Origen's sermon on the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-49), reading Mary's soul and spirit as an image of Christ magnified through virtue and humility.
Homily on Luke 8 is one of Origen's short exegetical sermons on the Gospel of Luke, preached to a congregation and covering the passage from Mary's Magnificat ("My soul magnifies the Lord") through the verse "he has done a mighty deed for those who fear him." Origen opens by setting Mary and Elizabeth's prophecies against the biblical pattern that "sin began with a woman," so that women again lead in speaking the good news, and urges his hearers to imitate the conduct of these holy women.
The bulk of the homily works through Mary's opening line word by word. Origen asks how a finite human soul can possibly "magnify" a Lord who cannot increase or decrease, and answers with his signature image theology: the human soul is not itself the image of God but is made after the likeness of the prior image (Christ), the way a portrait copied from a king's face can be painted well or badly, bright or faded. When a soul magnifies that image in deed, thought, and word, the Lord's own image is enlarged within it; when a person sins, they trade the image of the Savior for the image of the devil instead. He then turns to Mary's "humility," rejecting the idea that God looked on some abject or lowly circumstance in her, and instead identifies humility with the virtue Christ names in Matthew 11:29 ("I am gentle and humble of heart") - the opposite of being "puffed up," which is how the devil himself fell.
The homily matters as a compact example of Origen's method: turning a single Gospel verse into a meditation on the soul's capacity to reflect Christ, and using it to teach an ethic of humility versus pride grounded in both scripture and Pauline language about judgment falling on the proud.
“Let us then look at the virgin's prophecy. "My soul," she says, "magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God my savior." Two things, soul and spirit, perform a twofold praise.”
— Homily on Luke 8 · read this chapter →
“so each one of us, forming his soul to the image of Christ, gives it either a greater or a lesser”
— Homily on Luke 8 · read this chapter →
“great, and magnify it in deed, in thought, in word, then the image of God is made great, and the Lord himself, whose image it is, is magnified in our soul.”
— Homily on Luke 8 · read this chapter →
“For the Savior says: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls."”
— Homily on Luke 8 · read this chapter →
“For whoever is puffed up falls, according to the Apostle, "into the judgment of the devil"”
— Homily on Luke 8 · read this chapter →
It is a sermon working through Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:46-49), from 'My soul magnifies the Lord' to 'he has done a mighty deed for those who fear him.' Origen uses the passage to explain how a human soul, understood as an image of Christ, can be said to magnify God, and to interpret Mary's 'humility' as a specific virtue rather than a lowly circumstance.
He argues the soul is not itself God's image but a copy made after Christ, the prior image, like a portrait copied from a king's face. When the soul lives out that image in deed, thought, and word, the image is enlarged and the Lord is 'magnified' in the soul, even though God himself neither increases nor decreases.
He rejects the idea that God looked upon some lowly or abject condition in Mary. Instead he identifies her humility with the gentleness Christ commends in Matthew 11:29, the opposite of being 'puffed up' - the same pride that caused the devil's fall.
Yes. He opens by noting that 'sin began with a woman' and reached humanity through her, then observes that before John's birth Elizabeth prophesies and before the Savior's birth Mary prophesies, presenting these women as reversing that earlier pattern.
He quotes the Magnificat directly (Luke 1:46-49), Christ's words in Matthew 11:29 ('I am gentle and humble of heart'), and an allusion to the devil's fall 'into the judgment of the devil' drawn from Pauline language about pride.
Commentary on John, Book 1 · Commentary on John, Book 10 · Commentary on John, Book 2 · Commentary on John, Book 4 · Commentary on John, Book 5 · Commentary on John, Book 6 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 10 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 11 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 12 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 13 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 14 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 15