The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you shall find favor before the Lord.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Sirach 3:18 Go To Wisdom of Sirach 3
Bede
AD 735
After the Virgin was found worthy to be exalted by seeing and hearing the angel, and after she had learned that she was to be honored by a divine birth, she did not become proud because of these heavenly gifts as though she deserved them. In order that she might become more and more worthy of these gifts, however, she kept her mind focused on the custody of humility and thus responded to the angel who had brought her the annunciation: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word." As we have learned subsequently from the reading of today, she also demonstrated this same humility that she had shown the angel to humankind, and"which is even more significant"even to those who were inferior to her.
Who does not know that a virgin consecrated to God has greater dignity than a married woman? Who doubts that the mother of the eternal King is to be placed before the mother of one of his soldiers? She, however, is mindful of the Scriptures that prescribe "The greater you are, the more humbly you should act in all things." And as soon as the angel that had talked to her returned to heaven, she got up and headed for the hill country, and, carrying God in her womb, she turned to the dwelling places of the servants of God and asked to talk to them. After the visit of the angel she rightly headed towards the hill country, she who, having tasted the sweetness of humble heavenly life, headed towards the apex of virtue with the steps of humility. She entered the house of Zachariah and Elizabeth and saluted her who had learned that she would give birth to the servant and precursor of the Lord, not as if she was in doubt about the prophecy that she had received but in order to congratulate her on the gift that, as she had found out, she had received"she who was a servant of the Lord like her. She did this not to confirm the words of the angel through the testimony of a woman but for her, a young virgin, to commit herself to serve an elderly woman.
