob, all were faithful and believing. He will reign in the house of Jacob, to wit, among those who know God, among the good, and His kingdom will not be ended. What a gentle Messiah we were to have, who would reign a hundred years, and his kingdom would be ended, and then another would come! Our King and our Messiah will reign forever, and His kingdom will not be ended; just like there, where He is in heaven, here, He reigns and rules; here He maintains you, and defends you, and sustains, and raises grace and pardon of sins, and frees you from demons, consoles you in your labors, and, finally, gives you all goods.

The embassy of the Archangel continues, and says: “This One, your Son, will be called Son of the Most High.” “He will be called”: frasis Hebrea es [it is a Hebrew phrase], which intends to say the same as “He will be.”

What woman would not receive such a Son gladly, without asking nor doubting? Such is the contentment which the most holy Virgin has with regards to her virginity and purity that she responds to the Archangel: “How will this be? This frightens me.” O purity, how loved are you by the Virgin! O purest innards, how sealed in your heart is the love of virginity! Not without cause do you ask: “Angel, how will this be, since I do not know man?” It is not a word of incredulity. See that the Virgin has such love for her purity, that she does not truncate her virginity to become Mother of the Son of God. She does not say if she will or not, since she does not doubt it, but she says: “Teach me how it will be, since I have proposed and determined to not know man.” I have already said this other times, that this is worth as much as when we say here, “I do not eat meat,” I mean to say, “I have the intention to not eat meat for all my life.” “How am I to conceive? Has is this to be? Since I would not want to lose my purity, nor would I want to disobey God. Declare to me what I ask you, if my purity will be guarded, since I well know that for God all will be possible.” What an example for maidens! In all, she wants to do God’s pleasure. O blessed maiden, who does not dare to truncate her virginity to become Mother of the Son of God! How will this be?

The Angel responds that he does not know, that he is not the one who has to understand in this affair, that he comes as a messenger to negotiate, he comes on the part of God, since He Who will do it is the Holy Spirit, since He alone is Holy; “but the power and force of the Most High will overshadow you, will strain you, will teach you, will sustain you: since this matter is not so low that your forces would be enough for it; but the power and forces of the Most High will overshadow you.” (This is a Hebrew phrase.) “And, for this reason, that which will be born of you will be called Holy.” Not masculine, but neuter, so that you will know that He did not take on a person, but our nature. He will be the Son, not of Joseph, not of man, [but] the Son of the Most High, conceived by the Holy Spirit. As He is Holy, He cannot do anything which is not holy: He will be called Son of God. See, maiden, so that you would praise God, so that you would give Him many thanks and see His mercies,” says the Angel, “your relative Elizabeth, since she is old and wise (because you do not fear what I have told you), in her old age has conceived a son, so that you would know that there is nothing impossible with God, and, for this reason I reveal it to you: since that is possible, this too [is possible]. This is the Embassy; I hope for your response, and the Most Holy Trinity hopes for your consent: what do you respond?”

When the sacred Virgin hears the great mercies which the Angel promises her on behalf of God, assured by God that what He promises her will be done, on His part: knees bent, her eyes and heart fixed on heaven, she says humbly and with reverence: Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum [Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Your word] (Lk 1:38). Here is the slave of the Lord, be it done in me according to Your word. In that moment, the divine Word entered into her innards, and the greatest work which was done, and will ever be done, was done. Then, why does she call herself a slave and abase herself? Thus God wills it, and this is the reason why men and angels, and archangels, exalt and confess her, who received such a Son and so abased herself, as Lady, and honor her, and hold her as such, and reverence her in the heavens and on earth: she who knew so well how to abase herself, and to receive the embassy on behalf of God.

The greatest delight did the Virgin receive today with this embassy, and so, now, each time that we say it to her, she is delighted: and, so that we would know how to greet her and recount these mysteries, we ask her that the spirit with which she heard it might raise us, so that we can know how to please her. 

 

1The first publication of this sermon had no quotation marks; the critical edition ends the quote here. St. John seems to be very loosely paraphrasing St. Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke II.1: “Indeed, divine mysteries lie hidden, nor is it easy, in accord with the Prophetic saying, for any man to be able to know the counsel of God, and yet, from certain facts and precepts of the Lord of Salvation, we can understand and be closer to this counsel, that she who was betrothed to a man was most powerfully chosen, so that she would give birth to God” (PL 15:1551D-1552D).

2 St. John never visited the Holy Land, as far as we know; he is probably reporting what he has heard about it.

3 The Glossa Ordinaria says, “Having described the various hospitalities of the house, He also teaches the pious what they should do in the cities: share in everything, separate from all society with the impious.” See Blblia sacra cum glossis interlineari et ordinaria et Nicolai Lyrani Postilla… (Venice, 1588), V:152.

Sources: Tercera parte de las obras del padre maestro Juan de Ávila... (Madrid: Pedro Madrigal, 1596), II:161-185.
Obras completas del B. Mtro. Juan de Ávila, ed. Luis Sala Balust (Madrid: La Editorial Católica, S.A., 1953), II:1004-1019.

 

Translation and Notes ©2024 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.