Homilies on Luke — Homily 6 (Luke 1:24–33)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Luke, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 391), from the reading text of M. Rauer (ed.), Origenes Werke IX (GCS 35, Leipzig, 1930). This English translation is released into the public domain.Concerning what is written: "But when Elizabeth had conceived, she hid herself", up to the place where it says: "He shall be great".
"When Elizabeth conceived, she hid herself for five months, saying: for thus has the Lord done for me in the days in which he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men". I ask for what reason, after she understood that she was pregnant, she withdrew from the public eye? Unless I am mistaken, this is the reason: Even those who are joined in marriage do not have every time free for intercourse between themselves, but there is a time when they withdraw from the work of marriage. For if a man be old and a woman aged, it is a matter of the greatest shame for them to be slaves to lust, to be slaves to the conjugal act, when they seem, by the decay of the body and by old age and by the will of God, to have been lifted above such things. But this woman, because at the word of the angel and by the dispensation of God she had again been joined to her husband, was ashamed that, being aged and almost decrepit, she had returned to the work of the young. Hence too she "hid herself for five months" — not until the ninth month, until the birth pressed upon her, but until such time as Mary also should conceive. For when Mary conceived and came to her, and "the greeting was made in" her "ears", "the infant leapt for joy in the womb" of Elizabeth, and she prophesied. And, filled "with the Holy Spirit", she spoke those things which the Gospel narrative describes. And "these words were spread abroad throughout all the hill country". For when a rumor went out among the people that she had a prophet in her womb, and that what she carried was greater than a man, then she is no longer hidden, but with all freedom she reveals herself and rejoices that she has in her womb the forerunner of the Savior.
Then Scripture recalls that "in the sixth month" of Elizabeth's conception "the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, whose name was Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary". Again, turning it over in my mind, I ask why God, when once he had determined that the Savior should be born of a "virgin", did not choose a girl without a betrothed, but rather her especially who had already been "betrothed". And unless I am mistaken, this is the reason: He ought to be born of that virgin who not only had a betrothed, but, as Matthew writes, had already been handed over to a man, although the man did not yet know her, lest her very condition should display the shame of a virgin, if she were seen to be a virgin with a swelling womb. Hence I found it elegantly written in the letter of a certain martyr — I mean Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch after Peter, who in the persecution at Rome fought against the beasts: "the virginity of Mary was hidden from the prince of this world"; it was hidden because of Joseph, hidden because of the marriage, hidden because she was thought to have a husband. For if she had not had a betrothed and, as was supposed, a husband, she could in no way have been hidden from "the prince of this world". For at once a silent thought would have crept upon the devil: how is this woman, who has not lain with a man, pregnant? This conception must be divine, it must be something loftier than human nature. On the contrary, the Savior had arranged his dispensation and the assumption of a body so that the devil should not know it: hence in his birth he concealed him, and afterward he charged his disciples "not to make him manifest". And when he was tempted by the devil himself, he nowhere confessed himself to be the Son of God, but answered only: it is not fitting that I should worship you, nor that I should make these stones into bread, nor that I should cast myself down from on high. And while he said these things, he was always silent that he was the Son of God. Look also in another Scripture, and you will find that it was Christ's will that the devil should not know the coming of the Son of God. For the Apostle, affirming that the opposing powers did not know his passion, says: "we speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who are brought to nothing; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory". The mystery of the Savior, therefore, was hidden from the princes of this world. But as for what can be objected on the contrary, it seems to me it must be resolved before it is put forward by another — namely, by what reasoning that which was hidden from the princes of this world was not hidden from the demon who spoke in the Gospel: "have you come here before the time to torment us? we know who you are, the Son of God". But consider that the lesser in malice knew the Savior; whereas he who is greater in wickedness and crafty and vile, by that very fact that he is greater in evil, is hindered from knowing the Son of God. We ourselves too, if we have less of evil, can more easily advance to virtue; but if there be more of evil in us, we must sweat with immense labor to be freed from the greater malice. So much concerning the fact that Mary had a betrothed. But because the angel greeted Mary with a new form of speech, which I could not find in all of Scripture, a few things must be said about this also. For what he says, "Hail, full of grace", which in Greek is "κεχαριτωμένη" (one filled with grace), where I have read it elsewhere in the Scriptures I do not recall; nor is such a form of speech addressed to a man — "hail, full of grace". This greeting was reserved for Mary alone. For if Mary had known that such a word had been spoken to any other as well — for she had knowledge of the Law and was holy and had come to know the oracles of the prophets by daily meditation — the greeting would never have terrified her as something strange. On account of this the angel says to her: "fear not, Mary! for you have found grace before the Lord. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High". Of John also it is said, "he shall be great", and Gabriel the angel testifies to this very thing; but when Jesus came, truly great, truly exalted, he who before had been "great" was made lesser. For "he", he says, "was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a while to rejoice in his light". The greatness of our Savior did not appear then, when he was born, but now — after he seemed to be crushed by his adversaries — it has shone forth.
See the greatness of the Lord: "into all the earth has the sound of his teaching gone out, and his words unto the ends of the world". Our Lord Jesus, because he is the power of God, has been poured out over the whole world, and at the present moment is with us according to that which is read in the Apostle: "when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus". The power of the Lord and Savior is both with those who are separated from our world in Britain, and with those in Mauritania, and with all who under the sun have believed in his name. See, then, the greatness of the Savior, how it has been poured out over the whole world — and certainly I have not yet set forth his true greatness. Ascend into the heavens and see him, how he has filled the heavenly places: for indeed "he appeared to the angels". Descend in thought into the depths, and you will see that he descended there also. For "he who descended is the same also who ascended, that he might fill all things", "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth". Consider the power of the Lord, how he has filled the world — that is, the heavenly and the earthly and the infernal things — how he has penetrated heaven itself and ascended to the things above. For we read that the Son of God passed through the heavens. If you see these things, you will likewise perceive that it was not said in passing, "he shall be great", but that the word was fulfilled in deed. Great is our Lord Jesus, both present and absent, and he grants a share of his strength even to this gathering and assembly of ours; and that we each may deserve to receive it, let us beseech the Lord Jesus: to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.