Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34)
The question Mary asks is not one of doubt or refusal because she wants to be ready to do the thing that God asks of her. She wants to know if her way of life must change. She is ready to accomplish the will of God and wants to know if she needs to do something differently.
The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
The angel tells Mary that she has nothing to do on her part to accomplish this great mystery. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, says the angel to Mary. But how is this to be done? It will come in a specific way and will not commune with any other. The Most High will overshadow you. But does the angel talk about light? Oh, it is because this light is so excessive, the light will appear like a shadow. Mary will be covered with this shadow and this shadow will make her fertile. These will be virtues of the Most High and the work of the all-powerful God. This is why Mary speaks of the mystery that God will accomplish with all the power of divine arms. It is necessary that this be done through the operations of the virtues and power of God. This holy one, in whom all holiness and righteousness is found, will be called the Son of God. For this is not the work of human beings, but is the production of the Holy Spirit.
The mystical incarnation comes from God’s strength and not from human beings. The Holy Spirit comes in her soul with the infinite fullness and fertility of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is always fertile. As the Bible says, God rested on the waters and they became very fertile. Genesis 1:2 reads, The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the water. Genesis 1:20 reads, And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” The Father and the Son communicate life through their life-giving warmth and give fertility to all things. God gave fertility to Mary by the Word present in her to do his work. The Holy Spirit produces the Word in souls and makes them fruitful. The Holy Spirit comes into an annihilated soul and by his life-giving fire, he sows the life of the Word in the soul, making a mystical incarnation, which takes place only when the power of the Most High covers the soul with its shadow. This soul loses all her own proper self-virtue, but she is under the shadow of divine virtue, that covers, guards, and defends her. The Holy Spirit acts as a shadow holding her in obscurity as everything happens within her. This is why all of God’s operations born in the soul are done in a particular manner making her good and holy. This is also how Jesus Christ is formed in her by the operation of the Holy Spirit in a mystical manner. Paul also assures us of this, My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19).
“And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:36–37)
How poor, blind, and confused we are when we want to set and give limits to the divine power! If something surpasses human understanding, we declare it impossible. We want to regulate the will of God and his power by a science that is truly ignorant. Nothing is impossible to God. This is why a soul with the profound light of God is surprised by nothing; she judges and condemns nothing. Because she believes that in an instant God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham (Matthew 3:9). True faith never doubts or hesitates because she knows that God would not be God if he depended only on human understanding.
Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38)
Here God does a wonderful thing! God is so powerful that nothing may resist his will. However, he does not first ask for anything particular and extraordinary from the creature, but he only asks for their contentment. God considers the freedom of the human being and never violates this standard. God works freely and infallibly. God wants to operate the mystery of the incarnation in Mary for the salvation of all humanity through the contentment of Mary. In this particular person, God works his mystery and reconciles the affairs of the whole human race. She expresses her contentment: Here am I, the servant of the Lord, she says, and I will obey him without resistance. He will be pleased with me and he will care for the salvation of humanity, by accomplishing his Word and the promises given for our favor. Contentment is absolutely necessary for the freedom of the human being because God wants his salvation accomplished as a free and voluntary choice. Although we are not meriting or making this salvation, we must consent that the Word is formed within us. He lives within us; he governs, acts and operates within us. There are some who say, “Why does God not do all these things in all souls, since he is all-powerful?” It is true that God is all-powerful and He could do this, but he never does anything without our consent. All souls do not enter into the disposition that he requires. All souls that advance understand one thing: that God wishes for them to be a new sacrifice. If God wishes to give them extraordinary grace, he gives them contentment before he introduces them into the new state.
The angel’s announcement about these extraordinary things is now finished. The Word will produce this operation. Now Gabriel no longer addresses Mary but Joseph.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:39–41)
As soon as Mary conceives the Word in her being, then she leaves to do the work of an apostle. The infant God from the womb of Mary will work here the great mystery of sanctification in John the Baptist while still in the womb of Elizabeth. Oh, if we knew the great things going on in the communications between the faithful and God! When a person who has Jesus Christ formed within her approaches another who is well disposed, she communicates a certain life-giving principle that fills the other person’s soul with joy and contentment. There operates in the person a grace that is not understood, but experienced as good. This is the communication of the Word with John. He receives the sanctification of the merit and courage of future repentance. Mary greets and embraces Elizabeth and in this chaste embrace John becomes sanctified. Oh, the wonderful communion that happens among Mary, Elizabeth, Jesus Christ, and John, during the three months that they remain together! It was a communion of quiet but a profound and efficacious quiet. From afar Jesus Christ instructs John during these three months. John learns while in the womb of his mother this intimate and interior communication with Jesus Christ. In his life John the Baptist went to tell others about Jesus Christ and yet in the world he did not look for Jesus Christ. Did he not know that Jesus Christ was there, John who taught this to others? If John knew, why did he not go look for Jesus Christ? Was this a mistake? Who would believe that? Was John the Baptist indifferent to Jesus Christ? No, it was because he did not need human communication with Jesus Christ. They already had a profound and ineffable communication. John had to do only one thing and that was the will of God. John did not need to go find Jesus Christ, because Christ had already given him his movements. John was content with his life, as he worked at the ministry and office that Jesus Christ had given him. John with his state and dispositions was already united with Jesus Christ