The Day God Adopted the Human Race

Hieromonk Pavel (Shcherbachev)     

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Dear brothers and sisters, we are nearing the end of Great Lent. Next Saturday, we will commemorate the resurrection of the righteous Lazarus; on Sunday, the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem; and then the sufferings on the Cross and the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the feast of the Annunciation, which we celebrate today, does not move in conjunction with these feasts; rather, it stands by itself. It can fall on Pascha—a combination we call Kyriapascha—or even after Pascha, or it can occur before Holy Week, as it does today.

The feast of the Annunciation holds particular significance in the teaching of the Church. The troparion of this feast begins with these remarkable words: “Today is the beginning of our salvation.” What does this mean? It means that today is the beginning, the foundation—such is the meaning of the Church Slavonic word “glavizna”—the beginning or foundation that is laid for the salvation of the human race. If we direct our gaze toward the royal doors of any church, we will see the image of the Archangel Gabriel bringing good tidings to the Mother of God—and this is no coincidence.

How many great works and wonders the Lord God has wrought in Heaven and on earth from before the ages! He has sent His angels to help people, to enlighten them, and to bring them to reason. But none of these great works—significant not only for individuals but even for whole nations—have been named by the Church as the beginning, the foundation of our salvation. Why? Because before the coming of the Savior, the fulness of time had not yet come: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:4–5). Today’s feast is the day God adopted the human race. Mankind suffered and languished before the coming of the Savior, and the reason for this suffering and languishing was Adam’s sin—just as the prodigal son in the Gospel parable longed for his father’s house and fatherly love… Recall the words of Prophet David, who, as a prophet, felt this especially acutely: My soul hath longed for Thee like a waterless land (Ps. 142:6), said the prophet in his lamentation, in the Psalter. And Archangel Gabriel informed the prophet Daniel of the seventy weeks,¹ but this prophecy did not have the same power as the event we commemorate today.

Even after the sin of Adam, every person has a certain mark, or spark, in the depths of his heart. St. Macarius called this divine spark the divine soul. Every person, even if he is far from God, even if he is not baptized, and even if he lives far from those who could preach the word of God to him, has this spark that God’s right hand placed in his heart, where it either burns or smolders—and something is needed to make it ignite. But even before the coming of the Savior, people felt this spark; they sensed a certain imperfection, a languishing in the depths of their souls.

Not only the Jewish people but also pagans had been prepared by philanthropic divine Providence to receive the Savior. Testimony to this can be found in the Old Testament stories of the first priest Melchizedek, Job, Moses’s father-in-law Jethro of Midian, and Balaam. Recall the story of Balaam and the ass, which prophesied the Messiah: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh (Num. We find a tradition concerning the coming Redeemer and the expectation of His coming in the works of ancient philosophers such as Plato, ancient poets such as Virgil and Ovid, historians like Plutarch and Strabo, and even, strange as it seems, among the Chinese philosophers. Not long ago, an Orthodox abbot, who is American by nationality, wrote a book in which he studied the teachings of Taoism (and we know that the founder of this philosophy was the Chinese sage and philosopher Lao Tse). In the book, he cites a large number of sayings in Chinese that testify to the fact that Lao Tse longed for the coming of the Redeemer on earth.² He understood that this must happen, because God could not have created man imperfect, having no way to enter the eternal kingdom—which Archangel Gabriel promised to the Virgin Mary.

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:30–34). This kingdom, which will have no end, has beckoned people since ages past and has compelled them to contemplate the innermost depths of their hearts. It hints to them that there is something they will not inherit—something that can bring them happiness, the feeling of the fullness of being, blessedness—everything that was revealed to us in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What does this mean: And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever? Old Testament mankind, after Jesus Christ’s salvific feat, will enter a completely different period of life.

Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, we read in the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Romans (Rom. 9:21). From this it is clear that Israel is now those righteous people who live with an unending thirst for communion with God.

It is no coincidence that the holy fathers, regardless of their differing fields of theology, unanimously call Israel the “mind that beholds God”. Who is the New Israel? The New Israel is no longer flesh and blood, not people, but the mind that beholds God. And each one of us can be this New Israel, the house of Jacob, which the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Most Pure Virgin Mary.

And what is the throne of David? Why will the Lord God give Him the throne of his father David? Truly, David was the forefather of the Savior according to the flesh. But David reigns over the faithful, and only the faithful, who behold God here on earth, who abide in living communion with their Creator, Provider, and Redeemer, and who will inherit that eternal Kingdom of the Son of God about which we heard today: “Today is the beginning of our salvation.”

In the events of today’s feast, the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God is revealed to mankind. This is not only a mystery but also a fundamental dogma of the Church’s teaching—the mystery of the divine incarnation. The earthly life of Him Who created this life, Who created time, space, and the angelic world, has begun. And what about Mary? Mary says, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word (Luke 1:38).

St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, extraordinarily profound theologian that he was, notes the significance of the words, “be it.” They repeat the same words in Greek that we read in the Bible, in the first book of Genesis: “Because during the days of creation, the Creator’s words,” says Met. Philaret, “Let there be,” produced creatures into the world; but on this day, the day of the Annunciation, the meek words of God’s creation, the Most Pure Virgin Mary—“be it”—bring the Creator into the world.” The power of these words lies in Mary’s total dedication to God. “Christ will dwell in your hearts by faith,” (cf. Eph. 3:17). The Virgin Mary showed the highest obedience to faith, and this made her soul to bow under the signing of the Holy Spirit, united her will with God’s will—and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn. 1:14). Disobedience to God’s good will brought death into the world, therefore, according to God’s justice, death’s healing had to begin with obedience.

Let us put aside our own will and accept God’s will, and we will receive Heaven into ourselves. “God gave us the freedom to choose,” writes Met. Philaret, “between good and evil, between the creature and the Creator, between our own selves and God. Let us choose God and His will, and we will not lose, but rather broaden and affirm our freedom. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” as Holy Scripture teaches us. Let us sweep away false human freedom and live by obedience and humility—an example of which was given to us by the Most Holy Virgin Mary—so that we might acquire the All-Holy Spirit of God. Then we will feel that great, divine freedom and become the true Israel, acquiring a mind that beholds God and communes with Him face to face. Amen.