Question VIII. Whether the Annunciation was made in a city

Question VIII. Whether the Annunciation was made in a city.

After this the inquiry is about place. And the Gospel says that it was in a city ¹.

§ I. Against this it is objected thus: 1. The Lord suffered, was born, was buried, and rose outside the city ²; therefore he also ought to have been conceived outside it. 2. Likewise, the more worthy announcement ought to have been made in a more worthy place, or at least in an equally worthy place; but the announcement of the Lord was more worthy than the announcement of John, and that one was in the temple ³; therefore also this one. 3. Likewise, between local operations and the places in which they occur, proportion is observed; for because prayer is more worthy than business, so it also occurs in a more worthy place, because prayer is in the choir, business in the forum. Hence Augustine and blessed Benedict say: "Let no one do anything in the oratory, etc." It is called an oratory in this way, that no one should treat anything else there except what belongs to God. Hence the Lord in the Gospel says: My house shall be called a house of prayer ⁴. But in that announcing the most worthy operation was completed, namely the Lord's Incarnation. Therefore it ought to have been done in the most worthy place; therefore in the temple.

§ II. Response. To this we say in responding that in all his principal deeds that he performed in the world, the Lord showed why he came into the world: he was born among sinful human beings, lay before an ox and an ass, lived among sinners and ate with them, was crucified between thieves, and rising appeared first to a sinful woman, showing in all his works that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners ⁵. Therefore he ought to have been conceived not in the sea, which is the place of fish, nor in the air, which is the place of birds, nor in the field, which is the place of wild animals, but in a city, which is the proper place of human beings, he who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven.

§ III. Solution of the objections. As to what is objected, that he was born, suffered, was buried, and rose outside the city: we say that Christ's nativity was twofold, in the womb and from the womb. The first was in secret, the second in manifestation. The first agrees with mystery, the second with example. For he ought and willed to be conceived in a city, so that he might show that he came for all. But he was born on the road so that he might show that his life was the way for us to the kingdom of heaven. He suffered outside the gate to show that no one is freed through his passion except the one who by conversion from sin has gone forth to him outside the gate.

As to what is objected about the temple: it is said that place does not sanctify the human being, but the human being sanctifies the place. Therefore that temple is more worthy in which the operation is more worthy and in which there is the dwelling of one more worthy. But in the oratory of the most blessed Virgin there was the most worthy dwelling, in which the most worthy and holiest of all creatures dwelt, whom God himself sanctified, whom the Holy of holies himself never left, and which a multitude of Angels frequented. Moreover the noblest operation was exercised there, namely the most devoted and humble offering of the noblest and holiest prayer and contemplation. Therefore this oratory was more worthy than that Judaic temple in which the slaughter of bulls and calves and the smoky burning of material incense occurred. Therefore that announcing was made in the most worthy place. Similarly, the Incarnation too was made in the holiest temple, because, as blessed Bernard says, there was no place on earth more worthy than the womb of the most blessed Virgin, which, as blessed Augustine says, was the throne of God, the chamber of the king of heaven, the tabernacle of Christ. Indeed that tabernacle by which Christ, standing as pontiff of future good things, through a greater and more perfect tabernacle... entered once into the holy places, eternal redemption having been found ⁶.

There is also another reason why the Lord willed to be conceived in a city. For when the Lord came down from heaven, he was not without the heavens, nor without the kingdom of heaven, but he carried with him the heavens of heavens, indeed also the kingdom of heaven. Lucifer did not do this, because he fell like lightning from heaven ⁷; for he descended and left the whole heaven there, carrying only his own fire with him wherever he goes. But the Lord remained what he was, and, coming to his mother, was not expelled from his Father's goods; hence he never deserted the kingdom of heaven. But when he was in the womb of his mother, the Virgin herself was the kingdom of heaven for him. Therefore these things were said about this glorious city, because all things which are ordered to the perfection of a city can be found excellently in the most blessed Virgin and can be preached about her. For she was founded upon humility, walled by chastity, towered by charity, enriched by poverty, guarded by discretion, free by immunity from sins, pacified by victory over temptations, adorned by the divine gift of most elegant morals, built as a refuge of sinners, populous with the universality of virtues, irrigated by the rivers of all waters, that is, of graces, abounding in the multitude of mercies, and set on high by the excellence of privileges.