HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.
New Zealand Tablet, Rōrahi I, Putanga 18, 30 Hereturikōkā 1873, Page 13
Mō tēnei niupepa
HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.
By the Abbe J. E. Dahbas.
(Translated from the French for the New Zealand Tabiet.) II. The Annunciation. 6. Message of the Angel to the Vibgin of Nazareth. Six months after these events, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said unto her Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee j blessed art thou among women who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God, Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a oon and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall he great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father j and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Mary said to the Angel How shall this be done, because I Icdow not man And the Angel answering, said to her The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren because no word shall be impossible with God. And Mary said Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word. And the Angel departed from her."* 7. Aye Maria. The august Council of the Most Holy Trinity, in which the Incarnation was resolved upon, required for corollary the virginal council held in the heart of Mary, the decision of which was communicated to an A.ngel. The Aye of Gabriel is, in effect, addressed to a sovereign. One cannot be mistaken here. Never, in the angelic manifestations of the Old Testament, did the language of the celestial messengers clotlie itself in forms so full of reverence. Here it is tho Angel who first salutes the Virgin of Nazareth he hails her. Elsewhere, the messengers of the Most High brought grace to mortals here, Gabriel finds divine grace in its plentitude and as in heaven he had bowed profoundly before the majesty of the Almighty who -gave hj m his mission, so, at Nazareth, he inclines reverentially before a virgin, become the tabernacle of a God. <l Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with theft," What human language could ever express this ineffable mystery The Angel, descending from the eternal spheres, has quitted the divine throne seated in glory he finds again at Nazareth the divine throne seated in humble virginity. Jehovah in heaven j the Lord in Mary behold the rallying word of the august ambassador He hails then the woman blessed among all others." After the Aye of the angelic choirs, addressed to the queen of Angels, this is the salutation of the human race the acclamation of the just, the patriarchs, the prophets summing up all the hopes of the work, and concentrating them around the blessed woman," who was to efface the malediction of the first woman. Forty centuries of expectation, of desires, of pr tyer, and of tears angels and men prostrate, with Gabriel, before the Virgin of Nazareth. Is this meed of praise, glory, and majesty, a sufficient aureola round the head of the diughter of David No. The divine Trinity itself, couveys to Mary a salvation more sublime than any we could ever conceive. The Most High wills to descend upon Mary; the Holy Spirit to overshadow her the Son of God vouchsafes to be born of her, and to call her his mother. The Angel lays before the Virgin the resolution of the eternal couucil —and he awaits. One would say that he submits to the council of Mary, the desire of the Holy Trinity. Kecollected, in the silence of her humility, in the ardour of her devoteduess, in the contemplation of a divine love which desires to associate to itself her virginal lovo, for the salvation of the world, Mary is 6ilent the Angel awaits. At last a sentence of acquiecence falls from her lips Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word The virginal council has ratified the decrees of the eternal council. The Angel disappears, to bring to the divine throne this word, which shakes the heavens, saves the earth, and wrests the secptre of 6ouls from the infernal powers. Lost in the contemplation of these marvels, man falls prostrate he weeps, he prays, he adores the eternal compassion which has wrought prodigies of salvation, to ill! up the abyss of our miseries. .Recall not to my memory the name of those hapless ones who have dared to outrage the name of the Virgin by whom their mothers, wives, and sißtcrs were rehabilitated I wish henceforth to forget that they have attempted to tear from the Gospel, and attribute to the imposture of a forger, that divine page, the true charter of deliverance for the human race! The benedictions of the universe, prostrate for the past two thousand years, at the feet of the Virgin of Nazareth j of the queen of Angels j of the mother of God, now become the mother of men the miracles of grace, consolation, hope, and salvation, poured out in plenteous streams, through the all powerful intercession of Mary the rays of her virginal splendour beaming, since that day, on the brew of every daughter of Eve, and diffusing over tho earth miracles of sanctity, grace, and charity. Such are the voices, such the cortege which we wish to hear and to evoke around tho solitude of Nazareth, where the Angel has left Mary! Luo. 20-38,
