Expositio cantici Magnificat
by Anonymous
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/40/expositio-cantici-magnificat/
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## Exposition of the Canticle Magnificat

[1137]In order to proclaim the new coming of the Son of God into the flesh, Gabriel, entering, venerates the Virgin with a new homage of salutation, saying, *Hail, full of grace,* etc.; *Behold the handmaid of the Lord [n: (Luc. I, 28 et 38)]*: the Holy Spirit at once coming upon the Virgin, and the grace of all virtues filling that most holy dwelling-place at the coming of God, there is no doubt what a wondrous and unspeakable sweetness of heavenly joys and of eternal delight the Virgin herself conceived, when that eternal light, with all the splendor of its majesty, descended into her, and he whom the world does not contain placed himself wholly within the womb of the Virgin. I boldly declare that she could not fully explain even what she was able to receive. But by the teaching of the Holy Spirit she had learned thus to cover her own gifts through humility. Soon she arises, and goes up into the hill country of Judaea. Whence Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized of what sort and how great was she who had come to her, and disclosed how unworthy she judged herself of her visitation, saying: *Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Behold [n: (Ibid., 43)]*, etc. Then Mary says, *My soul magnifies the Lord [n: (Ibid., 46)]*. You have seen majesty; you have tasted sweetness: therefore what you had drawn in within, you have poured out without, and you have exulted in his righteousness: *For my spirit has exulted.* The soul magnifies, the spirit exults. And again, *in God my salvation [n: (Ibid., 47)]*. "God" marks power, "salvation" mercy. For there are two things which the blessed spirits of angels and of men draw from that fountain of good by eternal contemplation: namely the incomprehensible majesty of God, and his unspeakable goodness; of which the one begets chaste fear, the other brings forth love. For his majesty they venerate God, and for his goodness they love him: lest either love without reverence be dissolute, or reverence without love be full of dread. For in admiring they love, and in loving they admire: so that love may burn inextinguishably through admiration, and admiration may glow sweetly in love. For because they are never able perfectly to comprehend him whom they see, they keep watch upon him, as it were, through admiration. But the more keenly they gaze, the more ardently they love, which is true sweetness [1138]; and true sweetness, the more perfectly it is felt, the more desirably it is sought. To this light of contemplation the mind of Mary had been raised, who expressed in words the sweetness of the heavenly homeland which she comprehended unspeakably. For when she affirmed that she magnified the Lord, she plainly declared that she beheld by inward vision the majesty of the eternal Godhead, to be venerated by all; but when she asserted that she exulted in her own salvation, she showed that she had received a taste of inward sweetness. Whence she professed both, both Lord and Savior: that for the power by which he rules over all his creation she might show him rightly to be feared; but for his goodness, because he mercifully saves some, she might demonstrate him worthy of love. Truth in the Lord, and in the Savior mercy. For truth pertains to the Lord, but mercy to the Savior; in truth he keeps the course of justice. But because he also gathers certain straying things freely to life, and restores them to salvation; therefore we magnify the Lord, and exult in salvation: because to those for whom the justice of the judge is to be revered, the mercy of the Savior is sweet, therefore Mary says, *My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God my salvation.* One and the same spirit is called both "spirit" in relation to itself, and "soul" in relation to the body. The spirit had a natural, spiritual admiration, the soul a bodily one: wherefore the soul is called spirit, and conversely. Therefore the human soul, because it has being both in the body and outside the body, is called both soul and spirit. It is called soul insofar as it is the life of the body; but spirit, insofar as it is a spiritual substance. In which the life of the soul is lost, that the spirit may be made safe, when this life is despised, so that afterward eternal life may be granted by God. But she named it *her own*, because "in her own salvation." For almighty [1139] God, by the power with which he rules over all his creation, is Lord of all; but by the mercy with which he restores to life only some, and not all, he is not the Savior of all. For his dominion regards all equally; but his goodness only some. Therefore the blessed Virgin, who saw herself singularly chosen, because she had singularly received grace, as though confirmed by a certain privilege of divine election, confidently calls him whom she had conceived as a son for the salvation of the world her own Savior also, with joy and exultation.

*Because he has regarded the humility of his handmaid [n: (Luc. I, 48)]*. This is the cause of her exultation, *because he has regarded the humility of his handmaid:* as if she should say, Because I exult over his grace, therefore it is from him that I exult; and because I love his gifts for his own sake, therefore I exult in him. The regard of God is wont to be understood in three ways: namely, according to knowledge, according to grace, according to judgment. Of the first the Apostle says, *All things are naked and open to his eyes [n: (Hebr. IV, 13)]*. But through grace God does not regard all: because, *The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous [n: (Psal. XXXIII, 16)]*, etc. Of the third it will be said at the end, *I know you not [n: (Matth. VII, 23)]*. The eyes of the Lord behold the good and the evil. For God, to see through knowledge is to be ignorant of none of the things that are; to see through grace is to bestow the gifts of mercy; to see through judgment is to appoint each one, according to his works, either to glory or to punishment. To regard is more than to see. To regard through grace is to visit those formerly cast off and forsaken. When, being appeased, he restores through mercy the good things that had been withdrawn, he again turns himself toward him through the regard of grace. Rightly then Mary testifies that the Lord regarded humility alone, because the propitiation of the Godhead, which human nature lost in the first parents through pride, it recovered in Mary through humility. For because in her the Word of the Father assumed the substance of the body which he would unite to himself, he regarded through mercy, as it were, the nature which he had before cast off, in order to exalt it. Because she thought of herself as the handmaid of humility, which she was, therefore she merited to be what she was not, the mother of sublimity: because she showed the humility of servitude. Servitude is varied in four ways. Servitude according to condition, by which all things must be subject to divine service: because a work owes this to its maker from its own condition, that it obey his disposition and follow his ordinances; so that, as it was made by him, so it may proceed only from him and according to him. According to necessity, depraved wills are said to serve God, which, although they strive to go against his commands, are nevertheless constrained by his unspeakable disposition, so that they can bring nothing to effect without his nod: unwilling, they serve his disposition, who willing are not subject to his precept. Servitude with fear is when we fulfill the divine precepts not out of love, but out of dread. The fourth servitude is when we voluntarily obey his commands, because we love him who commands, and seek in our service no other advantage, apart from himself, than that, walking according to him, we may be able to come to him. Our first parents in paradise refused to render to the Creator the servitude according to condition, when, lifted up into pride, they disdained to be under him — for which they had been created; and, perverse, they wished to be alike in majesty, who were not equal in nature. Eve, through pride, [1140] not considering that she was a creature of God and the work of God, wished to be made equal to God; but Mary, humbly submitting herself to her maker, named herself a handmaid: and therefore the one was cast off, and the other chosen. He disdained the proud woman, and regarded the humble one: what the proud woman lost, the humble one received. Therefore she says, *He has regarded the humility of his handmaid.* But the servants of God sometimes, even when they have humility, do not have humiliation; yet never humiliation without humility. They have humility without humiliation who, although they do not appear outwardly despicable before men, nevertheless inwardly preserve the merit of humility before God inviolate. Therefore Mary, who was humble before God, and before men cast off for God's sake, testifies that she was regarded in both: because both her humility was acceptable before God, and her humiliation before men was changed into glory. Whence follows: *From this, all generations shall call me blessed.* Until that time she had borne among men the reproach of barrenness: because she preferred the integrity of virginity to the marriage bed. But from where, in the former carnal generation, she bore as it were a sentence of malediction, from there now she receives from every mortal generation a blessing worthy of praise: because "by every generation, for the fruit of my fecundity, I am called blessed."

*Because he that is mighty has done great things to me, and holy is his name [n: (Luc. I, 49)]*. It was a great thing that a virgin should conceive a son without male seed. It was a great thing that she should carry in her womb the Word of God the Father, clothed with her flesh. It was a great thing that, while she had confessed herself a handmaid, she should become the mother of her own fashioner. *He that is mighty.* Because his power can be believed, she confessed him mighty: but how great or of what kind it is cannot be comprehended. She confessed the power, she did not presume to examine it; because it is not fitting to be known how great it is, since it is infinite. Everything which he foresaw that he would do, he does; nor is there anything which he did not foresee to come about — it is not doubtful, but it is necessary that it come about. Mary does not say, "in herself"; or, "in me"; or, "through me *he has done great things*": but she says, *to me.* For what was done in her for the salvation of all, this by the privilege of love was singularly ordained to her glory. And therefore she said, *great things*: because the mystery of the incarnation of the Word is agreed to be unspeakable above all things. For nothing more wondrous was ever done than that God should become man, and that the incomprehensible nature should so unite to itself the substance of a body, that it was not less in it, because in itself it was immeasurable; nor did it exist as lesser in itself, because in her it was created. These, then, are great things. And therefore *holy is his name.* What is his name? His renown. His name is the knowledge of him: faith is his name. This name is holy with the saints; with the saints it is glorified, by the saints it is blessed, by the perverse it is blasphemed: because while the Word is born in the flesh, the glory of God is declared among men through the Word.

*And his mercy is from generation to generations, to them that fear him [n: (Ibid., 50)]*. To Mary, I say, he did it, yet not singularly, but to one excellently: nevertheless to all that fear him. No one is excluded from grace. *He has shown might in his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thought of his heart. [n: (Ibid., 51)]*. This is that mercy which God showed to them that fear him: because he sent his Word into this world through assumed flesh, that through him he might war down the powers of the air with mighty strength, and redeem the human race from their power. For they are the proud whom God scattered, casting them out from the hearts [1141] of men, and, plundering their spoils, he broke up that power which formerly held rule in men: and this *in his arm;* that is, through the humility of the Son he conquered the devil. His arm is his Son. That very weakness was power: because through it the devil was conquered: and this *in the thought of his heart;* that is, by his deep counsel he scattered them. It was a deep counsel that for man God should become man, and the innocent should suffer, that the guilty might be redeemed: and in these things was counsel, nor could the devil foresee it; but Leviathan was caught on the hook. Or by *the proud* we can understand the Jews, who proudly despised the humble coming of Christ, whom he cast off. Whence it is added:



## Exposition of the Canticle Magnificat (cont.)

*He has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the humble [n: (Luc. I, 52)]*. *The mighty,* because he cast off the sons of the kingdom who seemed to be such, and took up the nations through humble confession into the fellowship of the kingdom and into the adoption of sons, and cast the malignant spirits out of the hearts of men: *and the humble,* that is, humiliated men, *he exalted.* The thought of the heart of God, too, is the living and abiding disposition of eternal and hidden predestination. He himself is the book of life. Therefore the thought is the same as the book. In three ways someone is written in the book: according to foreknowledge, according to cause, and according to operation. As to the first, the predestined are written: they are never blotted out, although for a time one may be permitted to stray from the way of truth as though about to perish. According to cause are written those who, having begun the way of truth, fall away by turning aside to errors. But such are sometimes those who would be worthy of salvation, if they remained such until the end. According to operation are those whose works, according to human judgment, appear such that for them they seem worthy to be written in the book of life: who nevertheless forsake the good things they seemed to do. These, according to foreknowledge, were never in the book of life. *He has put down,* etc. First he cast down the angel from heaven, and man, growing proud, from paradise: and afterward he restored to glory man humbled through penance. But also daily he puts down and humbles all the proud, by withdrawing his grace: and afterward the same, once humbled, he exalts, restoring their former grace. But of whom [1142] is that which follows, *He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away [n: (Luc. I, 53)]*? *The hungry* he calls those who know that they lack the true good: by *the rich* he wishes to be understood those who are proud, and think themselves to abound before others in the gifts of graces. Therefore, just as the humble, by thinking little of themselves, deserve to receive greater grace: so the proud, by presuming upon themselves, lose even those things which they had received.

*He has received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy [n: (Ibid., 54)]*. *He has received,* as a physician the sick man, *Israel his servant:* that is, he received the humble and innocent, that he might heal the sick, and redeem the captive; that he might justify the ungodly, and save the righteous. *He has received Israel,* not whom he found as Israel, but that he might make him Israel: *being mindful of his mercy,* which he once promised, but had long deferred: *As he spoke to our fathers* (or, *patribus nostris*), *Abraham and his seed for ever [n: (Ibid., 55)]*. Merciful in promising; truthful in fulfilling: because he promised without owing, and fulfilled without deceit. *As he spoke to our fathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.*

Note, upon that phrase, *My spirit has exulted in God my salvation:* some exult neither from God, nor in God. For those who exult in the pleasure of the flesh, or who exult when they have done evil [n: (Prov. II, 14)], these exult neither in God nor from God, and evil is that from which they exult. And because they exult from evil to evil, and set their joy in malignity, therefore they by no means exult in God. There are others who abuse the gifts of grace received, and turn those things which were given for the salvation of the soul to the use of the flesh and the joys of the world: for they rejoice in the gifts received, because they love neither in God nor for God's sake what they have received from God. But those who, having received grace, turn that very thing which they received from him to the love of God, these truly are shown to exult both from God and in God. On the contrary, therefore, that she might show her joy to be solid — that it had neither sprung from vanity, nor been turned to vanity — she affirmed that she loved the gifts of God, and exulted in God, and, for the regard of grace by which she had been prevented, in the Savior, saying: *My spirit has exulted in God my salvation.*
