Lessons from the Life of the Virgin
In the blessings of the Feast of the Glorious Nativity, we would like to speak about the Saint of the Nativity, the Virgin Lady, full of grace, and why the Lord chose her specifically for this great glory.
Lessons from the Life of the Virgin (1)
God promised humanity salvation and said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Thousands of years passed until this salvation was accomplished. Perhaps one of the most important reasons for this waiting was that the Lord was awaiting the holy, pure maiden in whose womb He could dwell.
The fullness of time was waiting for this holy maiden. Thousands of women were found on earth. Each one of them desired that Christ might be born from her, to the extent that barrenness in that time was considered a disgrace… Yet the Lord did not dwell in the womb of any one of those thousands of women.
There had to be a maiden of a special kind, worthy for the Lord to take from her a body. Not every maiden was fit for this matter. There had to be one distinguished by special qualities that would qualify her for this great work… And the Virgin Mary was this one for whom the long generations had waited.
So what are the qualities that qualified her for this glory and this blessedness?
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The Humility of the Virgin
The first required quality was humility. Christ our humble God had to choose a humble maiden to be born from her.
This is because the humble maiden is the only one who can bear this great glory by which she is called “The Mother of God”…
Indeed, who is able to bear this great title that has not been given to any other woman in existence? Who can bear the holy divine conception, knowing that the Holy Spirit comes upon her and the power of the Most High overshadows her, and knowing that the Holy One born of her will be called the Son of God? Who can bear this? And who can also bear the appearances of angels, the abundance of visions, miracles, and wonders that accompany the presence of God the Word within her and with her? … Can any maiden or woman bear all this glory and all the praise and blessing she encounters?!
If she were not a humble maiden, contrite of heart inwardly, all this honor would inevitably shake her and weary her. Therefore, there had to be a maiden whose depth of humility equaled the height of that honor. Here the exaltation of the Virgin appears.
In the world, there are many women who cannot bear even a small amount of worldly glory, however trivial it may be—how much more divine glory or spiritual glory… A woman whose son ranks first in his class cannot bear the joy and goes around visiting houses, saying in every visit and to everyone, “My son is first in his class.” Another woman, if her son becomes a doctor, or even merely enters medical school, insists that people call her “the doctor’s mother.” Another woman, if her son travels abroad on a scholarship, tries to create an occasion—appropriate or not—to announce to people that her son has traveled on a mission…!
What would happen then if the son of one of these were God—God forbid… No doubt she would lose her mind and would not be able to bear it. Therefore, God had to choose a humble maiden who could bear all this honor.
This is clear in the Virgin’s hymn when she says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… for He has regarded the humility of His maidservant” (Luke 1:48).
“He has regarded the humility of His maidservant”—her lowliness, her need, her orphanhood, and her poverty—and He did not choose another maiden of great status, exalted in the eyes of people. On the contrary, “He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the humble.”
We note here that she said “His maidservant,” meaning His servant and handmaiden. She used the same expression to the angel: “Behold, I am the maidservant of the Lord” (Luke 1:38). She said “His maidservant” while she is “His mother”…
The wondrous Annunciation did not lift up the heart of the Virgin; she remained as she was in her humility. She was not exalted when she was chosen above all the women of the world in all generations for this glory and blessedness. Rather, she remained as she was in her humility, as though nothing had happened. When she heard that Elizabeth was pregnant in her old age, she hastened to place herself in her service.
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The Virgin’s Visit to Elizabeth
The holy Virgin heard from the angel that Elizabeth was pregnant in her old age and that she was in her sixth month, so she realized that she was undoubtedly in need of service. She did not disdain to go to her and stand by her side to serve her.
She did not say to herself, “How can I go to serve this old woman, while I am full of grace, chosen from among all the women of the world, blessed among women, carrying in my womb God the Word…!” Rather, she hastened, went up into the hill country while pregnant, and went to her in humility. Elizabeth sensed the humility of the Virgin in this honorable visit, and she said to her, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43).
This visit gives us a lofty idea about the meetings of the saints and the nature of holy visits: a wondrous visit in which the Holy Spirit works, all of it spiritual speech and praise to God. No one spoke idle or excessive words; rather, everything was for edification. Moreover, in it each one humbled herself before the other: the Virgin humbles herself and comes to serve Elizabeth, and Elizabeth says in humility to the Virgin, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
It was a visit that gave an idea of the wondrous status of the Virgin before God…
For at the very utterance of the greeting that Mary the Virgin gave to Elizabeth, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, and the child leaped with joy in her womb. See what Scripture says: “And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41). Elizabeth confessed this when she said to the Virgin, “For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”
Believe me, I stood astonished before these wondrous phrases…!
What is this great gift that the Virgin possesses?! Merely that her greeting enters the ear of Elizabeth, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit… This is truly amazing… Imagine a person entering a house and saying to those present, “Good morning, everyone,” and they are filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesy!!… This is what happened through the Virgin. The Lord showed us that from the very first moment of the holy conception, He granted this great honor to the vessel in which He dwelt… And this wonder is deepened by the fact that it happened merely by the greeting: that is, the Virgin did not place her hand on Elizabeth’s head, did not offer a prayer for her, did not intercede for her, nor bless her with a word of blessing. But merely by greeting her, all those blessings came…
Are you like this, my brother: when you visit a house, are its inhabitants filled with the Holy Spirit and gifts descend upon them… and is the house blessed by your presence, just as the presence of the Virgin was a blessing in the house of Elizabeth, and as Elijah was in the house of the widow, and Elisha in the upper room of the Shunammite? May you be like this. Let me return once again to continue our contemplations on Mary’s visit to Elizabeth:
We notice in this visit that the spirit of revelation and unveiling began to work in Saint Elizabeth… God lifted the veil from her, and she began to see hidden and veiled things… What are the indications of this? We will now see:
Elizabeth said to Mary, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
How did she know that this was “the mother of her Lord”? How did she know that the Lord had dwelt in her? Is it not true that Saint Elizabeth perceived what Arius and Nestorius failed to perceive hundreds of years later, despite their scholarly and priestly stature?! Moreover, how did Elizabeth know of the Virgin’s conception so as to say, “Blessed is the fruit of your womb”? And how did she know that the Virgin “believed what was spoken to her from the Lord”?
How was she able to know what the angel said to the Virgin, when the Virgin had not yet told her anything…?! Truly, “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,” as Scripture says (Psalm 25:14). She not only knew “what was spoken to her from the Lord” and her faith in it, but she also greeted the Virgin with the same phrase the angel had said to her: “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:28, 42)… This is amazing…
Before the greatness of the Virgin—or rather, before the greatness of her Son—Elizabeth became small and diminished, and forgot what was said about the greatness of her own son… It was said about her son that “he will be great in the sight of the Lord,” that “he will turn many to the Lord their God,” that “he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,” that “he will make ready a people prepared for the Lord,” and that “many will rejoice at his birth.” But all this diminished before what was said to the Virgin by the Lord… Elizabeth forgot all the greatness of her son while standing before the mother of her Lord. Just as John disappeared so that Christ might appear, so too did his greatness disappear—while still a fetus—before the greatness of the divine fetus. As the poet says, “In the rising of the sun, who can see the stars?”
The Virgin stayed with Elizabeth for three months, remaining with her throughout the last months of pregnancy until she gave birth… This shows us another beautiful quality: the spirit of service in the Virgin. She was a serving maiden who loved serving others and toiling for their sake. She was like her Son, who “did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Her love for serving people continued with her constantly and was the cause of Christ’s first miracle at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. When she saw that the wine had run out and the matter had become embarrassing for the hosts of the wedding, since they had nothing to offer the guests, the heart of the Virgin was moved with compassion for them. She interceded for them with her beloved Son to resolve the problem, then spoke to the servants and said to them, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:3–5). For her sake, Christ performed the miracle, and the people rejoiced at their wedding.
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Sixth Year (Issue Three), 17-1-1975.
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