Homilies on Luke — Homily 7 (Luke 1:39–45)
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: "And Mary, rising up, went with haste into the hill country", up to the place where it says: "there will be a fulfillment of those things which have been spoken".
Those who are better come to those who are worse, in order to grant them some benefit by their coming. So too the Savior came to John, that he might sanctify John's baptism; and Mary, as soon as she heard the angel announcing that she had conceived the Savior and that her kinswoman Elizabeth had a child in her womb, "rose up and went with haste into the hill country, and entered the house of Elizabeth". For Jesus, who was in her womb, was hastening to sanctify John, still set within his mother's belly. Indeed, before Mary came and greeted Elizabeth, the "infant did not leap in the womb"; but as soon as Mary spoke the word which the Son of God had prompted in the belly of His mother, "the infant leaped for joy", and then for the first time Jesus made His forerunner a prophet.
It was fitting also that Mary, most worthy of the offspring of God, should after the angel's address go up into the hill country and dwell in the loftier places. Whence it is written: "Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country". It was fitting too that she, since she was not sluggish in her earnestness, should hasten with earnest care, and, being full of the Holy Spirit, should be led up to the loftier places and be protected by the power of God, by which she had already been overshadowed. She came therefore "into a city of Judah and into the house of Zechariah, and greeted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the infant leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit".
There is therefore no doubt that she who then "was filled with the Holy Spirit" was "filled" on account of her son! For the mother did not first merit the Holy Spirit, but rather, when John, still enclosed in the womb, had received the Holy Spirit, then she too, after the sanctification of her son, "was filled with the Holy Spirit". You will be able to believe this if you learn something similar also concerning the Savior. Blessed Mary is found—as we have discovered in a good number of copies—to prophesy. For we are not unaware that, according to other manuscripts, it is Elizabeth who utters these words in prophecy. Mary, then, was filled with the Holy Spirit at that time when she began to have the Savior in her womb. For as soon as she received the Holy Spirit, the fashioner of the Lord's body, and the Son of God began to be in her womb, she herself too was filled with the Holy Spirit.
The "infant", then, "leaped in the womb of Elizabeth, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed art thou among women". In this place we must, lest any of the simple be deceived, refute the objections that heretics are accustomed to raise. For a certain man—I know not who—broke out into such madness as to assert that Mary was disowned by the Savior, on the ground that after His birth she was joined to Joseph; and he spoke words which, with what sort of mind he uttered them, he himself who spoke them knows. If therefore heretics should ever bring some such objection against you, answer them and say: Surely Elizabeth, full "of the Holy Spirit", says: "blessed art thou among women". If Mary is proclaimed blessed by the Holy Spirit, how did the Savior disown her? Furthermore, as for their assertion that she married after the birth, they have no source from which to prove it; for those sons who were called Joseph's were not born of Mary, nor is there any Scripture which mentions such a thing.
"Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" This which she says, "whence is this to me?" she does not say out of ignorance—and least of all when full of the Holy Spirit, as though she did not know that according to the will of God the mother of the Lord had come to her; but she speaks in this sense: what good have I done? what works of mine are so great that the mother of the Lord should come to me? through what righteousness, by what good deeds, by what fidelity of mind have I merited this, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? "For behold, as soon as thy greeting came into my ears, the infant leaped for exultation in my womb". Holy was the soul of blessed John, and while still enclosed in his mother's womb and yet to come into the world he knew Him whom Israel did not know; whence he "leaped", and not simply "leaped", but "for joy". For he had perceived that his Lord had come to sanctify His servant, before he came forth from his mother's belly. Would that it might befall me to be called a fool by the unbelieving, I who have believed such things. The work itself and the truth show that I have believed not in folly but in wisdom, since this which is reckoned foolishness among them becomes for me the occasion of salvation. For unless the nativity of the Savior had been heavenly and blessed, unless it had had something divine and surpassing the humanity of men, His teaching would never have penetrated throughout the whole world. If there had been only a man in Mary's womb and not the Son of God, how could it have come to pass that both at that time and now the manifold diseases not only of bodies but also of souls should be cured? Which of us was not foolish, we who now through the mercy of God have understanding and know God? Who was not without faith in righteousness, we who now for Christ's sake have righteousness and follow after righteousness? Which of us was not wandering and astray, we who now, on account of the coming of the Savior, are not tossed about and troubled, but are on the way—namely, in Him who says: "I am the way"? We can also, gathering together the rest, see that all the things which have been written concerning Him are reported as worthy of divine wonder, since both His nativity and His nurture and His power and His passion and His resurrection work in us not only at that time but even now. Who gathered you, O catechumens, into the church? What goad drove you to leave your homes and come together into this assembly? For we do not go around your houses one by one, but the almighty Father by an invisible power lays upon your hearts—upon those whom He knows to be worthy—this ardor, so that as though unwilling and drawing back you come to the faith, especially at the beginning of religion, when, as though trembling and fearful, you take up the faith of salvation with fear. I beseech you, O catechumens: do not draw back, let none of you dread and be afraid, but follow Jesus who goes before you. He draws you to salvation, He gathers you into the church—now indeed upon the earth, but, if you bring forth worthy fruits, into the "church of the firstborn, who are written in the heavens". "Blessed is she who believed", and blessed is he who believed, because there will be a fulfillment for these things "which have been spoken" to her "by the Lord". Over these things Mary also "magnifies" the Lord Jesus. And "the soul magnifies the Lord, the spirit magnifies God". What interpretation these words have, if the Lord grants that we be gathered together again into the church—so that you may come joyfully to the house of God and lend your ears to the divine reading—we shall inquire, we shall sift, we shall discourse, in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.