Teologa zvestovania - sv.Ambroz 2
By writing such works, Ambrose wanted to encourage a social revolution.
The Vestal virgins were regarded as important symbols of the Roman state and its pagan rites.
Ambrose was intent on contesting their importance and status.
To him, the humility and chastity of virgins in the Church, coupled with their strict fasts and pledge of poverty, were far superior to the Vestal virgins who were in any event pagan creations.
He sought to bring the Vestal virgins under his wing and was keen to paternally guide them to the truth by adopting and consecrating them into the Church and by using the example of the Virgin Mary as an example of faultless purity, virtue and self-respect that could possibly counteract the strong demands that marriage made on women from the upper classes of the Christian Empire.
Despite her descent from the royal bloodline of King David,
the Virgin Mary's pre-eminence is a consequence of God's grace which abides in her.
She was blessed above all women, and so was the child she bore: "blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Luke 1:42). We also read that: "The Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and the power of the Most High will overshadow thee (epikiasei); that is why he who shall be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
To Ambrose, Mary possessed great strength and was the most dignified of all women:
"There was nothing wild in the eyes, nothing wanton in the words, no immodest movement; there was no posture more gentle, no comportment more relaxed, as if the sight of her body was a likeness of the mind, a figure of worth" (Ambrose of Milan, De Virginibus II, 2, 7).
Ambrose made use of Scripture to appeal to the Christian Romans and thereby strengthened the support base of his notions on the Virgin Mary.
Mary was exceptionally blessed because she found favour in God's sight.
Mary's role was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah who stated: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). The prophecy thus states that a virgin would conceive and bear.
Consequently Ambrose argues that Mary must have remained a physically-intact virgin in the act of bearing God's only begotten Son as well as in His conception. This is also prophesied by the prophet Ezekiel who says: "Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut. Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut" (Ezekiel 44:1-3). Ambrose asks:
Who is this gate (Ezekiel 44:1-4), if not Mary?
Is it not closed because she is a virgin? Mary is the gate through which Christ entered this world, when He was brought forth in the virginal birth and the manner of His birth did not break the seals of virginity....There is a gate of the womb, although it is not always closed; indeed only one was able to remain closed, that through which the One born of the Virgin came forth without the loss of genital intactness (Ambrose of Milan, The Consecration of a Virgin and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary).
The Archangel Gabriel's words of support to her are: "Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). He then further reassures her: "Fear not, Mary, for you have found favour with God" (Luke 1:30). Mary, like Jesus Christ, was from the beginning of her earthly existence, free from sin. Mary is described as kecharitomene or "Full of Grace" (Luke 1:28) which indicates she has unique qualities which enable her to become the Mother of God (Theotokos).
Mary was physically untouched, but she was also free from every blemish of sin at the Assumption and thus aptharti (incorrupt or immaculate). She was free from actual sin from that point. For Ambrose, sin indicates the inherited imperfection of Adam and Eve's revolt in the Garden of Eden. Mary was a virgin who was not only incorrupt (incorrupta), but also a virgin made inviolate by the grace of God the Father and was also free from every blemish of sin (per gratiam ab omnia incorrupta labe peccati). Ambrose uses the words omnia incorrupta to show that she was without any sin and was thus pure in a literal sense. The use of the Greek aphtharton shows a correspondence with the Latin incorrupta. In the Vulgate Bible, 1 Corinthians 9:25, aphtharton is translated as incorrupta. In the Song of Songs 4:12 it states: "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." Early Orthodox Christians understood these two passages as portentous to the notion that the womb of the Virgin Mary is "shut" and "sealed" by God, and was not to be "opened" by her natural childbirth of Jesus the Logos. They maintained that the Lord passed through her closed womb by making use of divine power which is analogous to that power which He used to appear to His disciples in the upper room where the doors were shut (John 20:19). Mary was immensely humble and her humility is demonstrated in her free will and willing response to partake in the Incarnation which was the initiative of God the Father. Ambrose writes: "And then, how she also went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the Passover, and went with Joseph. Everywhere is modesty the companion of her singular virtues in the Virgin. This, without which virginity cannot exist, must be the inseparable companion of virginity. And so Mary did not go even to the temple without the guardianship of her modesty" (Ambrose of Milan, Concerning virginity: Book II).Mary was physically untouched, but she was also free from every blemish of sin at the Assumption and thus aptharti (incorrupt or immaculate). She was free from actual sin from that point. For Ambrose, sin indicates the inherited imperfection of Adam and Eve's revolt in the Garden of Eden. Mary was a virgin who was not only incorrupt (incorrupta), but also a virgin made inviolate by the grace of God the Father and was also free from every blemish of sin (per gratiam ab omnia incorrupta labe peccati). Ambrose uses the words omnia incorrupta to show that she was without any sin and was thus pure in a literal sense. The use of the Greek aphtharton shows a correspondence with the Latin incorrupta. In the Vulgate Bible, 1 Corinthians 9:25, aphtharton is translated as incorrupta. In the Song of Songs 4:12 it states: "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." Early Orthodox Christians understood these two passages as portentous to the notion that the womb of the Virgin Mary is "shut" and "sealed" by God, and was not to be "opened" by her natural childbirth of Jesus the Logos. They maintained that the Lord passed through her closed womb by making use of divine power which is analogous to that power which He used to appear to His disciples in the upper room where the doors were shut (John 20:19). Mary was immensely humble and her humility is demonstrated in her free will and willing response to partake in the Incarnation which was the initiative of God the Father. Ambrose writes: "And then, how she also went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the Passover, and went with Joseph. Everywhere is modesty the companion of her singular virtues in the Virgin. This, without which virginity cannot exist, must be the inseparable companion of virginity. And so Mary did not go even to the temple without the guardianship of her modesty" (Ambrose of Milan, Concerning virginity: Book II).