And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.
All Commentaries on Luke 1:38 Go To Luke 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And Mary said, &c. Mark the humility, modesty, and resignation of the Virgin, for though saluted by the angel as Mother of God, she calls herself His handmaid, not His mother; handmaid by nature, mother by grace. Pet. Dam. (Serm3de Nativ. Virg.). And S. Bernard (Serm. in Apoc12) says, "A great sign: deservedly she made mistress of all who declared herself servant of all."
Be it unto me (Fiat). This word shows that she consented and yielded her assent to the angel with respect to the conception of the Word; also that she wished, desired, and earnestly prayed for the Incarnation of the Messiah, so that He might redeem and save mankind. For this the Blessed Virgin most ardently desired and prayed for. "Be it Song of Solomon , is a mark of desire, not a sign of doubt." S. Bernard (Serm4sup. Missus Est).
There is a question at what precise moment the Son of God became carnate1. Andrew* of Crete is of opinion that He was incarnate before the angel came to the Blessed Virgin. For his words, the Lord is with thee, clearly signify that the King Himself had come.
2. Nicephorus maintains that Christ became incarnate when the angel saluted her and said Hail, thou art full of grace (Lib1. c8). S. Jerome ( Ephesians 140) and S. Gregory Thaumaturgus favour this opinion.
3. Others appear to think that He became incarnate when the Angel said The Lord is with thee. S. Augustine (Serm2de Annunc.) and S. Thomas (3 p. qu30 art4) and others so explain it.
But these opinions cannot be true; because the angel after the Hail, &c. adds, Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb; therefore she had not yet conceived. Again the Blessed Virgin giving her assent to the angel says, Be it unto me according to thy word; therefore it had not yet taken place.
I say then that the Word was incarnate as soon as the Blessed Virgin had given her assent to the angel; for he was sent for this purpose; for it was not fitting that Christ should be conceived without the consent or knowledge of His Virgin Mother; as soon then as she had spoken the words, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, Be it unto me according to thy word, the Holy Spirit formed the Body of Christ, and joined It Hypostatically to the Word, or Person of the Son of God; in the same way as when the priest in consecration says, This is my Body, by the power of these words the bread is transubstantiated into the Body of Christ. This again is clear from the fact that as soon as the Virgin had given her consent the angel, having, as it were, fulfilled his mission, departed from her. It is confirmed too by the fact that soon after the Blessed Virgin had said, Be it unto me, &c, when she saluted Elizabeth, being saluted by her in return she was called the Mother of the Lord, i.e. of Christ Who is God. The Virgin, therefore, when she said, Be it unto me, &c, was made as it were the spouse of God, and our flesh was made the spouse of the Word.
To those who maintain a contrary opinion it may be replied—1. that Andrew of Crete seems to have been of an opposite opinion, but that he was alone in maintaining it; for the rest contradict him2. That Nicephorus by the words Hail, &c, understands the whole of the salutation and annunciation made by the angel, at the end of which the Word was made flesh. 3. S. Augustine, S. Thomas, and Damian are to be understood (when they say the Lord is with thee) not as to what had already taken place, but as to what was immediately going to take place.
The Blessed Virgin in the conception of the Son received an extraordinary increase of grace and perfect sanctification; and this, says Suarez, may not be doubted without temerity. Whence Bede (Hom. de. Visit.) says, "Who can say or measure what grace then filled the spirit of the Mother of God, when so great a light from heaven shone forth in the mother of His forerunner?" S. Bernard gives a reason for this (Vol1 , conclus61 , art1 , cap12), "In order that God should generate God, no especial arrangement was needed on the part of God, since according to His nature it was fitting that in the way of nature His intellect should produce the Word, in all things equal to Himself; but that a woman should conceive and bring forth God is and was a miracle; for there was a necessity, so to say, that she should be raised to a certain divine equality by means of a certain quasi-infinity of perfections and graces, which equality no creature had ever experienced. Whence, as I believe, no human or angelic intellect has ever been able to attain to that inscrutable abyss of all gifts of the Holy Spirit which descended on the Blessed Virgin in the hour of the Divine conceptions."
And the angel departed from her. The Blessed Virgin made known to some that Gabriel did not depart immediately, but stayed with her for nine hours, being overcome with astonishment at the Incarnation of the Word in her, and that he adored the Word incarnate; as if rapt in admiration at the incredible modesty and majesty of the Virgin, he were unable to depart. (The records of S. George in Alga in Lusitania mention this tradition.) But though this is a pious tradition it is not to be regarded as certainly true.
