Homilies on Luke — Homily 8 (Luke 1:46–51)
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: "My soul magnifies the Lord", up to the place where it says: "he has done a mighty deed for those who fear him".
Before John, Elizabeth prophesies; before the birth of the Lord and Savior, Mary prophesies. And just as sin began from a woman and thereafter proceeded onward to the man, so too the beginning of salvation took its origin from women, that other women also, laying aside the frailty of their sex, might imitate the life and manner of conduct of these holy women, and above all of those who are now described in the Gospel. Let us therefore examine the virgin's prophecy. "My soul", she says, "magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God my Savior". Two things, "the soul" and "the spirit", discharge a twofold praise. The soul proclaims the Lord, the spirit God: not that the praise of the Lord is one thing and the praise of God another, but because he who is God is the same as the Lord, and he who is the Lord is the same as God. It is asked how "the soul magnifies the Lord". For if the Lord can receive neither increase nor diminishment and is what he is, on what account does Mary now say: "My soul magnifies the Lord"? If I consider the Lord and Savior to be "the image of the invisible God", and see that my soul was made "according to the image of its Creator", so as to be an image of the Image — for my soul is not specifically an image of God, but was made after the likeness of the prior Image — then I will see that, after the example of those who are accustomed to paint images, and, having received (for instance) the single face of a king, to apply the diligence of their art to expressing the principal likeness, each one of us, forming his soul according to the image of Christ, sets in it either a greater or a lesser image, whether faded or dirty, or bright and shining and answering to the likeness of the principal Image. When therefore I have made the image of the Image, that is, my soul, great, and have magnified it by deed, by thought, by word, then the image of God is made great, and the Lord himself, whose image it is, is magnified in our soul. And just as the Lord grows in our image, so, if we are sinners, he is diminished and decreases. Or rather, the Lord is neither diminished nor decreases, but we, in place of the image of the Savior, put on other images for ourselves; in place of the image of the Word, of wisdom, of justice, and of the other virtues, we assume the form of the devil, so that it is said of us: "serpents, brood of vipers". But we are also clothed with the persona of a lion and of a dragon and of foxes, when we are venomous, cruel, cunning, and also of a he-goat, when we are more prone to lust. I remember once, when discoursing on Deuteronomy at that place where it is written: "do not make any likeness of male or of female, the likeness of any animal", that I said that it is "the spiritual law" that some make themselves the image of a male, others of a female, that this one has the likeness of birds, that one of reptiles and serpents, and that another makes himself the likeness of God. How these things are to be understood, he will know who has also read those passages. "The soul" of Mary, then, first "magnifies the Lord", and afterward "the spirit exults in God"; for unless we have first believed, we cannot exult. "Because he has looked", she says, "upon the lowliness of his handmaid". Upon what lowliness of Mary did the Lord look? What did the mother of the Savior have that was lowly and cast down, she who bore the Son of God in her womb? So then, when she says: "he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid", it is as though she had said: "he has looked" upon the justice of his handmaid, "he has looked" upon her temperance, "he has looked" upon her fortitude and wisdom. For it is fitting that God should look upon the virtues. Let someone answer and say: I understand how God looks upon the justice and wisdom of his handmaid; but how he regards her lowliness is not sufficiently clear. Let him who inquires into such things consider that in the Scriptures, properly speaking, one of the virtues is proclaimed as "lowliness" (humility). For the Savior says: "learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls". But if you wish to hear the name of this virtue, how it is called even by the philosophers, listen — that it is the same "lowliness" upon which God looks, which is called by them ἀτυφία (freedom from vanity) or μετριότης (moderation). But we too can name it by a certain circumlocution, when someone is not puffed up, but casts himself down. For he who is puffed up falls, according to the Apostle, "into the judgment of the devil" — since he too began from inflation and pride —; "lest", he says, "being puffed up he fall into the judgment of the devil". "He has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid". God, she says, has looked upon me as lowly and pursuing the virtue of gentleness and of self-abasement. "For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed". If I understand "all generations" simply, I interpret it of those who believe. But if I have searched out something more deeply, I will observe how great is the advance signified by saying: "because he who is mighty has done great things for me": for since "everyone who humbles himself will be exalted", and God "has looked upon the lowliness" of blessed Mary, therefore "he who is mighty has done" for her "great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is unto generations of generations". The "mercy" of God is extended not unto one generation, nor unto two, nor unto three, nor even unto five, but forever "from generation unto generation". "For those who fear him he has done a mighty deed with his arm". Though you come to the Lord weak, if you have feared him, you will be able to hear the promise which the Lord pledges to you on account of your fear of him. What is this promise? "For those who fear him", she says, "he has done a mighty deed". A mighty deed, or dominion, is royal power. For indeed κράτος, which we may call "dominion", is so named from the fact that it holds command, or contains all things under itself. If therefore you have feared the Lord, he gives you strength or dominion, he gives you a kingdom, so that, made subject to the "King of kings", you may possess "the kingdom of heaven" in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.