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# Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh on the Annunciation and the free consent of the Mother of God
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/blagoveshchenie-eto-den-blagoi-vesti-o-tom-chto-nashlas-vo-vsem-mire-liudskom-deva-tak-veruiushchaia-bogu-tak-gluboko-sposobnaia-k-poslushaniiu-i-k-doveriiu-chto-ot-nee-mozhet-roditsia/
- Published: 2023-04-07T08:06:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:09:58.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith

"The Annunciation is the day of the good news that there was found, in the whole world of men, a Virgin who believed in God so deeply, and was so profoundly capable of obedience and trust, that the Son of God could be born of Her. The Incarnation of the Son of God is, on the one hand, the work of God's love, a love that is cruciform, tender and saving, and of God's power; but at the same time the Incarnation of the Son of God is a work of human freedom. St Gregory Palamas says that the Incarnation would have been just as impossible without the free human consent of the Mother of God as it would have been without the creative will of God. And on this day of the Annunciation we contemplate in the Mother of God a Virgin who, with all Her heart, all Her mind, all Her soul and all Her strength, was able to trust God to the very end.

And yet the good news was truly terrible: the appearance of the Angel and his greeting, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Lk. 1:28), could not fail to provoke in the soul of a virgin who had known no man not only astonishment, not only trembling, but fear as well: how could this be?..

And here we perceive the difference between the wavering, though deep, faith of Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner, and the faith of the Mother of God. To Zacharias too it was announced that his wife would bear a son, in the natural way, despite her advanced age; and his answer to this message from God was: How can this be? This cannot happen! How can You prove it? What assurance can You give me?.. The Mother of God puts the question only thus: How can this happen to me, since I am a virgin?.. And to the Angel's reply that it will be so, She answers only with words of complete surrender of Herself into the hands of God; Her words are: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Lk. 1:38)...".

From a sermon by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh