She does not say this as one ignorant—for she knows that it is the grace and operation of the Holy Spirit, that the mother of the prophet should be greeted by the mother of the Lord for the advancement of her own pledge—but she says it as one who recognizes that this is not a gift of human merit, but of divine grace, so saying, 'Whence is this to me?' That is: what great good has befallen me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? I do not recognize anything as my own. Whence is this to me? By what righteousness, by what deeds, for what merits? These are not the customary offices of women, that the mother of my Lord should come to me. I perceive a miracle. I recognize the mystery: the mother of the Lord, pregnant by the Word, is full of God. 'For behold, as soon as the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the infant leaped for joy in my womb. And blessed are you who have believed.'
You see that Mary did not doubt, but believed, and therefore obtained the fruit of faith. 'Blessed,' she says, 'are you who have believed.' But blessed also are you who have heard and believed; for whatever soul has believed both conceives and brings forth the Word of God and recognizes his works. Let the soul of Mary be in each one, that it may magnify the Lord; let the spirit of Mary be in each one, that it may rejoice in God. If according to the flesh there is one mother of Christ, yet according to faith Christ is the fruit of all; for every soul receives the Word of God, provided that, unspotted and free from vices, it guards its chastity with unviolated modesty.
Whatever soul, therefore, has been able to be such, magnifies the Lord, just as the soul of Mary magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. For the Lord is magnified, as you have read elsewhere also: 'Magnify the Lord with me'—not that anything can be added to the Lord by a human voice, but because he is magnified in us; for Christ is the image of God, and therefore, if a soul has done anything just and devout, it magnifies that image of God to whose likeness it was created; and therefore, while it magnifies him, by a certain participation in his greatness it becomes more sublime, so that it may seem to express in itself that image by the splendid color of good deeds and by a certain emulation of virtue.
Now the soul of Mary magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God, because, devoted in soul and spirit to the Father and the Son, she venerates with pious affection the one God, from whom are all things, and the one Lord, through whom are all things. There follows in Mary that the better the person, the fuller the prophecy. Nor does it seem idle that Elizabeth prophesies even before John, and Mary before the Lord's birth; for already the assays of human salvation are creeping forth. For just as sin began from women, so also good things take their beginning from women, so that women too, laying aside womanly works, might renounce their weakness, and the soul, which has no sex—like Mary, who knows no error—might with religious zeal imitate chastity.
Now Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her own house. It is well shown that holy Mary both fulfilled her office and observed the mystical number; for it was not merely the cause of familiarity that she stayed so long, but also the advancement of so great a seer. For if at her first entrance so great a progress arose that at Mary's greeting the infant leaped in the womb and the mother of the infant was filled with the Holy Spirit, how much do we suppose the presence of holy Mary added by the practice of so long a time? Now Mary remained with her about three months. And so the prophet was anointed and, like a good athlete, was exercised in his mother's womb; for his virtue was being prepared for a most ample contest.
Finally, Mary remained as long as Elizabeth's time of bringing forth was being fulfilled. But if you observe attentively, you will find this expression placed nowhere except in the begetting of the righteous. For 'the days were fulfilled that Mary should bring forth,' 'the time was fulfilled that Elizabeth should bring forth,' 'the time of life was fulfilled' when holy men departed from this course of life. The righteous man's life has fullness, but the days of the impious are empty. Elizabeth therefore bore a son, and the neighbors rejoiced together. The birth of the saints has the gladness of very many, because it is a common good; for righteousness is a common virtue. And therefore at the birth of the righteous man the badge of his future life is sent before, and the grace of his coming virtue is signified, prefigured by the exultation of the neighbors.
Beautifully, however, is the time described during which the prophet was in the womb, that Mary's presence might not be passed over in silence, while the time of his infancy is kept silent, because the presence of the Lord strengthens the mother in the womb, and he knew not the impediments of infancy. And therefore in the Gospel we read nothing about him except his birth and the oracle, his exultation in the womb, his voice in the desert. For he experienced no age of infancy who, beyond nature and beyond age, placed in his mother's womb, began from the measure of a perfect age, the fullness of Christ. And his mother answered and said: 'Not so, but he shall be called John.' And they said to her: 'There is no one in your kindred who is called by this name.' And so they made signs to his father, what he wished him to be called.
And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, saying: 'His name is John.' And they all marveled. And immediately his tongue was loosed and his mouth was opened, and he spoke, blessing God. Wonderfully did the holy Evangelist think it should be premised that very many supposed the infant should be called by his father's name, Zechariah, so that you may observe that it was no name of any degenerate kinsman that displeased the mother, but that this was infused by the Holy Spirit, which had before been foretold by the angel to Zechariah. And indeed he, being mute, was unable to communicate to his wife the name of his son; but Elizabeth learned by prophecy what she had not learned from her husband. 'John,' she says, 'is his name'—that is, we do not impose a name on him who has already received his name from God.
He has his own name, which we have recognized, not which we have chosen. The merits of the saints have this property, that they receive their name from God. Thus Jacob is called Israel, because he saw God; thus our Lord Jesus was named, before he was born, on whom not an angel but the Father imposed the name. 'For my Son Jesus shall be revealed,' he says, 'with those who shall rejoice with him, who are left in the four hundred years. And it shall be after these years that my Son Christ shall die, and the age shall be turned.' You see that angels announce the things they have heard, not the things they have presumed. And do not be surprised if a woman asserted a name she had not heard, since the Holy Spirit, who had given the command to the angel, revealed it to her. Nor could she who had prophesied Christ be ignorant of the Lord's forerunner.
And it is well added that no one in his kindred was called by this name, that you may understand that the name belongs not to the family but to the seer. Zechariah too is questioned by a sign, but because unbelief had taken from him both speech and hearing, what he could not do by voice he did by hand and writing; for he wrote, saying: 'His name is John.' And here the name is not imposed but established, and deservedly his tongue was immediately loosed, because faith loosed what unbelief had bound. Let us also therefore believe, that we may speak; that our tongue, which has been bound by the bonds of unbelief, may be loosed by the voice of reason. Let us write the mysteries by the spirit, if we wish to speak; let us write the forerunner of Christ, not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart.
For he who speaks of John prophesies of Christ. Let us speak of John, let us speak also of Christ, that our mouth too may be opened—that mouth which, in so great a priest, the irrational bridle of a wavering faith was restraining in the manner of a senseless beast. And Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying. See how good God is and how ready to pardon sins: he not only restores what was taken away, but also grants things unhoped for. The man lately mute now prophesies; for this is the greatest grace of God, that those who had denied him now confess him. Let no one therefore distrust, let no one conscious of old sins despair of the divine rewards. God knows how to change his sentence, if you know how to amend your fault. 'And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High.'
Beautifully, when he was prophesying about the Lord, he turned his words to the prophet, that he might signify this also to be a benefit of the Lord, lest, when he was publicly recounting his own gifts, he should seem, like an ingrate, to have kept silent about the benefits he had received—benefits which he recognized in his son. But perhaps some may think it as it were an irrational excess of mind, that he addresses an infant of eight days. Yet if we hold fast, we surely understand that he who, before he was born, heard Mary's greeting, was able to hear his father's voice when born. The prophet knew that the prophet has other ears, which are opened by the Spirit of God, not by the bodily age; he had the sense of understanding, who had the affection of exultation.
Note at the same time how to few persons Elizabeth prophesies, but to how many Zechariah. And both spoke filled with the Holy Spirit, but discipline is observed, that the woman should strive rather to learn the things that are divine than to teach them. Nor do we easily find any woman who prophesied more abundantly than the mother of the Lord. Mary the prophetess herself, the sister of Aaron, how quickly did she conclude the words of her song; and the same woman, when she had spoken at greater length with her brother, by no means escaped the penalty for her speech. Now it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. As we are about to speak of the Savior's birth, we do not think it foreign to inquire at what time he was born.
For what does the enrollment of worldly matters have to do with the birth of the Lord, except that we may observe that this too is a divine mystery, because, while a worldly enrollment is held forth, a spiritual one is fulfilled, to be reported not to the king of the earth but of heaven? This enrollment of faith is the census of souls; for, the old census of the synagogue being abolished, a new census of the Church was being prepared, which exacts no tortures but takes them away, and spiritually, in a figure of the people, was already enrolling its own names to Christ. Here it is not the spaces of lands that are assessed, but those of minds and souls; nor are boundaries described, but they are extended; nor is any age distinguished, but every age is enrolled;
for no one is exempt from this census, since every age is bountiful to Christ, whom infants wailing confess by martyrdom, whom those placed within the womb attest by their exultation. Fear nothing terrible in this census, nothing harsh, nothing sad: faith alone marks out each one. Do you wish to hear the censors of Christ? They are bidden to enroll without rods, and to seek the people not with terror but with grace, to put away the sword, not to possess gold. By such censors the world was acquired. Finally, that you may know the census to be not Augustus's but Christ's, the whole world is bidden to make profession. When Christ is born, all make profession; when the world is shut up, all are in peril.
Who, then, could demand the enrollment of the whole world except him who held the empire of the whole world? For the earth is not Augustus's but the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell in it. Augustus did not rule the Goths, did not rule the Armenians: Christ ruled them. Assuredly they received Christ's censor, who brought forth Christ's martyrs. And therefore perhaps they overcome us, as present circumstances teach, since him whom they confessed by the offering of their blood, the Arians raised against him a question concerning his birth. 'This enrollment,' he says, 'was the first that was made.' And yet histories tell that many regions of the earth had often been surveyed before.
This, then, is the first enrollment, not of nations but of minds, to which all make profession, because no one is excepted—not by the summons of a herald, but of a seer, who long before foretold: 'O all you nations, clap your hands; shout unto God with the voice of exultation, for the Lord most high is terrible, a great King over all the earth.' Finally, that you may know it to be the census of righteousness, Joseph and Mary come to him—that is, the just man and the virgin: he who would keep the word, she who would bring forth. Where do the just man and the virgin make profession, except where Christ is born? For every spirit that confesses that the Lord Christ has come in the flesh is of God. But where, according to a higher reason, is Christ born, except in your heart and in your breast?
For the word is near, in your mouth and in your heart. Beautifully, moreover, did he add the name of the governor also, that he might designate the time by an old man. 'When Cyrinus,' he says, 'was governor of Syria, this first enrollment was made,' so that the Evangelist may seem, as it were, to have inscribed in this book a certain consul for the sake of a token. For if consuls are inscribed on tablets of purchase, how much more ought the time to be inscribed on the redemption of all! You have, then, all that is wont to be in contracts: the name of him who holds the supreme power there, the day, the place, the cause. Witnesses too are usually employed; these also Christ employed for his nativity and his generation according to the flesh, that they might seal the Gospel, saying: 'You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem.'
And it came to pass that, while they were there, the days were fulfilled that she should bring forth. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Briefly did holy Luke explain both how and at what time and in what place Christ was born according to the flesh. But if you ask about his heavenly generation, read the Gospel of holy John, who, beginning from heavenly things, descended to earthly. There you will find both when he was and how he was and what he was, what he had done, what he was doing, and where he was, and whither he came, how he came, at what time he came, for what cause he came. 'In the beginning,' he says, 'was the Word': you have when he was; 'and the Word was with God': you have how he was.
You have also what he was: 'and the Word,' he says, 'was God'; what he had done: 'all things were made through him'; what he was doing: 'he was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world'; and where he was: 'he was in this world'; whither he came: 'he came unto his own'; how he came: 'the Word was made flesh.' When he came, John bears witness of him, saying: 'This is he of whom I said, He who comes after me was made before me, for he was prior to me.' For what cause he came, John himself testifies: 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.'
If, therefore, we have come to know both manners of birth, and have perceived the office of each and the cause for which He came — namely, that, taking upon Himself the sins of a perishing world, He might abolish in Himself, who could not be overcome, the stain of sin and the death of all — then it follows that now also the holy evangelist Luke should teach us and show forth the ways of the Lord as He grows according to the flesh. Nor should it disturb anyone that we said the infancy of John was, by a deeper purpose, passed over, while we maintain that the infancy of Christ has been described. For it is not for everyone to say: 'I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak; I became all things to all men'; nor can this be said of any other, that 'He was wounded for our iniquity and made weak for our sins.'
He, then, was a little child, He was an infant, that you might be able to become a perfect man; He was wrapped in swaddling-bands, that you might be loosed from the snares of death; He lay in a manger, that you might stand at the altar; He was on earth, that you might be among the stars; He had no other place in that inn, that you might have many mansions in the heavens. 'Though He was rich,' it says, 'for your sakes He became poor, that through His poverty you might be made rich.' That poverty of His, then, is my patrimony, and the Lord's weakness is my strength. He chose to be in need Himself, that He might abound unto all. The weeping of His wailing infancy washes me; those tears of His have cleansed my sins. More, therefore, O Lord Jesus, do I owe to Your injuries, that I am redeemed, than to Your works, that I am created.
It would not have profited to be born, had it not profited to be redeemed. But let no one, within the limits of the body's use, enclose the whole form of the Godhead. One is the nature of the flesh, another the glory of the Godhead. For your sake there is weakness, in Himself there is power; for your sake there is poverty, in Himself there is riches. Do not judge by what you behold, but acknowledge that you are redeemed. Because He is in swaddling-bands, you see; because He is in the heavens, you do not see. You hear the wailing of the infant, you do not hear the lowing of the ox acknowledging its Lord; for 'the ox knew its owner, and the ass its master's manger' — or rather I should say 'the crib,' as he wrote who made the translation; for with me nothing differs in the word that does not differ in the meaning.
For if the orator of those who pursue the trappings of speech denies that the fortunes of Greece are placed in this — whether one used this word or that — but holds that the matter is what is to be regarded; if their very philosophers, who spend whole days in disputation, have used words less Latin and less accepted, that they might employ their own technical terms — how much more ought we to neglect words and regard the mysteries, in which the meanness of the language prevails, since the miracles of the divine works, adorned by no fine speeches, have shone forth by the light of their own truth? In short, the holy mangers nourished that rational ass not with the artifice of delicacies, but with the juice of natural nourishment.
This is the Lord, this the manger, by which the divine mystery was revealed to us — that the nations, who were living within their stalls after the manner of irrational cattle, were to be fed by the abundance of sacred nourishment. The ass therefore — that is, the figure and form of the Gentiles — recognized its master's manger. And therefore it says: 'The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing.' Or is God proved by mean signs — that angels minister, that magi adore, that martyrs confess? He pours forth from the womb, but flashes from heaven; He lies in an earthly inn, but is vigorous with heavenly light. A wedded woman bore Him, yet a virgin conceived; a wedded woman conceived, yet a virgin gave birth.
For holy Matthew taught us no mean mystery, which holy Luke thought ought to be passed over in silence, because it had already been fully set forth, believing himself rich enough if he had claimed for himself the Lord's manger out of all things. This little one, then, whom you, who are faithless, judge as worthless, the magi coming from the East followed over so great a distance, and falling down they adore Him and call Him king and confess that He shall rise again, offering from their treasures gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What are these gifts of the true faith? Gold for a king, frankincense for God, myrrh for the dead. For one thing is the emblem of a king, another the sacrifice of divine power, another the honor of burial, which does not corrupt the body of the dead but preserves it.
Let us also, brethren, who hear and read these things, bring forth from our treasures such gifts; for we have a treasure in earthen vessels. If, therefore, in yourself you ought to value what you are, not from yourself but from Christ, how much more in Christ ought you to value not what is yours but what is Christ's! The magi, then, offer gifts from their treasures. Do you wish to know how good a reward they have? The star is seen by them, and where Herod is it is not seen; where Christ is it is seen again and shows the way. This star, then, is the way, and the way is Christ, because according to the mystery of the incarnation Christ is a star: 'For a star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel.' In short, where Christ is, there too is the star;
for He Himself is the bright and morning star. By His own light, therefore, He signals Himself. Receive another proof. By one way the magi came, by another they return; for those who had seen Christ, who had understood Christ, return better surely than they had come. For there are two ways: one that leads to destruction, another that leads to the kingdom. That one is of sinners, which leads to Herod; this way is Christ, by which one returns to the fatherland. For here our dwelling is temporary, as it is written: 'My soul has long been a sojourner.' Let us therefore beware of Herod, the prince for a time of worldly power, that we may attain the eternal dwelling-place of the heavenly fatherland.
Not to the elect only are these rewards set forth, but also to all, since Christ is all and in all. For you see that it was not without purpose either that Abraham — from the Chaldeans, who are held more skilled in numbers — believed God, or that the magi, although by magic arts they devote their zeal to winning over the divine power for themselves, believed in the Lord's birth on earth: not, I say, without purpose, but that from the adversary nations there might be drawn a testimony of holy religion and an example of the fear of God. Yet who are these magi but those who, as a certain history teaches, derive their descent from Balaam, by whom it was prophesied: 'A star shall rise out of Jacob'? These, then, are heirs no less of faith than of succession.
He saw the star in the spirit; these saw it with their eyes and believed. They had seen a new star, which had not been seen since the creation of the world; they had seen a new creation, and they sought the grace of the new man not only on earth but also in heaven, according to what Moses prophetically set down: that 'a star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel.' And they recognized that this was the star which signifies man and God. They adored the little one. Certainly they would not have adored Him, had they believed Him to be a little one only. The magus, then, understands that his arts cease; do you not understand that your gifts have come? He confesses what is another's; do you not acknowledge what is promised? He believes against himself; do you not think you ought to believe for yourself? The magi, then, announce that a king is born:
Herod is troubled; he gathers the scribes and chief priests and asks where Christ should be born. The magi announce only a king; Herod inquires after Christ; he confesses Him, then, to be the very king about whom he asks. Then, when it is inquired where He should be born, surely He is shown to have been foretold; for He could not be sought who had not been announced. O senseless Jews, you do not believe that He has come whom you see; you do not believe that He has come whom you say is to come! 'Tell me,' he says, 'that I too may come and adore Him.' Herod indeed lays a snare, but does not deny God, whom he mentions as to be adored. Then he orders the infants to be slain. To what other than to God was such a victim owed? Though infancy lacks the use of reason, yet it confesses the God for whom it is killed.
These few things we have sipped from Matthew, that it might be clear that the times of His infancy were by no means empty of the works of His Godhead. But if the age of the flesh was inactive in work, surely it was God who was exercising the age of the flesh in the works of the Godhead — who also was making the shepherds in that region keep watch, guarding the night-watches over their flock. Behold the beginning of the rising Church: Christ is born and the shepherds began to keep watch, who were to gather the flocks of the nations, who before lived after the manner of cattle, into the Lord's court, lest they should suffer any onslaughts of spiritual beasts through the spread darkness of the nights. And well do the shepherds keep watch, whom the Good Shepherd instructs. The flock, then, is the people; the night, the age; the shepherds are the priests.
Or perhaps that one too may be the shepherd to whom it is said: 'Be watchful and confirm,' because the Lord ordained not only bishops to guard the flock, but also appointed angels. 'Behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them.' See how divine care builds up faith. An angel instructs Mary, an angel Joseph, an angel the shepherds. It is not enough to be sent once; for 'in the mouth of two and three witnesses every word stands.' And there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.' Well is it called the host of angels, who were following the captain of the warfare. To whom, then, should the angels say praise but to their Lord, according to what is written:
'Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His angels'? The prophecy, then, was fulfilled. The Lord is praised from the heavens and is seen on earth, of whom holy Mark says that 'He was with the beasts, and the angels ministered to Him,' that in the one you may recognize the mark of mercy, in the other the token of divine power. It is yours that He suffers the beasts; it is His that He is proclaimed by angels. And they say: 'Let us see this word that has come to pass, as the Lord has shown us.' And they came in haste. You see the shepherds hastening; for no one seeks Christ with sloth. You see that the shepherds believed the angel: do you also believe the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the angels, the prophets, the apostles.
See how pointedly Scripture weighs the moments of each word. 'They hasten,' it says, 'to see the word.' Indeed, when the flesh of the Lord is seen, the Word is seen, which is the Son. Let this seem to you no mean example of faith, no worthless person, that of the shepherds. Surely the lowlier toward worldly prudence, the more precious toward faith. The Lord sought not gymnasia crowded with choirs of the wise, but the simple common people, who knew not how to embellish and color what they heard; for simplicity is sought, ambition is not desired. Nor should you think the words of the shepherds, as it were lowly, to be despised. From the shepherds even Mary gathers faith; from the shepherds the people are gathered to the reverence of God; for 'they marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.'
'But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.' Let us learn the chastity of the holy Virgin in all things, who, no less modest in mouth than in body, pondered the proofs of faith in her heart. If Mary learns from the shepherds, why do you decline to learn from the priests? If Mary is silent before the apostolic precepts, why do you, after the apostolic precepts, desire rather to teach than to learn? Learn that the fault is of the person, not of the sex; for the sex is holy. In short, Mary received no precept, but gave an example. 'And so the child is circumcised.' Who is that child but He of whom it was said: 'A child is born to us, a son is given to us'? For 'He was made under the law, that He might gain those who were under the law.'