Question XXXI. Whether the Gospel greeting fittingly begins with Ave?

QUESTION XXXI. Whether the Gospel greeting fittingly begins with Ave?

§ I. Now let us ask about the greeting, which does not seem fittingly to begin with ave ¹. 1. Since in greetings proper names and dignities are usually set first, and after this health, or grace, or service, or love is wished or requested for the person receiving, all these things do not seem to be observed in this greeting.

2. Likewise, this mode of greeting through the second person is a mode of greeting from oneself and personally, and not from another; therefore it seems that the Angel greeted her from himself and not from God.

3. Likewise, ave says removal of punishment, salve the presence of good and permanence of salvation; therefore greater perfection is signified by salve than by ave; therefore that most perfect greeting ought rather to begin from salve than from ave.

4. Likewise, ave belongs to beginners, salve to the proficient, gaude to the perfect; therefore, since the most blessed Virgin was most perfect, she ought to have been greeted by gaude. This also seems so by an argument from the lesser, for the Angel greeted Tobias: May joy be always to you ².

5. Likewise, the custom and mode of greeting that God himself held and taught was: Peace to you ³. He also held this when saying: Peace to this house ⁴. Therefore this mode of greeting is most noble; therefore it ought to have been observed in the most noble greeting.

6. Likewise, the Angel does not seem to say ave to her well or truly. For either he said this by wishing, or by predicting the future, or by narrating the present. If by narrating the present, he spoke falsely, because she was not yet without woe. If he wished it, then he did not conform his will to the divine will, because God willed her to suffer many things. But if he predicted future things, he did not greet but prophesied, which is the common reward of all those to be saved, because at some time they will be without woe.

§ II. To the contrary it is objected and proved that the most blessed Virgin was without woe. Seneca proves that the wise person is not disturbed in this way: "What harms is stronger than that which is harmed; wickedness is not stronger than virtue, but weaker; but no one is harmed except by evils; therefore he is not harmed ⁵." Likewise he says: "Whatever is done insolently, wantonly, proudly against the wise man is attempted in vain." Likewise, the same author in the same place says: "Divinity is not harmed; but every wise person is God by participation; therefore the wise person is not harmed." Likewise: "Every injury belongs to something that can be lost; the wise person can lose nothing; he has placed all things back in himself, has entrusted nothing to fortune, has held his goods in solidity; fortune snatches away nothing except what it gave; but it does not snatch away virtue, because it did not give it ⁶." From these, however, he concludes that no disturbance falls into the wise person; but below God in the state of the way the most blessed Virgin was wiser than every wise person; therefore she ought to have been without every woe.

But if this is concluded, still the contrary seems to be true, since she is still under the woe of subjection, which followed from sin, according to that saying: You shall be under the power of the man ⁷. Likewise under the woe of affliction, according to that saying: And a sword shall pass through your own soul ⁸. Likewise under the woe of loss, that is, under the curse of the law, because she was still barren.

§ III. To the aforesaid we respond that since there is a twofold mode of greeting, namely both through oneself and through another, that one which is through oneself is more friendly and more noble than the one which is through another. Therefore this most perfect and most friendly greeting is not made as by an absent person and through another, but as of one present to one present and through himself. Therefore rightly, in such a present mode, the Angel began that greeting from ave, that greeting in which God the Trinity, present, greeted the present Virgin in the Angel. The word was also deprecative, salutatory, and annunciatory, because the beatitude that the Angel announced to the most blessed Virgin, he most ardently desired and most devoutly wished to be shown and fulfilled in her. Nor ought another word of greeting to have been placed, in which the state, progress, or perfection of salvation would be marked, because, since this greeting is the beginning of all salvation, which is announced first and principally and through itself to the most blessed Virgin, and in her and through her is destined for the whole human race, rightly it begins from ave: for the beginning of beatitude is the removal of misery. But the other things perfecting beatitude are expressed through the other words in the following greeting, as will be clear.

§ IV. We also concede that the most blessed Virgin was in diverse ways without diverse woes. For she was without the woe common to all men, without the woe special to women, without the woe proper to mothers. For on the part of the body every man incurs a threefold woe through sin: namely the dyscrasia or distempering of the body itself, and the disordering of natural appetites; likewise, before death, the repugnance of the body itself against the soul, according as the flesh desires against the spirit; likewise after death, the reducing of the body to ashes. Of this threefold woe it is read in Genesis 3:17 and following: Cursed is the earth in your work; in labors you shall eat from it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the earth. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return into the earth from which you were taken; because you are dust, and into dust you shall return. In the curse of works is marked the disordering of natural appetites; in thorns and thistles, concupiscence against the spirit; in labor and sweat, the distempering of the body; through the return into dust, reduction to ashes. Without this threefold woe in body was that most blessed Virgin, who both had a well-tempered body, peaceful with the spirit in all things, and never to be resolved into ashes.

Similarly, on the part of the soul every man falls into threefold woe: error, shame, and sorrow; error in the rational power, sorrow in the concupiscible, shame in the irascible. Error is threefold: in choosing, in discerning, and in executing. Sorrow is threefold: in the present, in the past, in the future, that is, grief, sorrow, fear. Shame is threefold: shame concerning being, concerning acting, and concerning undergoing, that is, that one is shameful, that one has done shameful things, that one has endured shameful things. Concerning the woe of error Augustine says: "Error is not of man as established by nature, but is the punishment of the condemned." Concerning the woe of sorrow, Genesis 2:17 says: On whatever day you eat from it, that is, sin, you shall die by death. Concerning the woe of shame before sin, Genesis 2:25 says: Each was naked, namely Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed. But after sin it is said, Genesis 3:11: For who indicated to you that you were naked, unless you have eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? And thus the woe of shame followed from sin. From that threefold woe the most blessed Virgin was immune, because neither in discretion, nor in election, nor in execution did she ever err, as she who was the most prudent Virgin; for this reason also the Saints expound the books of Wisdom concerning her, she who did nothing without the counsel of the Holy Spirit. And thus she was without the woe of error. She also never had sorrow dominating her reason, as the authorities of Seneca prove, she who in all things and according to all powers was most ordered, in whom reason was always superior and commanding. Hence whatever sorrow she sustained always wholly yielded for her into the matter of love and joy; and thus in her sorrow was never contrary to the joy of reason. And thus she was without the woe of sorrow. Likewise, she never did, or had, or endured anything of shamefulness. And thus she was immune from every woe of shame.

Likewise, from sin there followed a threefold woe in the composite: woe of punishment, woe of ignorance, woe of fault. Likewise, a threefold woe of fault: original, actual, and venial. Actual mortal fault has a threefold woe, namely the woe of avarice in work, the woe of lust in the body, and the woe of pride in the heart. Of this threefold woe it is said in Apocalypse 6:13: Woe, woe, woe to those dwelling on earth. Likewise, the woe of punishment is threefold, namely the woe of the punishment of Gehenna, the woe of the punishment of purgatory, and the woe of penance. Likewise, the woe of ignorance was threefold: ignorance of believing, ignorance of acting, ignorance of being saved, that is, that man in the state of the way is ignorant what is to be believed, whether he is worthy of love or hatred with respect to being saved. The most blessed Virgin Mary was without every threefold woe, but in a threefold way: without the woe of fault actually, without the woe of punishment causally, without the woe of ignorance habitually. I mean ignorance, however, of those things that pertain to salvation or to the revelation of the mystery of the incarnation. For she was fully taught about all these things by him whose anointing teaches concerning all things.

Likewise, there is a threefold woe specially for women: in virgins, the woe of sterility; in the married, the woe of subjection; in widows, the woe of desolation, to which last two the woe of corruption is annexed. From this threefold woe the most blessed Virgin was immune. For she was a virgin without sterility, married without corruption and subjection, a widow with virginity and without desolation, as will be explained more manifestly below on Blessed are you among women.

Likewise, there are three woes in mothers: woe of loss, woe of need, and woe of fault and punishment together. And each of these woes was threefold. For every other mother in conception lost virginity, and after conception the beauty or health of the body, and in birth the company of men. From this threefold woe the most blessed Virgin was immune, because by conception she did not lose virginity, but acquired that purity greater than which under God cannot be understood; nor after conception did she lose beauty, but rather she shone with so great a beauty that Joseph could not gaze upon her. Hence on that saying, And he did not know her until she brought forth her firstborn son ⁹, the Gloss says: Joseph did not know Mary by face, that is, he was not able to see her whom the Holy Spirit had utterly filled from conception; and therefore he did not know face to face the one whom he had betrothed until the womb was emptied. And thus it is clear that after conception she did not lose beauty. Likewise, she did not lose the company of men in birth; indeed then she is constituted mediatrix of God and men, and in childbirth she is visited by shepherds and kings.

Likewise, the woe of need is threefold. For future mothers in conception need an equal, after conception rest, and in birth an obstetrical service. But this most blessed Virgin in conception did not have an equal, because she conceived with the Holy Spirit cooperating. Nor after conception did she need rest; indeed she went into the hill country of Judea to greet Elizabeth and minister to her. Likewise, in birth she did not need obstetrical service, but the God-bearing woman rejoiced, around whom Angels stood in place of midwives, singing glory to God.

Likewise, the woe of fault and punishment together in mothers is threefold. For in them there is lust in conceiving, weight in carrying, pain in giving birth. From all these the blessed Virgin was immune, because she conceived without lust, was pregnant without burden, gave birth without pain. Hence Isaiah 66:7: Before she travailed, she gave birth; before her labor came, she gave birth to a son ¹⁰. And thus we concede universally that the most blessed Virgin was without every woe, either causally, or actually, or habitually.