A certain king made a marriage for his son. The king is God the Father, and the marriage, the union of the divine and human natures in the single personality of Jesus Christ. Most appropriately, indeed, is the incarnation likened to a marriage. First came the betrothment; the declaration of the divine Son's love, as sung by the inspired Solomon in the Canticle of Canticles, and His promises to the patriarchs and the prophets. Then the Father, through Gabriel, announced to Mary His will and His consent, and she, the mother of regenerated humanity, answered for her daughter: " Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word." Then the marriage, whereby in very truth two become one — two natures so closely united in one person that, unlike other marriages, not even death itself could separate them. Thenceforward, too, the Royal Prince and His lowly peasant spouse shared all things in common; she, His supernatural attributes, and He, her human infirmities. Nay more, a certain familiarity, a certain relationship was thus established between the relatives and followers of each; that happy intercourse between earth and heaven known as the communion of saints. Finally, the usual ends for which royal marriages are contracted are apparent here. There was the love of the betrothed; God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son. There was the dire warfare of earth with heaven, which ended only at the incarnation, when the angels proclaimed: " Glory to God and peace to men." There were the rich
