Cornelius a Lapide

Luke II

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

First, he describes the nativity of Christ; second, at verse 8, the Angel announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds, and their coming to Christ; third, at verse 21, the circumcision of Christ; fourth, at verse 22, Christ's presentation in the temple, and the Virgin's purification after childbirth, and the encomia and oracles of Simeon and Anna concerning Christ; fifth, at verse 41, the finding of Christ in the temple at twelve years of age.

Vulgate Text: Luke 2:1-52

1. And it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled. 2. This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria. 3. And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. 4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5. to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child. 6. And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. 7. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8. And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and keeping the night watches over their flock. 9. And behold an Angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone round about them, and they feared with a great fear. 10. And the Angel said to them: Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people: 11. For this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. 12. And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. 13. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying: 14. Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will. 15. And it came to pass, after the Angels departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another: Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that is come to pass, which the Lord has shown to us. 16. And they came in haste, and they found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant laid in the manger. 17. And seeing, they understood of the word that had been spoken to them concerning this Child. 18. And all who heard it wondered, and at those things that were told them by the shepherds. 19. But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. 20. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told to them. 21. And after eight days were accomplished, that the Child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel, before He was conceived in the womb. 22. And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord, 23. as it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. 24. And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. 25. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was in him. 26. And he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. 27. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when His parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, 28. he also took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: 29. Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word in peace; 30. because my eyes have seen Your salvation, 31. which You have prepared before the face of all peoples: 32. a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel. 33. And His father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning Him. 34. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother: Behold this Child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; 35. and your own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed. 36. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. 37. And she was a widow until eighty-four years, who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. 38. Now she, at the same hour, coming in, confessed to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all who looked for the redemption of Israel. 39. And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth. 40. And the Child grew, and was strengthened, full of wisdom; and the grace of God was in Him. 41. And His parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the solemn day of the Passover. 42. And when He was twelve years old, they going up into Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast, 43. and having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the Child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His parents knew it not. 44. And thinking that He was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 45. And not finding Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. 46. And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. 47. And all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers. 48. And seeing Him, they wondered. And His mother said to Him: Son, why have You done so to us? behold Your father and I have sought You sorrowing. 49. And He said to them: How is it that you sought Me? did you not know, that I must be about My Father's business? 50. And they understood not the word that He spoke unto them. 51. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And His mother kept all these words in her heart. 52. And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.

Verse 1: And It Came to Pass in Those Days

1. AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THOSE DAYS (in which John the Baptist was born), there went out (Vatablus, or "was going out") A DECREE FROM CAESAR AUGUSTUS, THAT THE WHOLE WORLD SHOULD BE ENROLLED. — The Syriac: the whole people of his possession, that is, of his dominion, namely subject to Augustus and the Romans. For, as Suetonius testifies, Augustus did not rule over the Goths, Armenians, and Indians. This enrollment was made, both that the number of men subject to Augustus might be ascertained, and in order to collect tribute, which might be brought into the Roman treasury, exhausted by so many wars; for each one paid the census of his own head. It is likely that the Jews gave what they were otherwise accustomed to give by law in the census, namely each one half a shekel, that is, two royal coins, or two julios, Exodus 30:13; Matthew 22:19.

CAESAR. — Caesar here, called by his proper name, was Octavius, or Octavian, the nephew of Julius Caesar by his sister, who was the first monarch at Rome, and wonderfully increased and illustrated his empire. Whence he obtained the surname Augustus, as Pliny testifies, book III, chapter 20, in the 18th year of his reign (from which accordingly Censorinus reckons the years of Augustus, and calls them Augustaean or Augustian years), as if some divinity had descended from heaven; for he reigned in the greatest peace, amplitude, majesty, and felicity for 57 years; whence the saying: "Happier than Augustus, better than Trajan."

Moreover, this enrollment was made by Augustus, when he had full peace throughout the whole world, and therefore had for the third time closed the temple of Janus; which was done in the 40th year of his reign, all of which were done under God's direction, to signify that Christ was now being born, who brought peace to the whole world. Thus Bede: "In the most peaceful time," he says, "the lover of peace willed to be born: no greater indication of peace than that the whole world should be enrolled, whose moderator was Augustus, who reigned for the most part for twelve years around the nativity of Christ in peace, with wars throughout the whole world put to rest." For after 12 years, with the Parthians, Dacians, and Athenians rebelling, the wars were renewed.

For this reason the Virgin Mother of God, bearing the Infant in her arms, appeared to Augustus Caesar on the Capitol. Whence, since he had previously been taught by the oracle of Apollo that a Hebrew boy had been born who would impose silence on the oracles of the idols, he had erected an altar in the same place on the Capitol with this title: "To the Altar of the Firstborn of God." Wherefore Constantine the Great there erected a temple in memory of the Mother of God Mary, which still stands, and is commonly called "Ara Coeli," where also the place of Augustus's vision is shown. So Baronius, from Suidas, Nicephorus, and others, in the Apparatus of the Annals. Again at Rome, in the time of Augustus, under whom Christ was born, from a tavern for hire a most abundant fountain of oil flowed out of the earth all day long: the place is even now shown at Rome in the church of St. Mary of Trastevere. "By which sign," says Orosius, book VI, chapter 20, "what is more evident than that the future nativity of Christ was declared in the days of Caesar Augustus? For Christ is interpreted 'Anointed,'" because He anointed and still anoints us with the oil of grace and gladness, throughout the whole day of our life and mortality.

You will ask, in what year of Augustus's reign was Christ born? I answer: The opinions of chronologers and learned men on this matter are various. The first holds that Christ was born in the 41st Julian year, which was the 40th year of Augustus's reign; the 36th of Herod, the 749th year from the founding of Rome, the fourth year of the 193rd Olympiad. The Julian years begin from the year in which Julius Caesar reformed the Calendar, which was the penultimate year of his life and reign; for in the following year, being slain, he left Augustus Caesar as his successor: hence it happens that the Julian years always precede the years of Augustus by one. So the Weingarten Chronicle and some notable recent chronologers. This opinion agrees very much with sacred and profane histories. The only thing that stands against it is that in Luke III, 1 and 23, it is said of Christ, when He was baptized in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar: "Jesus was beginning as it were about thirty years old," whereas according to this opinion He was 32 years old, at least just beginning. For Augustus reigned 57 years. Therefore Christ, being born in Augustus's 40th year, lived with him 17 years. Add the 15th of Tiberius, you will have 32. They themselves reply that Christ is said to have been about or nearly 30 years old, because He was 32: just as St. Augustine in the ancient Breviaries is said to have been baptized in the 30th year of his age, when he was precisely 33 years old, as the recently corrected Breviaries have it.

The second opinion holds that Christ was born in the 42nd Julian year, which was the 41st of Augustus Caesar, the 29th from the victory at Actium, the 37th of Herod's reign, the 750th year from the founding of the City, the first year of the 194th Olympiad. So Sulpicius Severus thinks. St. Jerome, Irenaeus, and Tertullian favor this.

The third holds that Christ was born in the 43rd Julian year, which was the 42nd of Augustus, the 38th of Herod, the 751st year from the founding of the City, the second year of the 195th Olympiad. So Clement of Alexandria, Cassiodorus, Zonaras, Marianus Scotus, Baronius, Salianus, Toletus, Genebrardus, Salmeron, Serarius, Scaliger; and so the Roman Martyrology has on December 25th. Whence I followed this in the Chronotaxis which I prefixed to the Pentateuch.

The fourth holds that Christ was born in the 44th Julian year, which was the 43rd of Augustus, the 39th of Herod, the 752nd year from the founding of the City. So St. Epiphanius, Eusebius, Orosius, Nicephorus, Hermannus Contractus, Copernicus, Onuphrius, Gerardus Mercator. Francisco Suárez, Sigonius, Pererius, Ribera, Maldonatus, and Mariana incline to the same view.

The fifth holds that Christ was born in the 45th Julian year, which was the 44th of Augustus. So Joannes Lucidus and Dionysius Exiguus with their followers.

The sixth holds that Christ was born in the 46th Julian year, which was the 45th of Augustus, the 41st of Herod, the 754th of the City, etc. So Paul of Middelburg, Bishop of Sempronia, Peter of Ailly, Bellarmine and Bede, and most recently but most precisely, our Dionysius Petavius in his Rationarium Temporum.

Each of these opinions has its own conjectures, and also its own difficulties. Therefore in a matter so doubtful nothing can be certainly defined.

Let the reader choose from these whichever he prefers. The more probable opinions are the first, second, and third. The second and third are more common and have more authors, and that is favored which Luke says in chapter III, 23: "Jesus was beginning as it were about thirty years old," at His baptism. For according to the second opinion, He was then finishing His 30th year; according to the third, however, He was beginning the same year.

To the first opinion the ancient Annals cited by Epiphanius, and the old Chronicle cited by Eusebius, expressly agree; moreover, an anonymous chronologer who wrote 1400 years ago.

It is favored first by the fact that in that year, with Janus closed, there was the greatest peace in the world, as I said.

Second, because Herod, in the 37th and last year of his reign, a little before his death, ordered the infants to be killed from two years old and under, Matthew II. Therefore Christ was then two years old, and was beginning the second year of His age. Therefore He was born in the preceding year, which was the 36th of Herod, the 40th of Augustus; for Herod died in the 43rd Julian year, the 42nd of Augustus, as all the ancient historians testify, says Sigonius. This argument is valid, and can scarcely be solved by others, except by twisting the phrase "from two years old."

Third, because Christ was born in a leap year, at the end of the year, that is in December, as is clear, if you compute the years backwards from our leap year up to Christ; for all centennial years are leap years. But the 40th year of Augustus was a leap year, not the 41st or 42nd. For the first Julian year was a leap year, as Macrobius, Censorinus, and others teach. Therefore the tenth leap year was the 41st Julian, or the 40th of Augustus. Add that from Josephus, Dio, Hegesippus, and others it is everywhere clear that Herod altogether reigned only 37 years, and died in the 43rd Julian year before Passover. Therefore in the same year or any following one (as the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth opinions would have it), Christ could not have been born under him at the end of the year, namely in December.

Finally, this is the year in which Augustus, having in the 16th year of his age stripped Caius Caesar — his grandson by his daughter Julia and his son-in-law Marcus Agrippa (who built the Pantheon at Rome, the wonder of the world), whom he had created prince of youth, and had adopted as a son, and constituted heir of the whole empire — of the praetexta according to custom, clothed him in the manly toga, and with solemn pomp led him down into the forum. For Caius was born in the 734th year from the founding of the City, when M. Apuleius and P. Silius were consuls; but in the year 748, in the 15th year of his age, he was designated consul by Augustus, which things Lipsius learnedly teaches from Dio, books LIV and LV, and from the Ancyran stone and others, in book I of Tacitus's Annals, n. 18 and following. Therefore Caius was completing the 16th year of his age, and consequently the year of the praetexta, in the 749th year of the City, which was the 40th of Augustus's reign; namely, in the same year God the Father far more truly brought Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, into the world, that through Him He might adopt as sons all the faithful believing in Christ, and constitute them heirs of the heavenly kingdom. Whence also soon Caius Caesar, being sent by Augustus into Judea and the East, died there, so as to yield place to Christ the new king now born, and resign the empire of the world, as though it were due and proper to Him by every right.

From this same opinion it is easily understood why Christ did not come to Jerusalem to the temple before the twelfth year of His age, namely because until that year Archelaus, Herod's son, was reigning there, from whom, just as from Herod, Christ had to be feared: for Archelaus reigned 10 years; to which add the last two years of Herod, you will have 12 years, after which Archelaus was driven by Augustus into exile from his kingdom, and then Christ freely and without fear went to Jerusalem and the temple.

Verse 2: This Enrolling Was First Made by Cyrinus

2. THIS ENROLLMENT WAS FIRST MADE BY CYRINUS, THE GOVERNOR OF SYRIA. — "First," namely general, which happened in the whole world now pacified under Augustus and the Romans; for other particular or less universal ones in certain provinces came before this general one. So Paul Orosius, Bede, Maldonatus, Jansenius, Toletus, Francisco Lucas and others. Again "first," because a second enrollment was made 10 years later, namely in the 10th year of Archelaus, when the same Cyrinus was sent into Syria to carry it out, and to reduce into the public treasury the goods of Archelaus, now condemned by Augustus and driven into exile, as Josephus testifies, book XVIII of the Antiquities, chapter I. Moreover Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapters 7, 19 and 36, says that this first enrollment was made under Sentius Saturninus, who was properly sent and delegated by Augustus at that time to carry it out, when Cyrinus was presiding over Syria in all things, and consequently over the census. Or, as others say, Cyrinus left the census he had begun to be completed by Saturninus, because he himself was called away to wage war with the Homonadenses, over whom a little later he publicly triumphed.

Hence it follows that this enrollment and census was not the lustral and quinquennial one, but a new and universal one, namely the middle and most celebrated of the three of Augustus, which Augustus held without a colleague, when Censorinus and Asinius were consuls, as the inscription of the Ancyran stone has it, and Suetonius, in Augustus, chapter 27, and Josephus, book XVII of the Antiquities, chapter III. For he had carried out the first one 20 years earlier in his sixth consulship, with his son-in-law M. Agrippa as colleague, in the 17th year of his reign. But the third, some 20 years later, in the last year of his reign and life, he instituted with his son-in-law Tiberius; for the latter, after the death of M. Agrippa, had married his wife Julia, Augustus's daughter, just as Livia, Tiberius's mother, had married Augustus, for which reason Tiberius succeeded Augustus in the empire. Moreover, for these enrollments and censuses, being so great and so varied, a five-year period was required.

CYRINUS. — This was P. Sulpicius Quirinius, also called Cyrinus or Cyrinius, whom Augustus Caesar had given as director to Caius Caesar, his grandson by his daughter Julia, when he was going into Syria, and when Caius had died there he ordered him to remain as governor of Syria, as Velleius, Caius's companion, and Suetonius, Florus, Dio and others testify.

Of this general enrollment made under Cyrinus the profane historians, who are still extant, scarcely make mention; yet it is clear from St. Justin, in his oration to Antoninus Pius, and from St. Cyril, book VI Against Julian, Orosius, Tertullian, and others, that it was formerly recorded in the public tablets.

Verse 3: And All Went to Be Enrolled

3. AND ALL WENT TO BE ENROLLED (professing themselves subjects of Augustus and the Romans, and for this reason giving their name to them), each one into his own city — which was the head of their family, just as Bethlehem was the head of the family of David, from which Joseph and Christ were born; because David had been born and educated in Bethlehem. This is clear from what follows. For the Jews had divided their nation and commonwealth into 12 tribes, and these in turn into individual families, which had their own head, and therefore the Romans followed this division of theirs among them in this census. Indeed all these things were being done under God's direction, so that from this enrollment it might be clear to the whole world that Christ, recently born in Bethlehem, was descended from the tribe of Judah and the stock of David, and was Himself the Messiah, as the Prophets had foretold, even though Augustus and his governor Cyrinus did not intend this, nay did not know it.

TO BE ENROLLED. — The Greek ὑπογράφεσθαι signifies both to be enrolled and to make profession. For both were being done here: for individuals were being enrolled, and were professing subjection to the one who was enrolling them, namely to Cyrinus the governor, as vicar of Augustus Caesar: for at Rome individuals were enrolled as citizens and subjects, whose loyalty to Augustus and the senate was not in doubt. But elsewhere they were said to profess, namely subjection to Caesar, as foreigners subdued by the arms of the Romans. Moreover Orosius, book VI, last chapter, from this enrollment gathers that Christ was a Roman citizen, as if tacitly to suggest that all Christians ought to be subject to the Roman Pontiff and the Church: "Christ," he says, "must be called a Roman citizen, by the profession of the Roman census."

Symbolically: by this enrollment, in which all professed themselves servants of Augustus and the Romans, it was signified that Christ, now born, had come to free us from the servitude of the devil, and to subject the whole world to Himself; and to compel it to serve His faith and worship, not by the force of arms, but by the efficacy of His grace: for which reason Augustus at that time refused the name of lord, as Orosius and others testify. Again St. Gregory, homily 8 on the Gospels: "What is it," he says, "that when the Lord is about to be born, the world is enrolled, except that this is plainly shown, because He who would inscribe His elect in eternity was appearing in the flesh? Of which on the contrary, concerning the reprobate, it is said through the Prophet: 'Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and with the just let them not be written.'" So also Origen: "To one who looks more carefully," he says, "it seems to signify a certain mystery, that Christ also had to be enrolled in the profession of the whole world, so that being written with all He might sanctify all, and being listed in the census with the world, He might offer communion of Himself to the world;" "freeing it," says Euthymius, "from the servitude of the devil, who is the prince of this world."

Hence it is clear that Christ was enrolled not immediately from His birth, but on the eighth day after He was circumcised: for in the circumcision, according to the common custom, the name Jesus was given to Him, which, in the presence of the Bethlehemites, who were of the stock of David, was recorded in the public tablets, which Cyrinus transmitted to Augustus, namely that Jesus, the son of Mary, born in Bethlehem, was descended from David. So Justin, Apology II to Antoninus Pius; Origen, Theophylact, and Euthymius.

Verses 4-5: And Joseph Also Went Up from Galilee

4. AND JOSEPH ALSO WENT UP FROM GALILEE, OUT OF THE CITY OF NAZARETH, INTO JUDEA, TO THE CITY OF DAVID, WHICH IS CALLED BETHLEHEM, BECAUSE HE WAS OF THE HOUSE AND FAMILY OF DAVID. 5. TO BE ENROLLED WITH MARY HIS ESPOUSED WIFE, WHO WAS WITH CHILD. — Here the prophecy of Micah, chapter 5, verse 2, about Christ to be born in Bethlehem was fulfilled. See what is said there.

HE WENT UP — that is, set out from Nazareth, a city of Galilee, where, at the Angel's announcement, the Blessed Virgin had conceived Christ. Whence Christ was called by the Jews Galilean and Nazarene.

To Bethlehem — which was situated beyond Jerusalem, and was distant from it a journey of two hours: wherefore from Nazareth to Bethlehem it was a journey of three days and more, which the Blessed Virgin, pregnant and near her delivery, completed on foot, as many piously believe. "She went up," says St. Bernard, in his sermon on that passage of the Apocalypse: "A great sign appeared in heaven," "to Bethlehem with childbirth now impending, bearing that most precious deposit, bearing a light burden, bearing Him by whom she was borne." And a little later: "She alone conceived without corruption, bore without heaviness, brought forth her Son without pain."

Hear St. Gregory, homily 8 on the Gospels: "He who fittingly is even born in Bethlehem — for Bethlehem is interpreted 'house of bread.' For He Himself is the One who says: I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. The place therefore in which the Lord is born was previously called 'bread,' because it was surely to come to pass that He should appear there through the material of flesh, who would refresh the minds of the elect with inward satiety. He who is born not in the house of His parents but on the way, to show plainly that through the humanity which He had assumed, He was as it were being born in a stranger's place;" that He might teach us that we are pilgrims on earth, but citizens of heaven, so that from this exile we should strive with great steps of virtues toward heaven as toward our homeland and city.

Verse 6: Her Days Were Accomplished

6. AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT WHEN THEY WERE THERE, HER DAYS WERE ACCOMPLISHED THAT SHE SHOULD BE DELIVERED — namely nine months from conception. For she brought forth not from the weariness of the journey, but naturally, the natural period of conception and of time customary for giving birth having been completed. Wherefore since Christ was conceived on the 25th of March, it follows that He was born on the 25th of December; for between the two there intervene nine months.

Note: Christ was born a little after the winter solstice, when the days begin to grow longer; but John the Baptist was born a little after the summer solstice, when the days begin to grow shorter; because, as he himself said: "He must increase, but I must decrease." So St. Augustine. Again at the winter solstice halcyons (birds a little larger than swallows) lay eggs around the Sicilian sea, and hatch them in fourteen days, and for just as many days the sea is calm, whence sailors observe this, and seize upon that time to sail safely, as Pliny testifies, book X, chapter III; and St. Ambrose, book V Hexaemeron, chapter 13. Wherefore halcyon days are called days that are placid, serene, and cheerful. So Christ, our halcyon, was born in the same days as it were a placid and peaceful king. Whence the angels sang to Him: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men." Again Pliny teaches that rain at the summer solstice, and warmth at the winter solstice, portend a rich harvest of fruits. Thus John the Baptist brought the rain of baptism, of tears and repentance; but Christ brought the warmth of grace and charity, from which an abundant harvest of the faithful, of Doctors, Martyrs, Virgins, and all the Saints has arisen.

Verse 7: And She Brought Forth Her Firstborn Son

7. AND SHE BROUGHT FORTH HER FIRSTBORN SON, AND WRAPPED HIM UP IN SWADDLING CLOTHES, AND LAID HIM IN A MANGER, BECAUSE THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR THEM IN THE INN. — "She brought forth" naturally as other mothers do: therefore she was truly and naturally the mother of Christ, and consequently of God; for Christ is God. Moreover, the Blessed Virgin was more a parent to Christ than other mothers are to their sons: for she alone was parent and mother of Christ, because from her Christ received all His substance, which others receive not from the mother alone, but also from the father; and consequently the love between Christ and His mother was far greater than between other mothers and sons, and the love which is divided between mother and father was united and collected in the Virgin, because she Herself took the place of both mother and father.

Second, just as she conceived, so also she brought forth remaining a virgin, and consequently Christ was born with His mother's womb closed, and at His birth He penetrated it, just as the rays of the sun penetrate glass. Hence thirdly, the Blessed Virgin, just as she conceived without concupiscence, so she brought forth without pain, without weariness, without the flow of the afterbirth and its defilement and other impurities of childbirth, without a midwife. So the Fathers everywhere. Therefore the Virgin was wholly alert and vigorous, and absorbed in love and contemplation of her Son; inasmuch as at every moment she awaited His birth, and longed to see and embrace Him. So the Fathers and Doctors. See Suárez. Hear St. Gregory, homily 26 on the Gospels: "That Body of the Lord which entered to the disciples through closed doors, to human eyes came forth through His nativity from the closed womb of the Virgin."

Moreover, that Christ was born on Sunday, which was the first day of the world, and consequently was conceived, as also suffered, on Friday, Suárez teaches from the Sixth Synod, Sophronius, Rupert, and others, in Part III, Question XXXV, disputation XII; Barradius and others: although our Salianus will have it that Christ was born on Friday and conceived on Wednesday. Hear Rupert, book III On the Divine Offices, chapter 16: "Christ was born on the Lord's night, with the order of His wonders being consonant, so that on the day on which He said: Let there be light, and light was made, on the night of the same day there should arise in the darkness a light for the upright of heart," namely the sun of justice, Christ the Lord.

Hence just as the sun penetrates through closed glass, so Christ came forth into the light from the closed womb of the Virgin, says St. Basil, in his oration on the Holy Nativity of Christ. Hence also the Blessed Virgin herself on the night of the feast of the Nativity of Christ revealed to St. Bridget, as she herself relates in book VI of the Revelations, chapter 88, saying: "When He was born of me with indescribable exultation and wonderful haste, He came forth from my closed virginal womb;" and the Blessed Virgin then communicated the feeling of this exultation of hers to St. Bridget in reality. And in book VII of the Revelations, chapter 22: "I brought forth," she says, "as you now saw, on bended knees, praying alone in the stable. For I brought Him forth with such great exultation and joy of soul, that I felt no burden when He Himself came forth from my body, nor any pain; but immediately I wrapped Him in clean swaddling cloths, which I had long before prepared. When Joseph saw this, he wondered with great joy and gladness, because I had brought forth without help."

From the Angelic Sermon, chapter 15: "God Himself inclined His majesty, descending from heaven into the womb of the Virgin, not entering into one part only of her body, but pouring Himself through her whole body into the Virgin's inmost parts, most honorably forming for Himself a human body from the flesh and blood of the Virgin alone. And therefore that most chosen mother is fittingly likened to the burning bush, untouched by the flame, which Moses saw." And after inserting some further remarks: "Just as also through the whole body of the Virgin, when the same Son of God was being conceived, He entered with His divinity; so also when He was being born with humanity and deity, just as the sweetness of scent comes forth from an unbroken rose, so He also was poured through the whole body of the Virgin, with her virginal glory remaining intact in the mother."

Finally, Geometra gathers together all the figures of the virginal birth from the Old Testament in the Catena of the Greeks which our Corderius edited.

Fourthly, some ask what place first received Christ at His birth. Barradius thinks it was the earth or ground, and this for the reason that Christ might teach us humility, which is named from humus (the ground), as is also homo (man): for thus other infants are born. Hence Solomon says: "And I fell upon the earth likewise made," Wisdom 7:3.

Others hold that Christ was first received into the arms and embraces of His mother, and this with her greatest joy and reverence; for this seemed to befit such a Mother and such a Son, and physically this was the easy and natural course, and they gather the same thing from the fact that Luke immediately adds, "and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes." Wherefore, as Franciscus Lucas says, she herself with her own hands received Him as He came forth from her womb, as a ripe apple falling from a tree, the umbilical cord of its own accord and without violence dissolving, just as the stem of a ripe apple by which it clings to the tree dissolves; having received Him in her hands, she prostrated herself on her knees and adored Him, and having adored Him, she most sweetly kissed Him, and then wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and bands. Hence also St. Cyprian, On the Nativity of Christ: "Of its own accord," he says, "the ripe fruit has fallen from the tree, and there was no need to pluck what came forth of its own accord."

More piously and more sublimely, Franciscus Suarez thinks that Christ, as soon as He was born, was placed by the angels into the arms of His most holy and most loving Mother; Nyssen and Geometra hint at the same thing in the Catena: for this was the most fitting place for Him, and the most longed-for by His Mother as by any other; and from there she laid her Son in the manger.

Finally, St. Bridget, in book 8 of the Revelations, chapter 47, hints that Christ at His birth came of His own accord into the hands of His most sweet virgin Mother, and this can be believed very probably and piously.

Moreover, our Father Ribadeneira, on the Feast of the Nativity, says: "It is handed down that the Blessed Virgin, as soon as she saw Christ brought forth into the light, marveling at God made man and humbled to infant flesh, prostrated herself before Him on the ground, and with profoundest reverence and joy of heart greeted Him with these words: 'Thou art present, O long-desired one, my God, my Lord, and my Son'; not doubting that she was understood by Him, though an infant; and thus she adored Him, kissing His feet as God, His hands as Lord, and His face as Son, then most tightly drew Him to her bosom and clasped Him in her arms."

Fifthly, Christ at His birth, after the manner of other infants, as St. Bernard says in sermon 4 On the Nativity, cried and wept, both that He might begin to bewail and expiate our sins, and that He might conform Himself to other infants. For, as Solomon, who was a type of Christ, says: "And I, being born, drew the common air, and fell upon the earth likewise made, and my first voice I uttered was the same as all men's, crying; for no one among kings has had any other beginning of birth," Wisdom 7:3. See what is said there. Again, Christ, once born, offered these tears and Himself and His whole life, death, and cross to God as a holocaust for the salvation of men, as the Apostle teaches, Hebrews 10:7 and chapter 5:7: "Who," he says, "in the days of His flesh, offering prayers and supplications, etc., was heard for His reverence."

Sixthly, all the angels accompanied Christ their God and Lord as He was being born on earth, just as all courtiers accompany their king when he sets out on a journey abroad; and seeing the infant born, the immense God as it were compressed to the measure of a span, they were astounded, venerated and adored Him. For this is what the Apostle means when he says: "And again, when He bringeth in the firstborn into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him," Hebrews 1:6, as St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, Ambrosiaster and others explain in that place. Wherefore the stable and manger at that time were as it were turned into the empyrean heaven, filled as they were with angels, and even with all the Cherubim and Seraphim, who, leaving heaven, descended to the stable to venerate their God made man: for this work of the Incarnation and Nativity of the Word was before unforeseeable to the angels, and as it were incredible, being the highest work and proper to the divine power, wisdom, justice, and clemency, surpassing all the understanding of men and angels, as I have shown at Matthew 1:20 and here at chapter 1:35.

This is what the Apostle says, 1 Timothy 3:16: "And evidently great is the mystery of godliness (which is that God is man, or the Word made flesh), which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, was preached unto the Gentiles, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory." And David, Psalm 17: "He bowed the heavens," he says, "and came down"; indeed, God Himself came down, and the Mother of God laid Him, now made an infant, in the manger. "God was made man," says St. Augustine in sermon 9 On the Nativity, "that man might be made God; that man might eat the bread of angels, the Lord of angels was made man." This is "the abbreviated Word which the Lord hath made," Isaiah 10:23; Romans 9:28.

The moral causes why Christ willed to become man and be born on earth were many. The first, that by suffering and dying in the flesh He might redeem us from sins and hell. Again, that He might teach us, more by example than by word, the way of salvation, and give us a perfect model of holiness and of all virtues, and especially of the highest and most profound humility. For He Himself, "though He was in the form of God, etc., emptied Himself (that is, He made Himself of every emptiness and as it were nothing), taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man," Philippians 2:6-7. Christ clearly willed to teach by His example what St. Augustine taught by word: "Dig," he says, "in yourself the foundation of humility, and so you will reach the summit of charity." Here therefore He gave the idea of the highest humility; for He descended as it were from the highest throne of His majesty into the deepest valley of abjection, He put off as it were the mantle of His glory, and put on the sackcloth of our flesh.

The second, because Christ willed to become our kinsman and brother, indeed our flesh and blood, that He might deal as it were fleshly with the fleshly, as man with man, as equal with equal. Hence St. Bernard, in sermon 3 on Missus est: "Let us strive," he says, "to become like this Little One, let us learn from Him, because He is meek and humble of heart; lest the great God have been made a little man without cause, lest He died in vain, lest He were crucified to no purpose; let us share in His sufferings, and offer Him as a propitiation for our sins, for to this end He Himself was born."

The third: Christ took upon Himself the smallness, lowliness, hardships, hunger, thirst, cold, heat, blows, nails, and cross of our flesh, not for His own sake, but for ours, that by this most effective spur of His love He might prick and pierce the cold hearts of men, and rouse them, nay compel them, to love Him in return; for the incarnate Christ always as it were cries out to us: I have given Myself wholly to you, now do you render yourself wholly to Me; for this reason I was incarnate, that I might live in you and in your flesh, so that you may say with Paul: "I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me." Hear St. Ambrose: "He therefore was that little One, that infant, that you might become a perfect man. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, that you might be loosed from the snares of death. He was in the manger, that you might be at the altars. He was on earth, that you might be in heaven. He had no place in the inn, that you might have many mansions in heaven. Who, when He was rich, for your sakes became poor, that through His poverty you might be rich." From which he aptly and piously concludes: "My patrimony therefore is His poverty, and the weakness of the Lord is my strength. He chose to be in need Himself, that He might abound unto all. The weepings of His crying infancy wash me, those tears washed away my sins. More, therefore, O Lord Jesus, do I owe to Your injuries, because I have been redeemed, than to Your works, because I have been created."

The fourth: He lowered Himself to earth and flesh, that He might raise us up to heaven. "Therefore," says St. Anselm, "God was made man, that man might become God. We could not conceive and worship God with our mind, who is the purest and uncreated Spirit: God therefore clothed Himself in our flesh that we might conceive Him, nay, perceive Him with our eyes, hear Him speaking with our ears, and enjoy Him," says Cyril, Catechism 12. And this was among the first causes of Christ's Incarnation, which the Church in the Preface of the Mass of the Nativity of Christ thus sings: "Because through the mystery of the Incarnate Word a new light of Your splendor has shone on the eyes of our mind, that while we know God visibly, through Him we may be caught up into love of things invisible." For Christ incarnate is the object of worship, charity, gratitude and every virtue. Therefore our continual thought, speech, and conversation ought to be with the Incarnate Word, especially because we daily recall Him, nay, renew Him in the sacrifice of the Mass. Thus the Blessed Virgin and Joseph were always conversant with Him. Thus St. Magdalene accompanied Christ everywhere, and after His death withdrew into the desert, that she might continually ruminate and be astounded at this great mystery of godliness which she had beheld with her eyes. Thus the Apostles, thus St. Paul. For this reason St. Paula, St. Eustochium, and many matrons and princes migrated with St. Jerome to Bethlehem, that there they might continually, as it were, gaze upon Christ being born and laid in the manger. Thus St. Bernard was always conversant with the Incarnate Word; when he deals with Him — and he does so most frequently — he wholly melts, honey-like, with love, surpasses himself, and speaks not so much as a man as an angel. Thus St. Francis kissed the newborn Christ, and most sweetly called Him the Little One of Bethlehem, and when preaching repeated nothing else but this: "Let us love the Little One of Bethlehem." Finally, so many thousands of Anchorites, Monks, and Religious, leaving men and the crowds of the world, hid themselves in solitudes, in monasteries, in cloisters, that they might continually meditate upon, admire, and celebrate with praises and every thanksgiving and imitation of life this mystery of Christ's Incarnation and dispensation, and of our redemption. Therefore, O religious, O priest, O faithful one, ask of Christ that He may Himself unite your flesh and soul to Himself and rule them, as He united and ruled His own, which He took upon Himself for you for this end.

FIRSTBORN, — and only-begotten. For the firstborn is one who is first begotten, even if no one else is begotten after him. For such a one enjoys the rights and privileges of primogeniture.

AND SHE WRAPPED HIM IN SWADDLING CLOTHES — humble and poor ones, but honest and clean. Note you the word "wrapped," that is, the Virgin Mother of God herself, as being active and vigorous, not weakened by the birth, nor lying in bed, but rather strengthened and standing on her feet, and most diligently rendering to her little One all the services not only of a mother, but also of midwife and handmaid. Hear St. Jerome, book 1 Against Helvidius, chapter 4: "No midwife was there, nor the diligence of any women intervened; she herself wrapped the Infant in swaddling clothes, she herself was both mother and midwife." Similarly Cyprian, or whoever the author is, book On the Cardinal Works of Christ, sermon 1: "Bits of cloth are gathered for purple, rags for fine linen in a royal ornament; she is both mother and midwife, and offers devoted service to her beloved offspring, etc. No pain, no insult of nature in childbirth."

In Greek it is ἐσπαργάνωσεν αὐτὸν, that is, "she swathed Him." In honor of these swaddling bands of Christ, a noble basilica has been built, and an anniversary feast-day has been appointed, as is clear from St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, and from Euthymius, oration On the Swaddling Bands of the Lord, in Lipomanus, volume 6, for the 31st of August. Nyssen gives a tropological cause in On the Nativity of Christ: "He is bound," he says, "in swaddling bands, who took upon Himself the bonds of our sins (and the leathern tunics of Adam, says St. Bernard, sermon 28 on the Canticles)." And St. Augustine, sermon 3 On the Nativity: "O blessed infancy, through which the life of our race has been restored! O most grateful and delightful wailings, through which we have escaped the gnashing of teeth and eternal weeping! O happy swaddling clothes, with which we have wiped away the filth of our sins! O splendid manger, in which there lay not only the hay of animals, but the food of angels was found!"

Moreover, the Ethiopic version, for "she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes," renders "and she bound His thumbs," as if this were a sign proper to the newborn child by which He might be recognized by the shepherds; for to be wrapped in swaddling clothes was common to Him with other infants. Whence the Ethiopians report that the son named Menelich, whom the Queen of Sheba had conceived by Solomon, and having returned to Ethiopia had borne there, the same woman sent back to Jerusalem, and placed upon his thumb the ring which she had received from Solomon, that by this sign he might be recognized by Solomon as his legitimate son. These are their own reports, with whom be the credit.

SHE LAID HIM IN A MANGER. — Omitting the various opinions which Barradius, Azor, Baronius, Toletus and others catalogue, note that the place of Christ's nativity was properly not the stable of a rustic house, as St. Cyprian (or whoever the author is), treatise On the Cardinal Works, and others imagine; but was a cave cut in the rock at the furthest eastern part of the city of Bethlehem, as eyewitnesses teach: St. Jerome, epistle 18 to Marcella; Brochardus, Adrichomius and others, and Bede, On the Holy Places, chapter 8. Whether this cave was situated within the city or outside by the city walls, the authors vary. Hear St. Jerome: "Behold, in this small hole in the earth the Founder of the heavens was born; here He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, here He was seen by the shepherds, here He was pointed out by the star, here He was adored by the Magi." Bede adds that from the rock of this cave, by a miracle on account of Christ being born in it, a perennial fountain gushed forth, and lasted until his own times; and that the whole cave had been encrusted with marble by the Christians, and adorned with a great church built above it.

Moreover, that in this cave there was a wooden manger, common to and known by all the shepherds, is clear from the fact that, from it being indicated to them by the angel, the shepherds soon recognized the place of Christ's nativity, and betook themselves to it. This manger was afterwards translated to Rome, and placed in the basilica of St. Mary Major, where it is religiously visited and venerated to this day.

Finally, Christ was placed in the manger for two reasons. The first, because in the whole cave there was no more comfortable nor more fitting place for Christ than the manger, that the tender Christ might lie on its hay as on a bed. The second, that in the rigor of winter (for it was the end of December) Christ might be warmed by the breath of the ox and ass. For tradition has it that an ox and an ass were tied to this manger, and this is the common sense of the faithful. And the Church understands of them that passage in Habakkuk 3:2, according to the Septuagint: "In the midst of two animals you shall be known"; and to the same she applies that passage in Isaiah 1:3: "The ox knew his owner, and the ass his master's crib," as St. Jerome, Nazianzen, Cyril, Paulinus, Prudentius and others in Baronius explain in that place.

Nyssen gives a tropological cause, in On the Nativity of Christ: "The manger," he says, "is the house of beasts, in which the Word is born, that the ox may know his owner, and the ass his master's crib. Now the ox is the Jew subjugated to the Law; the ass is the Gentile, an animal fit for bearing burdens, groaning under the heaviest yoke of idolatry. But the ordinary food of brute animals is hay. For, says the Prophet, 'He bringeth forth hay for beasts.' But the rational animal feeds on bread: therefore, in the manger, where the fodder of brutes is usually placed, the Bread of Life, which came down from heaven, is set forth, that animals lacking reason might also share in rational food."

So also St. Cyril in the Catena. Symbolically: the manger is the altar, on which Christ in the Mass, through consecration, is as it were born and offered up. Hence St. Chrysostom, in the Catena: "What the Magi, seeing in the manger and the hut, approached and adored with much veneration and fear: you, seeing the same thing not in a manger but on an altar, show a greater piety than those barbarians."

By the example of Christ born in a cave, many mothers of saints bore them in a stable. The mother of St. Francis, when being pregnant with him she could not give birth, was warned by a poor pilgrim to betake herself to a stable, that she would immediately give birth, and obeying his word, by a happy labor in the stable she brought forth St. Francis, the imitator of the poverty of Christ. So his Life in Ribadeneira records. Today also some pious mothers about to give birth, out of pious devotion and humility, go to a stable, that they may liken themselves and their infants to Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

Further, St. Epiphanius, in his oration On the Mother of God, says: "The stable seemed to be heaven on earth": for where God is, there is heaven, just as where the Pontiff is, there is Rome. Epiphanius adds: "The Virgin," he says, "in the cave pregnant without labor, laid the Lord of heaven and earth in a manger; hence also the ranks of angels stood around the Virgin, crying out and saying: Glory to God in the highest, etc." And Chrysippus: "In the manger the choirs of angels stood around. To the palaces of all kings and to the temple itself, the angels preferred that poorest stable; thither, seized with the highest admiration, they flowed, and adored the newborn King."

Morally: let all Christians frequently consider and gaze upon Christ in the manger, that they may notice Who and how great He is, what He is doing, for whom and why He is doing it: for Christ in the manger, that is, God-made-man, the infant Word, is the love and astonishment of all angels and faithful alike, at whom all are amazed and will be amazed throughout all eternity. For who would not stand astonished and amazed if he should look deeply upon this Child and ask Him: Who art Thou, O little One of Bethlehem? and hear Him answering: Learn it from Isaiah, chapter 9:6: "Unto us a Child is born, and unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Father of the world to come, Prince of peace." Let David the Psalmist and royal Prophet say the same to you, Psalm 47: "Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised" — He was made a little child and exceedingly lovable. "We have received, O God, Thy mercy in the midst of Thy temple. For this is God, our God for ever and ever: He shall rule us for evermore." Let Daniel say, chapter 7: "Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him." Let Solomon, wisest of kings, say, Proverbs 8:22: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning. When He prepared the heavens I was there, when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths, when He established the skies above and poised the fountains of waters, I was with Him forming all things, and I was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men." Let Sirach say, Ecclesiasticus 24:6: "I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before every creature. I made that in the heavens there should rise light that faileth not, and as a cloud I covered all the earth. I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of cloud, etc. And He said to me: In Jacob take thy inheritance, and in Israel inherit, and take root in my elect." Let Job say, 11:8: "He is higher than heaven, and what wilt thou do? deeper than hell, and how wilt thou know? The measure of Him is longer than the earth and broader than the sea." And chapter 9:3: "Who moveth the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not. Who alone stretcheth out the heavens, and walketh upon the waves of the sea; who doth great things, and unsearchable, and wonderful, of which there is no number."

Let the Sibyl of the Gentiles say it. Let Virgil, prince of poets and seers, say it from her, Eclogue 4:

"Now is come the last age of the Cumaean song;
The great series of ages is born anew.
Now a new offspring is sent down from high heaven,
Dear child of the gods, great increase of Jove.
Begin, little boy, to know your mother with a smile.
Under your leadership, whatever traces of our sin remain,
Being annulled, shall free the earth from perpetual fear."

He adds that this is the golden age of Christ, "when the iron age shall first / Cease, and the golden race shall rise over the whole world."

Deservedly therefore St. Augustine exclaims, sermon 9 On the Nativity: "O miracles! O prodigies! O mysteries! brethren, the laws of nature are changed, God is born in man, a virgin without a man becomes pregnant, the Word of God weds her who has not known a man, she is made both mother and virgin at once; made a mother, yet uncorrupted. O wondrous and unheard-of union! O new and strange commingling! God, who is and who was the Creator, becomes a creature; He who is immense is contained; making men rich, He becomes poor, the incorporeal is clothed in flesh, the invisible is seen, the impalpable is touched, the incomprehensible is grasped, He whom heaven and earth bless is placed in a narrow manger."

What did so great a God do, in such tiny flesh, lying in the manger? Let us hear Himself teaching and preaching from the chair of the manger, not in word but in deed: "I, who with three fingers hold up the mass of the earth, who from nothing created heaven and earth, the King of glory and Lord of majesty, under whom the pillars of heaven tremble, and they are bent down who bear the world; for love of you alone, O man, to free you who are addicted to sin and the eternal fires of hell, and to lead you to blessedness in heaven, I came 'leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills'; I leaped from heaven to earth, from the bosom of the Father into the womb of the Virgin, from the womb to the earth, from the earth to the cross, from the cross to hell; from hell I leaped back to earth, from earth to heaven, that I might carry you, rescued from hell, to heaven. Through the bowels of My mercy, I, the Orient from on high, have visited you, and have joined heaven to earth, the Word to flesh, spirit to clay, God to man hypostatically, and bound them most closely. I have been made a little one, your bone and your flesh, I have been made man, that I might make you God. I lie in the manger among the beasts as food for the ox and ass, because as a beast you were living animally, wallowing in flesh and blood. You had been made 'like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding. For man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he has been compared to senseless beasts, and has been made like unto them,' Psalm 48. I therefore took flesh, that you might eat My flesh, and flesh not of a beast but of God, so that, joining it to your flesh, mouth to mouth, hand to hand, foot to foot, belly to belly, after the manner of Elisha in 2 Kings 4:34, I might breathe into them the breath of heavenly and divine life."

Who and to what end is this breath? It is the breath of deepest humility, of richest poverty, of ecstatic charity, of wisest foolishness and contempt of the world, that I may teach you in deed what I taught in word through Solomon: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, except to love God and to serve Him only. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Follow Me therefore as the Way to heaven, if you wish not to err; listen to Me as the Truth, embrace Me as the true Life. Vain are riches, vain are delights, vain are earthly honors, which foolish mortals, as fatuous as children, most greedily pursue and aspire after. True riches, true delights, true honors are in the heavens, which God, the Angels, and the Blessed enjoy: pant after them. I, Christ, who am the King of kings, am born poor and needy of all things; and you, O Christian, seek comforts and riches? I, whom the heavens cannot contain, am enclosed within a slender body and manger; and are you, O Christian, ashamed to be little, humble, to be cast down, to be despised? I, who am uncreated and immense Wisdom, have chosen things hard and troublesome to the flesh, troublesome to the spirit; do you indulge in the pleasures of both? I willed to be born not in the palace of Herod nor of Augustus, but in a cave and manger, I chose to inhabit humble cottages, and preferred the sheepfold to the court; you pursue the court and courtiers. "O sons of men," sons of Enos, wretched, senseless, driven by forgetfulness and madness, "why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?" Learn from Me where true wisdom, true glory, true virtue, and true life are to be found: namely, in profound humility, in burning charity, in contempt of all earthly things, and desire of heavenly things. "The stable cries out," says St. Bernard, sermon 5 On the Nativity, "the manger cries out, the tears cry out, the swaddling clothes cry out. The stable cries out that preparation is being made for the care of the man who had fallen among thieves. The manger cries out that food is being ministered to the same man who had been compared to beasts. The tears, the swaddling clothes cry out that the bloody wounds of that same man are now being washed and wiped."

All things cry out austerity, penance, poverty, humility, but above all burning charity; for what Christ began here, He pursued and perfected in His whole subsequent life. This is what He Himself says, Matthew 8:20: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of man has not where to lay His head." Clearly, born in a stable, He lived in a lodging, died on a gibbet. Everywhere, not for His own sake, but "for our sakes He was made needy, though He was rich, that by His poverty we might be made rich."

Finally, Christ was born in the flesh, that we might be reborn in the spirit, nay, that He Himself might be born in us through the Spirit. Hear Innocent III, sermon 3: "Just as the Catholic faith confesses three substances in Christ — divinity, flesh, spirit — so sacred Scripture testifies to three nativities in Him: the divine from the Father, the fleshly from His Mother, the spiritual in the mind. From the Father He is born always, from His Mother He was born once, in the mind He is born often."

Moreover, this happens through burning, effective, and frequent desires and sighs towards Christ. Whence Innocent adds: "Christ is conceived through affection, born through effect, nourished through progress."

BECAUSE THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR THEM IN THE INN. — "For them," namely for Mary and Joseph; whence the Arabic reads, "because there was no place for them where they might lodge." Wrongly therefore do some who read "for Him," namely for Christ, explain with Barradius, as if to say: Christ was laid in the manger, because there was no more comfortable place for Him in that inn, that is, in the stable; for the Greek, the Latin, the Syriac and the Arabic all have "for them," not "for Him." He gives the cause why the Blessed Virgin gave birth in a cave, and laid Christ not in a bed, but in the manger, namely because all the places in the inn were already taken, with the crowd of wealthier people flocking there for the common census. For it is likely that in the small city of Bethlehem there was only one inn (as Luke hints here: and I have seen the same thing done in Germany) to which all guests and strangers would turn, which therefore, with the crowd flowing in, would easily be filled so as not to hold more: but this was done by the foresight and providence of Christ, that He might give us an example of the highest humility and poverty. Moreover, Christ, hiding Himself out of humility, was manifested and glorified by God: through the star calling the Magi, through the angels sent to the shepherds, through the idols overthrown, through the circles around the sun and the parhelia, and through other miracles which Orosius recounts in book 6, chapter 20, and more fully Baronius in volume 1 of the Annals.

Verse 8: And There Were Shepherds in the Same Country

8. AND THERE WERE SHEPHERDS IN THE SAME COUNTRY KEEPING WATCH, AND GUARDING THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT OVER THEIR FLOCK. — "In the same country," namely in the fields and plains near Bethlehem. St. Jerome, Epistle 27; Brochardus, Adrichomius and others in their Description of the Holy Land, assert that it was the same place where Jacob pastured his flocks, Genesis 35:21, which from this was called "the Tower of Eder," that is, of the flock, because it abounds in pastures for feeding flocks. Here then the angels sang to Christ newly born: "Glory to God in the highest." For this reason St. Helena built a temple there in honor of the Holy Angels, and even in the middle of the field a chapel was erected in memory of so great a thing. It is about a thousand paces distant from Bethlehem. So too Haymo: "The Tower of the Flock," he says, "is one mile distant from Bethlehem, in which place even today the bodies of the three shepherds rest."

KEEPING WATCH. — In Greek ἀγραυλοῦντες, that is, lodging in the field, or passing the night there; for ἀγρός means field, αὐλή is a fold, stable, pen, sheepfold. Theophylact, however, interprets ἀγραυλεύντες as "singing in the field"; for ἐν ἀγρῷ αὐλεῖν is to play a pipe or flute in the field, as shepherds are wont to do, both to while away the time, and to refresh themselves, and to soothe the sheep and rouse them to vigorous grazing by this song of theirs.

From this word, Joseph Scaliger in On the Emendation of Times contends to prove that Christ was born in September. For then, he says — not in December, when it is the middle of winter and everything is stiff with frost or snow — the sheep lodge and pasture in the fields. But it is the common tradition of the Church and of all ages that Christ was born on 25 December. To Scaliger's argument I reply: in warm regions, such as Palestine is, even in winter flocks dwell and feed in the fields and on common pastures, whether out in the open or in shelters prepared for this purpose, such as doubtless had been erected at the Tower of Eder on account of its nearby pastures, so that the sheep might go out to them promptly at the suitable time. So in Italy and in the Roman countryside we see cattle and herds dwelling and feeding in the fields all winter long.

AND KEEPING THE NIGHT WATCHES OVER THEIR FLOCK. — In Greek φυλάσσοντες τὰς φυλακάς, that is, keeping the watches; namely, watching through the four watches of the night, to guard their flocks, lest they be seized by wolves or thieves. Hence it is gathered that Christ was born at night, that is, past midnight, when the day of 25 December was now beginning, and this is mystically (for another is the literal sense of that place) signified in Wisdom 18:14: "When," it says, "a quiet silence contained all things, and the night in its course was half spent, Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from the royal throne, a stern warrior into the midst of the land of destruction"; and this in order to signify that Christ, as the Sun of truth and justice, would shine upon those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, says St. Augustine, Question 53 among the Questions of the Old and New Testament. For this reason the Church celebrates Masses after midnight on the feast of Christ's Nativity.

In memory of this event, a church of the Three Shepherds was afterwards built in the same place (for that there were as many shepherds as there were Magi, St. Bernard also teaches, sermon 6 On the Nativity of the Lord), containing the memorials of those who were witnesses of the divine nativity, says Bede, On the Holy Places, chapter 8. For these shepherds, called by the angel to Christ, having seen and adored Him, through His grace became eminent Saints. Whence Lucius Dexter in his Chronicle, which he dedicates to St. Jerome: "In the year," he says, "752 from the founding of the City of Rome, when Lentulus and Messala were consuls, one year before the consulate of Augustus and Sylvanus, Christ is born: He is first shown to three shepherds (who were holy men)." See Baronius, year 1 of Christ, and Suarez, part 3, Question 36, disputation 14, section 2.

Moreover, it was fitting to reason that only three shepherds should be the first among men to adore the Word of the Father, made flesh by the working of the Holy Spirit, that they themselves might be worshipers of the Holy Trinity and might by their number represent the mystery of the Trinity, as the three Magi afterwards did.

Verse 9: And Behold an Angel of the Lord Stood by Them

9. AND BEHOLD AN ANGEL OF THE LORD STOOD BY THEM, AND THE BRIGHTNESS OF GOD SHONE ROUND ABOUT THEM, AND THEY FEARED WITH A GREAT FEAR. — "An angel," in an assumed body, to signify that God had assumed a body, and through His assumed flesh had rendered Himself visible to men, says Titus.

Moreover, St. Cyprian (or whoever the author is), On the Nativity of the Lord; Toletus, Franciscus Lucas, and others think that this angel was Gabriel: for he appeared to both the Blessed Virgin and to Zachariah, and was the minister of this whole business of the Incarnation of the Word. Bede hints at the same thing, saying: "An angel instructs Mary, an angel Joseph, an angel the shepherds; and the citizens of heaven testify of the Lord as He is to be conceived, as conceived, and as born, both sufficiently to instruct mortals, and unceasingly to render their service to their Author."

STOOD BY THEM. — In Greek ἐπέστη αὐτοῖς, which others render, "stood over them," as if the angel had fallen down from heaven; Vatablus, "stood near them"; the Syriac, "came to them." These shepherds, because they were Jews and faithful, are called through an angel (for angels often appeared to the Jews); but the Magi, because they were Gentiles and astrologers, are called through a star. See St. Gregory, homily 10 on the Gospels.

You will ask, why did the angel first appear to the shepherds, and not to the Scribes, or to citizens, or to workmen? I answer: Euthymius gives four reasons. The first is that all things here in Christ's manger breathe poverty and humility, and that simple, poor, humble shepherds please God more than proud rich men, and than unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees, according to that saying of Christ: "I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones, for so it hath pleased Thee," Matthew 11:25. Whence Theophylact here says: "He conquered the learned," he says, "through the unlearned, the rich through the poor, and through fishermen He fished the world."

The second, because these shepherds followed the life of the ancient Patriarchs, namely the most innocent of crafts, agriculture, or rather shepherding. For Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses were shepherds of sheep, to whom, as innocent and holy men, God often appeared through angels. Thus St. Ambrose, sermon 9: "Nor is it to be wondered at," he says, "if innocence deserved to know the grace of Christ before power, and if simple rusticity deserved to know the truth before proud lordship."

The third, because Christ was to be the Shepherd of the people, according to that saying: "I am the Good Shepherd," John 10. Hence Christ was of old depicted as a Shepherd surrounded by sheep, as may be seen at Rome in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, and in other ancient places.

The fourth reason: to signify that to the shepherds of rational sheep — namely, of men and of the faithful — divine mysteries are first revealed by God, so that they in turn may teach the same to their own sheep, that is, to the people committed to their care.

A fifth reason is added by the author of On the Wonders of Sacred Scripture, which is found in volume III of St. Augustine's works, book III, chapter 2: because Christ was the Lamb to be offered for the salvation of the world. Fittingly, therefore, He first appears to the shepherds of lambs.

Tropologically: Christ reveals and communicates Himself to those who, by their actions and thoughts, keep watch as it were like shepherds, and He consoles those who have no other consolation of their own. So St. Bernard, Sermon 5 On the Nativity: "Christ's infancy does not console the chatterers; Christ's tears do not console those who guffaw; His swaddling-clothes do not console those who walk in flowing robes; the manger and the stable do not console those who love the chief seats in the synagogues. But to those who quietly wait upon the Lord, to mourners and to the ragged poor, this whole consolation will be seen to be granted. Furthermore, let them hear that even the angels themselves console no others."

AND THEY FEARED WITH A GREAT FEAR. — They were filled with sacred dread and reverence, both because of the novelty of the vision and its splendour, says Euthymius, and because of the majesty of the heavenly angel, which so strikes men that they are almost lifeless. Hence there was once an opinion that whoever had seen an angel would die, according to that saying of Manoah, the father of Samson: "We shall surely die, because we have seen God," Judges 13:22. Learn from this that the sign of a good angel is first to terrify, then to console; whence he adds: "Fear not," and so on.

AND THE BRIGHTNESS OF GOD (a marvellous light and splendour, not so much human as divine) SHONE ROUND ABOUT THEM. — The Arabic version reads: "the glory of the Lord arose upon them." For everywhere in Scripture God has manifested His glory by heavenly light and brilliance. "By 'the brightness of the Lord,'" says Euthymius, "understand the divine light." Titus: "They were surrounded by divine brightness and heavenly glory." Therefore this radiance was not from the stars, but more august, serving as an emblem of the majesty of the Lord, whose envoy the angel was. Furthermore, St. Ambrose, Sermon 10, thinks that on the day of Christ's nativity the sun shone with some new splendour and hastened to rise: "At the rising of the Saviour," he says, "not only is the salvation of the human race renewed, but even the brightness of the sun itself, as the Apostle says to the Ephesians 1: 'That by Him He might restore all things, whether they be in the heavens or on the earth.' For if the sun is darkened when Christ suffers, it must needs shine more brightly than usual when He is born." And after a few more lines: "From this, in fine, I think it came about that the night was cut short, while the sun, hastening to do honour to the Lord's birth, brought forth its light to the world before the night had completed its time-course. Or rather, I would say that there was no night at all, nor was there any darkness in that hour in which shepherds keep watch, angels rejoice, and the stars are at hand. If the sun stood still in the day at the prayer of Joshua son of Nun, why should it not have hastened forward into the night for Christ's nativity?"

Tropologically: St. Gregory, Homily 8: "What is it," he says, "that the angel appears to the shepherds keeping watch, and that the brightness of God shines round about them? Unless it be that those merit, more than others, to behold sublime things, who know how to preside carefully over the faithful flocks; and while they piously keep watch over the flock, divine grace flashes the more abundantly upon them." The same writer, in book VII On the Nativity: "What is more unworthy, what more detestable, what more deserving of grave punishment, than that a man, seeing the God of heaven made a little child, should still set himself to magnify himself upon the earth? It is intolerable shamelessness that, where Majesty has emptied Itself, a little worm should swell and puff itself up."

Verse 10: And the Angel Said to Them: Fear Not

10. AND THE ANGEL SAID UNTO THEM: FEAR NOT: FOR BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY (a message which will give birth to joy), WHICH SHALL BE TO ALL PEOPLE — but in the first place to you, whom I summon as the first to behold and adore the Messiah now born. Therefore the Gospel was announced first of all to the shepherds, and that by angels. St. Bernard gives the reason in Sermon 3 On the Nativity, saying: "For to the shepherds keeping watch, and guarding the night-watches, the joy of a new light is announced, and unto them the Saviour is said to be born: to the poor and to laborers, not to you rich, who have your consolation and your divine 'woe.'"

Verse 11: For Unto You Is Born This Day a Savior

11. FOR UNTO YOU IS BORN THIS DAY (this very night) A SAVIOUR, WHO IS CHRIST (the Messiah expected through so many ages) THE LORD, IN THE CITY OF DAVID — in Bethlehem, of the seed and stock of David. Each word has weight and suggests new matter for joy, as is plain to one who ponders and weighs it more deeply, just as Toledo expounds it minutely and at length. The name "Christ" denotes priesthood and kingship, says Eusebius in the Catena; for both priests and kings were anointed, and so they were called "christs," that is, "anointed ones," consecrated by anointing. Concerning the name of Christ, see what I have said on Matthew 1:1, and on Daniel 9:24, at the end.

Verse 12: And This Shall Be a Sign Unto You

12. AND THIS SHALL BE A SIGN UNTO YOU (by which you may distinguish and recognize this Child from the others recently born): YOU SHALL FIND AN INFANT WRAPPED IN SWADDLING CLOTHES, AND LAID IN A MANGER. — For the other infants then born were in a house and a bed, but Christ alone was in a stable and a manger. Hence it is clear that this manger was a common one and known to all; unless you say that the angel pointed it out with his finger, or, as Toledo would have it, indicated to the shepherds by interior inspiration the cave in which this manger was. The angel gives this sign lest the shepherds suppose that their Messiah, as a king of the Jews, was to be sought in the palace of Herod or some similar royal residence, as the Jews think: for this first coming of Christ was one of humility, just as the second, for judgment, will be one of majesty. The sign, therefore, of the Incarnate and "abbreviated" Word is the humility of swaddling-bands and a manger; for this is what Christ wished to teach us efficaciously by being born, living, and dying in utmost abjection. For, as St. Bernard says, Sermon 1, Epistle 32: "The light of the flock is the flame of the shepherd. For it befits a pastor, and it befits the Lord's priest, to shine forth in conduct and life, so that the people committed to him may, as in a mirror of life, both choose what to follow and see what to correct."

Verse 13: And Suddenly There Was a Multitude of the Heavenly Host

13. AND SUDDENLY THERE WAS WITH THE ANGEL A MULTITUDE OF THE HEAVENLY HOST, PRAISING GOD AND SAYING. — Because, as I said on verse 7, all the angels accompanied and venerated Christ being born on earth: these now are the battle-line and soldiery, that is, the heavenly army, because they fight most mightily for God against the demons and the impious. Hence God is called "Sabaoth," that is, of armies — namely of the heavenly and angelic hosts. So Jacob, who was a type of Christ, fleeing from his brother Esau, saw a multitude of angels helping him, whence he said: "This is the camp of God," and so he called the place Mahanaim, that is, "camps" in the dual, because of the two ranks or troops of angels coming to his protection, Genesis 32. Again, if at the creation of the world the morning stars praised God and all the sons of God — that is, all the angels — shouted for joy, as Job says in chapter 38, how much more did they do the same on account of the incarnation and birth of the Word!

Verse 14: Glory to God in the Highest

14. GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE TO MEN OF GOOD WILL. — Thus also the Syriac, Arabic, Egyptian, Ethiopic, and Persian versions, except for the "of good will," concerning which more shortly. The "in the highest," or, as many others read, "in the most exalted places," can be referred either to God — as if to say: Glory belongs to God who dwells in the highest heavens, and there shows forth His glory to the angels and the Blessed — or rather to glory: as if to say, In the highest heavens the angels give glory to God, just as on earth men enjoy peace through Christ now born. Again, these words may be taken assertively, supplying "is," or optatively, supplying "may it be." Assertively, as if to say: Glory is now in heaven to God, and on earth there is peace, because all the heavenly inhabitants glorify in heaven God's mercy, wisdom, and fidelity, in that He has now faithfully shown forth to the world Christ promised by Him to the fathers: hence on earth there is peace, because Christ is born, that He, as a kind of pacific king, may reconcile to God the men who are born sons of wrath. So Toledo and Maldonatus. Optatively, as if to say: Glory be to God in the highest, that is, may God be praised and glorified in heaven; let all the heavenly hosts bless and glorify God, in that He has deigned to send Christ into the earth, so that, being incarnate in it, He may bring to men peace, that is, reconciliation, grace, salvation, and all good things. Let heaven and earth therefore praise God; let all the heavenly ones and the earth-dwellers shout for joy, because Christ is born, who is the glory of God, the joy of the angels, the peace of men. So Jansen, Barradius, and others. For these are the voices of the angels praising God, partly congratulating God and men, and partly desiring that this glory and this peace, begun in Christ's nativity, may be perfected in His life and death.

The Greek manuscripts make this hymn three-membered, for they have it thus: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, in men good will. So too the Syriac and the Arabic, the latter of which, for "good will," translates "gladness." Thus also the Greek Fathers commonly read it — namely St. Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Epiphanius, Eusebius, Theophylact, Euthymius — as may be seen in the Greek Catena.

But better, all the Latins, and among the Greeks Origen, St. Chrysostom, and Cyril, instead of εὐδοκία ("good will") read εὐδοκίας ("of good will"), and consequently make this hymn two-membered. For just as glory is given to God, as the person who is glorified, so also peace is given to the men of good will, as the persons to whom Christ's peace belongs and is fitting; and thus the connection of the whole sentence coheres better: for "peace on earth" can be understood of nothing other than peace for men of good will. Aptly St. Bernard, Sermon 3 On the Circumcision: "What," he says, "is greater glory for God than such great condescension and such great loving-kindness?" The same, in Epistle 126 to the Bishop of Aquitaine: "That angelic apportionment displeases mortals," he says, "by which glory is announced to God and peace to men, and while they usurp the glory, they disturb the peace. He alone deserves the glory who alone does wonders, as the Apostle says: 'To God alone be honour and glory.'" And shortly after: "In what way then will the peace of men stand before God, or with God, if His own glory cannot be safe with God among men? O foolish sons of Adam, who, despising peace and seeking glory, lose both peace and glory."

AND ON EARTH PEACE — the peace of men with God, to whom Christ has reconciled us; nay more, He has united our flesh to Himself hypostatically; and consequently "peace," that is, tranquility of mind and conscience; and thirdly, "peace" and concord with other men. Furthermore, "peace" to the Hebrews signifies every good, all prosperity and happiness. Hence some say that "peace" is Christ now born; "for He is our peace, who has made both one," Ephesians 2:14; for "it pleased God by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross, whether the things on earth or the things in heaven," Colossians 1:19.

Hear St. Augustine, Discourse Against the Jews, Pagans and Arians, chapter 10: "In the virginal womb," he says, "spiritual nuptials were celebrated; God was joined to flesh, and flesh clung to God, proceeding thence as a bridegroom from his chamber, at whose nuptials the whole creation, deeply moved, was seen to exult. For the choir of angels, out of these nuptials, designates peace to men of good will, because He who was the Son of God was made a son of men."

OF GOOD WILL. — This may be expounded in three ways. First, by referring it to "men," to qualify them, as if to say: Let peace be to men, but not to all, but to those who are of good will. So St. Ambrose; "These are they who receive Christ," says Bede.

Secondly, St. Leo, Sermon on the Nativity: "Let peace," he says, "be to men, the kind that may make them to be of good will, namely so that they subject and conform their own will to the law and will of God in all things."

But because the Greek word is εὐδοκία, which corresponds to the Hebrew רצון, ratson, and in Sacred Scripture is almost never attributed to men but to God Himself, signifying the grace, benevolence, good pleasure, love and affection of God toward men, hence Nyssen, Theophylact, and Euthymius better give this sense, as if to say: Let peace be to men, those men, I say, whom God deigns to favour and pursue with this grace and good will — that is, with His benevolence and love freely, without any merit of men — namely so that He may give them such a Saviour and Reconciler as will establish peace between Himself and men, and between heaven and earth, that is, between the heavenly and earthly inhabitants. Thus also St. Ambrose and Haymo. It is a familiar metonymy of Sacred Scripture, by which "word" is put for the thing signified by the word, as in chapter 1: "Nothing shall be impossible with God, [literally: no word shall be impossible]," that is, no thing; 2 Samuel 1:4: "What is the word (that is, the thing) that has come to pass?"

So in Psalm 5 it is said: "With the shield of Thy good will (Greek εὐδοκίας) Thou hast crowned us," that is, with the shield which is good will, that is, with Thy benevolence, Thou hast surrounded us as with a crown. So in Matthew 17 it is said: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"; in Greek, εὐδόκησα. And in Psalm 149: "The Lord takes pleasure in His people." Thus men of good will are elsewhere called "sons of love," that is, sons willed and loved by God. See what I have said on Ephesians 1:9.

Furthermore Jansen refers the "of good will" to "peace," as if to say: Let peace be to men — peace, I say, coming not from their own merits but from the good will, that is, the benevolence and grace of God: but this is more intricate and obscure. Otherwise also St. Ambrose: "'Of good will,'" he says, "that you may understand the peace of Christ to be not of debt, but of merit."

Morally, learn here how greatly God delights in humility and exalts the humble. Behold, Christ, born by night, hides Himself in a manger, but God glorifies Him by means of angels. Hear St. Augustine, book II On the Creed, chapter 5: "Thus the Most High willed to be born humble, that in that very humility He might display His majesty." And in Sermon 213 On the Seasons: "In the highest honour," he says, "let there be the highest humility: the praise of honour is the virtue of humility." And St. Ambrose: "From the womb," he says, "Christ is poured forth, yet flashes from heaven; He lies in an earthly inn, but shines with heavenly light; the bride brought forth, but the virgin conceived; she conceived as bride, but as virgin she gave birth. And if the age of the flesh was unaware of the work, surely it was God who carried on the age of the flesh by works of divinity." And St. Bernard, Sermon 1 On the Circumcision: "From the very beginning of His nativity, Christ joins divine things to human, the lowest to the highest. He is born of a woman, but of one whose fruitfulness..."

Verse 15: Let Us Go Over to Bethlehem

15. AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE ANGELS DEPARTED FROM THEM INTO HEAVEN, THE SHEPHERDS SAID ONE TO ANOTHER: LET US GO OVER TO BETHLEHEM, AND SEE THIS WORD WHICH IS COME TO PASS, WHICH THE LORD HAS SHEWN UNTO US.

THIS WORD — that is, this thing so new and wondrous, namely the Word incarnate and the Messiah born. Whence Bede, expounding this symbolically of the Divine Word, says: "Let us see how the Word, which always was, has been made for us: for what we could not see while He was the Word, let us now see made, because He is flesh."

WHICH THE LORD (Bede adds, "has done and") HAS SHEWN UNTO US. — In Greek ἐγνώρισε, that is, He made known, revealed, indicated; nay, He has suggested to us the sign by which we shall find the Messiah just born, in preference to the Scribes and all others. Wherefore, unless we go and adore Him who is born for us and first revealed to us — invited and called by Him through the angel — we shall be ungrateful to God, to the angels, and to Christ, and enemies to ourselves, inasmuch as we shall have neglected so great a grace and salvation of Christ. It is certain that the angel speaking outwardly to the shepherds enlightened their minds inwardly far more, so that they might know Christ to be God and the Redeemer of the world; and thus stirred them up to approach Him, worship, love, and adore Him. For this reason the shepherds in actual fact went to the manger and there adored Christ with the deepest humility and reverence. Hence there is no doubt that they were here justified; or, if they were already just, that they received a great increase of justice and sanctity. Thus St. Cyprian (or whoever is the author), On the Nativity of Christ: "Those shepherds," he says, "more enlightened in mind than in carnal eyes, hasten to behold Emmanuel, and being taught inwardly by the invisible teaching of the Holy Spirit, they confess Him whom they see as a little Child to be Immense, and they offer Him the affection of pious devotion."

Verse 16: And They Came with Haste

16. AND THEY CAME WITH HASTE; AND FOUND MARY AND JOSEPH, AND THE INFANT LYING IN A MANGER.

"With haste," out of desire and ardour to see Christ now born. Whence St. Ambrose: "You see," he says, "the shepherds make haste; for no one seeks Christ with sloth." And Bede: "The shepherds hasten," he says, "for the presence of Christ is not to be sought with sloth, and therefore perhaps some who seek do not deserve to find, because they seek Christ slothfully."

Verse 17: And Seeing, They Understood Concerning the Word

17. AND SEEING, THEY UNDERSTOOD CONCERNING THE WORD (namely, that it was true, that is, that the matter was real — that Christ had truly been born) WHICH HAD BEEN TOLD THEM CONCERNING THIS CHILD — by the angel.

THEY UNDERSTOOD. — In Greek διεγνώρισαν, that is, they thoroughly knew, they recognized clearly and with certainty. Secondly, it can be rendered, with Pagninus, "they made known"; Theophylact, "they spread abroad." So too the Syriac: whence follows:

Verse 18: And All Who Heard Wondered

18. AND ALL WHO HEARD WONDERED; AND CONCERNING THOSE THINGS WHICH HAD BEEN TOLD THEM BY THE SHEPHERDS. — The "and" is not in the Greek, Syriac, or Arabic, and so the sense flows more clearly; the Roman copies, however, read "and," as if to say: They marvelled that the Messiah had been born and at the rest of the things which the shepherds had told them — namely, they marvelled that an angel had appeared, that angels had sung "Glory in the highest," that Christ was lying in a manger, etc. So the Gloss, Francis Lucas, and others; though Lyra explains the "and" as meaning "namely." Hence it is clear that the shepherds related to many what they had heard and seen about the newborn Christ from the angel; and so many came to the manger and saw Christ; but only those whose hearts God effectually touched believed in Christ, while the rest, offended by Christ's poverty, despised Him. St. Ambrose gives the reason: "The person of the shepherds is not vile," he says; "surely, the more lowly in worldly prudence, the more precious as regards faith. The Lord did not seek out the schools crowded with throngs of the wise, but sought a simple people who knew not how to deck out and disguise what they had heard. For simplicity is what is sought, not ambition that is desired."

Verse 19: But Mary Kept All These Words

19. BUT MARY KEPT ALL THESE WORDS, PONDERING THEM IN HER HEART. — That is, conferring and comparing — not the oracles of the Prophets concerning Christ, as Bede would have it, but the words and sights of the shepherds about the angels singing "Glory to God in the highest," etc., with the things which she herself had experienced in her own person, namely Gabriel's annunciation, the prophecy of Elizabeth and Zechariah, and the other things which she had seen and felt within herself concerning Christ now born. And this first, so that, seeing the wondrous concord on both sides — all things harmonizing perfectly with one another — she might be more strengthened in faith, namely, that the only-begotten Son of God had been born of her. So St. Ambrose. Secondly, so that by the joyful contemplation of these things so harmoniously consonant she might feed her soul, and with sure hope await what remained — namely, that God would bring this work to its completion and through Christ would redeem mankind. Thirdly, so that in due time she might unfold these things to the Apostles, and especially to Luke who was to write them down, and narrate them in order. See here in the Virgin a rare example of virginal silence and modesty, and likewise of heavenly prudence, and of the firmest faith and hope, marvelling at present things and awaiting things to come. For she compared the things she beheld of utmost humility with those she knew of utmost majesty: the stable with heaven, the swaddling-clothes with those words of the Prophet, Psalm 103: "Clothed with light as with a garment"; the manger with the throne of God, the animals with the Seraphim.

Verse 20: And the Shepherds Returned, Glorifying and Praising God

20. AND THE SHEPHERDS RETURNED ("to their flock," says Euthymius; for God wills that the faithful, though exalted by Him, should remain in their calling, office, and craft), GLORIFYING AND PRAISING GOD FOR ALL THE THINGS THEY HAD HEARD AND SEEN, AS IT HAD BEEN TOLD THEM. — Refer the "it had been told" to "they had heard," not to "they had seen"; for things spoken are heard, not seen. Hence it is clear that the shepherds were constant in the faith and Gospel of Christ, indeed continually exulting and rejoicing with the joy of the Holy Spirit on account of having seen Christ.

Verse 21: And When Eight Days Were Fulfilled

21. AND WHEN EIGHT DAYS WERE FULFILLED THAT THE CHILD SHOULD BE CIRCUMCISED, HIS NAME WAS CALLED JESUS, WHICH WAS NAMED BY THE ANGEL BEFORE HE WAS CONCEIVED IN THE WOMB.

EIGHT DAYS WERE FULFILLED. — That is, when the eighth day came from Christ's birth, on which He, according to the law, was to be circumcised. This is a Hebraism; for Hebrew verbs often signify an action begun, not perfected. "Were fulfilled" here is therefore the same as "had begun to be fulfilled," so that, the seven days being completed, the eighth day, set for circumcision, was being celebrated, although it had not yet itself been completed and fulfilled.

THAT THE CHILD MIGHT BE CIRCUMCISED. — He silently indicates that He was circumcised, not in express terms, to suggest that He was circumcised freely and of His own accord, not from obligation: both because He Himself was God and the Author of the law, who was not bound by the law of circumcision which He Himself had given; and because He was conceived and born not by the common generation of men, who, propagated from the seed of sin, are conceived in iniquities — as Bede says — but of the Holy Spirit, and thus lacking original sin (for the abolishing of which circumcision had been instituted); nay, He was the Holy of Holies, as St. Augustine teaches in tract 30 on John, and St. Athanasius, St. Gregory, and others everywhere. For circumcision was the sign of sin, and as it were its brand and cauterization: but in Christ there was no sin and no concupiscence. Wherefore Christ in His circumcision humbled Himself more deeply than in His nativity; for in His nativity He took the form of a man, but in His circumcision the form of a sinner.

Yet He willed to be circumcised of His own accord for seven reasons, which St. Thomas, drawing them from St. Cyprian, Augustine, Bede and others, lists in the Summa, Part III, Question 37, Article 1. The first reason, he says: that He might show the reality of human flesh, against Manichaeus, who said that He had a phantasmal body; and against Apollinaris, who said that the body of Christ was consubstantial with the divinity; and against Valentinus, who said that Christ had brought His body from heaven. Secondly, that He might give approval to the circumcision which God had once instituted. Thirdly, that He might prove Himself to be of the lineage of Abraham, who had received the command of circumcision as a sign of the faith which he had concerning Him. Fourthly, that He might take from the Jews any excuse for not receiving Him on the ground that He was uncircumcised. Fifthly, that He might commend to us the virtue of obedience by His own example. Whence He was also circumcised on the eighth day as had been prescribed in the law. Sixthly, since He had come in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might not refuse the remedy by which sinful flesh was wont to be cleansed. Seventhly, that, bearing the burden of the law upon Himself, He might free others from the burden of the law, according to that of Galatians 4: "God sent His Son, made under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the law." Thus far St. Thomas.

St. Leo, in Sermon 2 on the Nativity, adds an eighth reason: that by it He might be hidden from the devil. "While the merciful and almighty Saviour," he says, "so regulated the beginnings of His assumption of humanity that He hid the power of the divinity, which is inseparable from His humanity, beneath the veil of our infirmity, the cunning of the unsuspecting enemy was deceived; for it judged the birth of the Child, brought forth for the salvation of the human race, to be subject to itself in no other way than the births of all men."

St. Augustine gives a ninth reason in Sermon 9 on the Nativity: that, the carnal circumcision being abolished, He might substitute a spiritual one, which consists in the mortification and cutting off of vices and concupiscences. "Christ," says Augustine, "received circumcision, that He might take away circumcision itself; He took up the shadow, that He might give the light; He took up the figure, that He might fulfil the truth." Finally, Christ began with His circumcision the Passion through which He became the Redeemer and Saviour of the world. Hence in it the name Jesus was imposed upon Him, by which Christ healed our infirmities — not by drugs as physicians do, but by taking them upon Himself and making satisfaction to God for them, and so meriting that He might heal all sicknesses of soul and body, all passions, temptations, sorrows, afflictions; and indeed He does heal them, whether in this life or in the next. Are you then troubled by fear, by scruple, by anger, by sloth, by vainglory, by sorrow, by poverty, etc.? Call upon Jesus, and you will find Him a Consoler and a Saviour.

AND HIS NAME WAS CALLED JESUS. — Concerning this divine and mellifluous name, see what I said on Numbers 13:17, and Barradius and Vincentius Regius here, and St. Bernard, Sermon 13 on the Canticle. Furthermore, "Jesus" is Saviour in perfect act, because He not only saved men Himself, but also gave to the Apostles and the like the power of saving others. And this is suggested by the name "Joshua," or, as the Hebrews say, Yehoshua, which is the same as the name Jesus; and it is in the hiphil conjugation, which signifies action — namely, perfect salvation. Let the faithful therefore remember that they are sons of Jesus, and ought, in consequence, to imitate Him in procuring the salvation of souls.

WHICH WAS CALLED BY THE ANGEL (Gabriel, when announcing to the Blessed Virgin the conception of Jesus, chapter 1:31), BEFORE HE WAS CONCEIVED IN THE WOMB. — For Christ was conceived at the end of the annunciation, when the Blessed Virgin replied: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word." A little before, therefore, the name Jesus to be given to the Child had been revealed to her by the angel. By this saying Luke signifies that the name Jesus had already been decreed and predestined by God for this Child from eternity, in order to signify that He would be the Saviour of the world. For "Jesus" in Hebrew is the same as the Greek σωτήρ, that is, Saviour.

Note here, how God in Christ joins and couples the humble with the sublime, the human with the divine, the poison with the antidote, so that in Him He may display human nature coupled to the divine majesty. For He willed Christ to be circumcised, and so to take on the appearance of a sinner; but at once, to wipe away that appearance, He gives Him the name Jesus, that is, Saviour, who heals all sins. So He willed Christ to be born in a stable and laid in a manger, as a poor and abject one; but immediately He summoned three Kings by a star and shepherds by an angel to adore Him. So He willed Him to suffer, to be crucified, to die; but at the same time He then darkened the sun and moon, split the rocks, shook the earth, so that all the elements might display and mourn the unworthy slaying of their Creator. The more, therefore, Christ humbled Himself, the more God the Father exalted Him. The same will He do for you, O Christian: wherefore do not fear to be humbled, knowing for certain that by this you will be raised on high. For the way to glory is humiliation, according to that oracle, nay, that promise of Christ: "Everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted."

Verse 22: And After the Days of Her Purification

22. AND AFTER THE DAYS OF HER PURIFICATION (of Mary, not of the Child, as is clear from the Greek αὐτῆς, and from Leviticus 12:7-8. Some therefore wrongly read αὐτοῦ in the masculine, that is "of him," namely of the Child; or, as Origen, Theophylact and Euthymius do, αὐτῶν, that is "of them," namely of the Child and of Mary the mother) WERE FULFILLED ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF MOSES, THEY BROUGHT HIM (the Child Jesus) TO JERUSALEM, TO PRESENT HIM TO THE LORD.

Note that three distinct laws are here interwoven and joined together. The first is in Leviticus 12:2ff: that a woman, if she had borne a male child, should remain unclean for forty days; and then should be legally purified in the temple, that is, by the rite of sacrifices prescribed by the law.

Concerning the institution, rite, cause, end, and fruit of circumcision, see what I have said on Genesis 17:9 and following. Furthermore, Christ was circumcised in the very cave in which He was born, by some priest or Levite, and He felt greater pain than other infants, because He Himself made use of reason, which the others lack, and was of a more delicate and lively sense of touch than others.

The second law: that the mother, for the purification not of her offspring (as St. Augustine would have it), but only of herself — as I have already said — should offer to God a lamb as a holocaust, and a young turtle-dove or pigeon as a victim for sin, if she be wealthy; if poor, she should offer only a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons, Leviticus 12:6-7.

The third law: that if the offspring be male and the firstborn, it should be presented and offered to God as owed to Him and holy — that is, consecrated on account of the deliverance of the Hebrew firstborn brought about by God, when the firstborn of Pharaoh and the Egyptians were slain by the angel in the time of Moses, Exodus 13:1; but in such a way that the offspring offered to God could be redeemed by the parents for five shekels, that is, for five Brabantine florins (which make two Roman gold coins, each of which contains ten "giulios" or "regals"), Numbers 3:47. Symbolically, these five shekels represented the five wounds of Christ, by the price of which Christ redeemed the human race.

DAYS OF HER PURIFICATION. — Note: In the Old Law a woman who had given birth was unclean, on account of an impurity which was at once natural, legal, and moral, especially because she bore a child whom she had infected and conceived in original sin. Natural, because such women suffer a flow of blood and of the menstrual discharge, as well as of the after-birth and other defilements, for many days. The reason is that the infant in the mother's womb is wrapped in a membrane which Pliny commonly calls secundae (after-birth), as Aristotle teaches in book 4 of On the Generation of Animals, chapter 4, and Galen in his book On the Formation of the Foetus. For this membrane has a threefold use. First, it covers, conserves, and protects the male seed in the mother's womb, so that it may not flow away but coagulate into the body of the infant, which the same membrane then contains and fosters.

Secondly, this membrane is full of little veins filled with blood, by which it nourishes the infant attached to it by the navel, the connection being naturally and spontaneously dissolved in childbirth when the infant is first brought forth; then the membrane, which had been the wrapping and covering of the infant — that is, the after-birth itself — is expelled in pieces by the same passage.

Thirdly, this membrane receives the excrements which the child naturally emits from the food with which it is nourished in the mother's womb. This is the natural impurity of the woman after childbirth, from which follows the legal impurity: for the old law, on account of these defilements, ordered her to be kept away, as it were unclean, from the temple, and to be as it were irregular for forty days, until on the fortieth day she was purified and cleansed by the rite prescribed by the law, and so as a pure woman re-entered the temple.

You will ask whether this impurity was in the Blessed Virgin when she gave birth to Christ, so that according to the law she had to be purified on the fortieth day. St. Jerome affirms it in Epistle 22 to Eustochium, where, speaking of Christ, he says: "For nine months He waits in the womb to be born, He endures discomforts, He comes forth bloody," just as other infants come forth bloody from the flow of the mother's blood, and are therefore washed. The same is asserted by Abulensis on Leviticus chapter 12, Question 2 and following; and by Erasmus here.

But all the rest constantly deny this: for the birth of the Virgin was utterly pure. For just as she conceived as a virgin without a man, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, so she also brought forth as a virgin, with her womb closed — so that Christ at His birth did not open it but passed through it: wherefore there could be no flow of blood or after-birth in this delivery. Add to this: in her there was no superfluous blood, but only that which was necessary for the conception and nourishment of Christ. Wherefore the blood by which Christ had been nourished in the womb did not flow forth after the birth, but, passing to the breasts and there being converted into milk, nourished and suckled Christ now born. Hence St. Augustine, in the book On the Five Heresies, chapter 5: "Foolish one," he says, "whence comes defilement in a Virgin Mother, where there is no intercourse with a male parent? Whence comes defilement in her who, neither in conceiving suffered lust, nor in bearing felt pain?" St. Epiphanius, book III Against Heresies, at the end: "He was born," he says, "through the genital passages, without shame, undefiled, free from impurities." St. Cyprian, Sermon on the Nativity: "Mary," he says, "was at once mother and midwife: there was no pain, no insult to nature." And he adds that Christ came forth from the Virgin as fruit comes forth from a tree, or as a ray from the sun, according to that of Isaiah chapter 35: "Sprouting forth, it shall sprout like a lily." Sophronius, at the Sixth Council, act 11, calls the Virgin's giving birth "incorruptible," because, he says, "it was completed without any flow of blood or any like suffering." The Interpreters and Scholastics here unanimously teach the same. See Suárez, Part III, Question 35, Disputation 13, Section 2.

Whence Toledo here very probably concludes that the Blessed Virgin never suffered the monthly courses. The reason is that menstruation is the penalty of sin and the companion of concupiscence. Hence in the state of innocence there would have been no menstruation; but the Blessed Virgin was free from all sin and concupiscence, and therefore from menstruation: for menstruation is foetid and harmful blood, indeed poisonous, as Pliny teaches at length; but the Virgin's blood was utterly pure.

Concerning the after-birth, there is greater difficulty: namely, whether Christ in the womb was enclosed in His own after-birth, that is, the membrane, as other infants are. Many deny it, both because this membrane is originally formed for the preservation of the male seed — but Christ was conceived without seed, of the Holy Spirit; and because Christ in the first instant of His conception was perfectly formed, organized, and animated, whereas other infants are formed, organized, and animated gradually, and therefore must be contained and fostered by their membrane; and because it was more becoming that the very womb of the Virgin should take the place of the membrane, and immediately touch and foster Christ Himself, and nourish Him with her own blood through the veins she has; and finally, because Christ in the womb emitted no excrement of food, but only took something which would nourish and increase the body: hence He had no need of a membrane to receive these excrements. The Synod held in Trullo, canon 79, supports this, saying: "We confess that the birth from the Virgin was without any afterbirth." Though Joverius reads "without pain from the Virgin," etc. For in Greek it is ἀλόχευτον: which, if you derive it from λοχεύω, that is, to bear or bring forth, to bring forth a foetus with pain and great straining, signifies without pain, without straining of birth — which was not the case in the Blessed Virgin. But if you derive ἀλόχευτον from λόχια, or λοχεία, that is, the cleansings which remain in the womb after birth, such as are the secundae or secundinae (as Henricus Stephanus teaches in his Lexicon from Dioscorides and Aristotle), then ἀλόχευτον is the same as without cleansings, without afterbirth. And that the Council took the word in this sense is clear from what it adds; for it gives the reason saying: "Because He was constituted without seed," as if to say: The birth of other women is from seed, but the birth of the Virgin was without seed, therefore also without afterbirth. For the secundinae are formed primarily by nature for preserving the seed, lest it flow away. Since therefore the Blessed Virgin did not conceive from seed, she had no need of an afterbirth. The Council then adds: "Wherefore, because some are shown to be cooking fine flour after the day of the holy nativity of Christ our God, and to be sharing it with one another, under pretext of honoring the secundinae (in Greek λοχείων, which word, as I said, properly signifies the afterbirth which is sent forth after birth) of the immaculate Virgin Mother; we decree that nothing of the kind shall henceforth be done by the faithful. For this is no honor to the Virgin, etc., to define, measure and describe her ineffable birth from things common, and from those things which happen in us." Yet others, who by λοχεία understand not the secundinae but the other defilements, strivings and pains of birth, hold that Christ in the womb also had His own membrane, or secundinae, since this is natural in all infants in the womb, that they may be contained, protected and nourished: but in such a way that immediately after the Virgin's birth, God led it forth from her closed womb by penetration of dimensions or some other mode, and converted it into another thing. So Suarez in the cited place. Therefore in the Virgin there was no impurity for which she should be purified, and therefore she was not bound by the law of purification, especially since the law says: "If a woman, having received seed." But the Blessed Virgin received no seed, but conceived by the Holy Spirit, of which I have said more on Lev. XII, 2. Finally, the Virgin's birth was most holy, because she bore the Holy of Holies.

Yet the Blessed Virgin willed, out of zeal for humility, and to conform herself to other mothers, and lest she should scandalize them and seem to be singular, and in order to conceal her virginity and her conception by the Holy Spirit, to be purified — just as Christ for the same reasons willed to be circumcised, as I said on verse 21. Whence St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Purification: "Nothing," he says, "in this conception, nothing in the birth was impure, nothing unlawful, nothing to be purged, since this Offspring is the very fount of purity, and came to make purgation for sins. What can the legal observance purify in me, who was made most pure by the immaculate birth itself? Truly, O Blessed Virgin, truly you have no cause, nor do you need purification; but did your Son need circumcision? Be then among women as one of them: for your Son also is so reckoned among the boys."

Tropologically: the purification of the soul is penance, which the Blessed Virgin underwent not for her own sins, since she had none, but for those of others, as Christ did. Yet she did not receive the sacrament of penance, since she had no sins of her own which need be confessed. See St. Chrysostom, Tertullian, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, in his book On Penance.

TO PRESENT HIM (as the firstborn male, according to the law of Exodus XIII, 12) TO THE LORD. — The Syriac: before the Lord. Wherefore the Blessed Virgin, holding Christ in her hands, bending her knees, offered Him to God with the utmost reverence and devotion, saying: Behold, Eternal Father, this is Your Son, whom for the salvation of men You willed to take flesh from me: I give Him back to You, and offer Him wholly, that You may do with Him as it pleases You, just as with me, and through Him redeem the world. Saying these things she offered Him to the priest, as God's vicar, from whom she then redeemed Him for five shekels, as the law prescribed.

Verse 23: Every Male Opening the Womb Shall Be Called Holy to the Lord

23. AS IT IS WRITTEN IN THE LAW OF THE LORD (Exod. XIII, 12): THAT EVERY MALE OPENING THE WOMB SHALL BE CALLED HOLY TO THE LORD. — That is, shall be brought forth and consecrated as a thing dedicated and holy to God. Some Fathers, such as Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ, ch. XXIII; Origen, Ambrose, Euthymius (who says: "Christ alone supernaturally opened the not-yet-opened womb of His mother, that is, He passed through it, and kept it naturally closed"), say that this law applies only to Christ: for Christ alone opened the womb of His mother; not that they mean the Blessed Virgin's womb was properly opened in birth, and consequently that she did not remain a virgin, as the impure Calvin interprets them: but rather that Christ alone penetrated the closed womb, and by penetrating, as it were, opened it — that is, He went forth in such a way as if He had opened it (for there is a metalepsis in this phrase) — whereas other mothers properly open the womb both in conception and in birth.

But all the other Fathers clearly say that Christ was conceived and born with His mother's womb closed. Therefore they explain "opening the womb" thus, as if to say: Every male who in natural fashion comes forth into the light by opening the womb of his mother in being born, and who is the beginning of maternal generation, this one shall be "called holy to the Lord," that is, shall be dedicated and consecrated to the Lord. Hence it follows that Christ was not contained under this law, both because He subsists in the Person of the Word, which is bound by no laws; and because He Himself did not open the womb of His mother, but went forth while it was closed. So Cyril, Homily On the Meeting of the Lord, and Pope Hormisdas, epistle 1, ch. III; Bede and others.

Less correctly, then, Rupert, the Abulensian (Tostatus), Jansenius and Maldonatus think that by "opening the womb" nothing else is meant than "firstborn," and that therefore Christ was comprehended under these words of the law: but exempted from the law on another ground, namely that He was God and the Son of God. See what I said on Exod. XIII, 12, where I expounded this law at length both literally and tropologically, and among other things said that everyone's firstborn is his heart and his love, and his first thoughts and intentions: this therefore, and these, must be offered to God devoutly and integrally by everyone. Finally hear St. Bernard, sermon On the Purification: "That oblation, brethren, seems quite delicate, where He is merely presented to the Lord, redeemed with birds, and immediately taken back. There will come a time when He will be offered not in the Temple, nor in the arms of Simeon, but outside the city, in the arms of the cross. There will come a time when He shall not be redeemed by another, but shall redeem others with His own blood, since God the Father sent Him as redemption to His people. That will be the evening sacrifice; this is the morning one: this indeed is more joyful, but that more full."

Verse 24: A Pair of Turtledoves or Two Young Pigeons

24. AND THAT THEY SHOULD GIVE A VICTIM (for the purification of the mother, not of the child, as I said on verse 22) ACCORDING TO WHAT IS SAID IN THE LAW OF THE LORD, A PAIR OF TURTLEDOVES OR TWO (one for a holocaust, the other for sin) YOUNG PIGEONS, — because they were poor. For the rich were obliged besides to give a lamb for a holocaust. For although the three kings had offered Christ a great quantity of gold, yet the Blessed Virgin, eager for poverty, that she might show that she despised all earthly things, took only a few of them as it were by way of sampling, which she soon spent, says the Abulensian (Tostatus) on Matth. ch. II, Question XLVII; or, if she took more, she distributed them to the poor, say St. Bonaventure and Dionysius. Lastly, since by state and condition she was poor, she willed to be reckoned among the poor and to offer the gift of the poor. See what I said both as to the letter and as to morals on Lev. XII.

Note: Of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin (whose memory the Church celebrates yearly on February 2, and this in order to abolish the Lupercalia, which were shamefully celebrated at Rome on the same day, says Baronius) the order and rite were as follows: First, the woman who had given birth came into the court of the unclean, and there she stood: for she could not enter the court of the clean, being unclean before purification.

Second, she offered a turtledove or a young pigeon for sin; it is likely that she was also sprinkled with the ashen water of the red heifer; for that was as it were the lustral water in every purification.

Third, she offered the infant to God and redeemed him.

Fourth, when all this was done, in thanksgiving she offered to God a lamb, or a turtledove or a young pigeon for a holocaust. These last two things were done by the new mother (now purified) while she stood in the court of the clean. For there she offered the infant at the door of the tabernacle, and from there she watched at a distance her holocaust, which was being offered in the court of the priests. For between the court of the priests and that of the laity stood a wall, or partition three feet high, so that the laity from their own court could watch the victims and the other things which were done in the court of the priests.

Tropologically: the turtledoves and pigeons which the new mother offered for sin, that is, for legal uncleanness or irregularity, signified the groaning and compunction of the penitent, by which sins are expiated, especially with the addition of a Sacrament. Now the Blessed Virgin, just as she had no sin at all, so she needed no Sacrament to expiate it; yet she received the sacrament of Baptism, in order to profess the Christian religion, likewise Confirmation, the Eucharist, and perhaps also Extreme Unction. She was not capable of Orders, because she was a woman. She entered into marriage with Joseph, but this was not a Sacrament under the old law. She never confessed her sins, nor received absolution from a priest, because she had none.

You will say: The Blessed Virgin could fear lest perchance she had committed in prayer some distraction, or in deed or thought some venial negligence; therefore she could confess it; for, as St. Gregory says: "It belongs to good minds to recognize fault where there is no fault." I reply: This is true of sinners and of those in the fallen state, not in the integral and more innocent state, such as was the Blessed Virgin's. Therefore, just as the angels clearly see all their own acts and even the smallest defects in them, by the keenness of their intellect; and just as Adam in the state of innocence saw his own acts (for this belongs to the integrity of that state and to original justice): so likewise the Blessed Virgin saw and foresaw all her acts, namely that they were most pure and most holy, without any defect even venial, and therefore she could not confess them as sins. Nor on that account did she exalt herself, but rather humbled herself, knowing that this was God's gift, not her own merit. Therefore what Sylvester says in Rosa Aurea, tit. III, case 53, De Quaest. impertin., that the Blessed Virgin received the sacrament of penance, and was wont to confess venial sins conditionally to St. John, is to be utterly rejected: especially because absolution cannot be given upon uncertain matter, but in order that the penitent may be capable of it, he must determinately confess some sin, as Vasquez says, III part., disp. 419, ch. VII.

Verse 25: And Behold There Was a Man in Jerusalem Named Simeon

25. AND BEHOLD THERE WAS A MAN IN JERUSALEM NAMED SIMEON, AND THIS MAN WAS JUST AND DEVOUT, WAITING FOR THE CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS UPON HIM.

Simeon. — Calvin would have it that Simeon was a plebeian and of obscure reputation. But that he was venerable in holiness and old age, the following words in Luke teach. Many think he was a priest; and that he therefore blessed Mary and Joseph, verse 34. So Lyranus, Dionysius, Cajetan, Franciscus Lucas, Toletus here, and St. Athanasius, On the Common Essence of the Father and the Son; St. Cyril of Jerusalem, oration On the Meeting of the Lord; St. Epiphanius, treatise On the Fathers of the Old Testament; and Canisius, On the Mother of God, book IV, ch. X. Although Theophylact, Euthymius, Jansenius and Barradius opine that he was a layman, not a priest, and that he blessed Mary not as a priest but as an old man.

AND THIS MAN WAS JUST. — Hence Galatinus, On the Mysteries of the Faith, book I, ch. III, holds that this Simeon was the disciple and son of Hillel, who, a little before Christ's birth, was the founder of the Scribes and Pharisees, as St. Jerome attests on Isaiah ch. VIII. But hear Galatinus: "Simeon, son of Hillel, whom the Talmudists for his eminent holiness call Saddic, that is, the Just, in whom (as is said in Pirke Avoth, that is, the Chapters of the Fathers) the scepter of the academy of the Great Synagogue ceased, said many things about the Messiah; and at length, when in extreme old age he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he should not see death until he had seen the Messiah, taking Christ Himself in his arms, he confirmed in His presence what he had taught about Him as instructed by the Holy Spirit; and his excellent sayings are scattered throughout the Talmudic books." The same view is held by Genebrardus, book II of his Chronology, who adds: "That in Simeon the spirit of the Great Synagogue — which was less than prophetic, but greater than common — failed, the Talmudists are authors in the tract Pirke Avoth. Rabbi Moses the Egyptian writes that he was not only a disciple but also a son of Hillel, and the teacher — yea, even the father — of Gamaliel, at whose feet Paul learned the Law." Thus Genebrardus. But these things, although they appear plausible, are uncertain: for there were many "Simeons" or "Simons" (the name is the same) who were just men, as was Simon the high priest, son of Onias, surnamed the Just, whom Ecclesiasticus praises at length, ch. L, verse 1. Add that Hillel's descendants and disciples — the Scribes and Pharisees — were utterly opposed to Christ.

Devout. — In Greek, εὐλαβής, that is, religious, one who fears and reverences God, and carefully takes heed not to offend Him.

WAITING FOR THE CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL. — That is, waiting for the coming of the Messiah or Christ, who was to console and deliver Israel, that is, the faithful people, oppressed by Satan, Herod, the Romans, the Scribes and the Pharisees; for being eager for the common good, "he was seeking the people's favor more than his own," says St. Ambrose. For Simeon knew, from the scepter being transferred from Judah to Herod, according to Jacob's oracle in Gen. XLIX, 10, and from the completion of the seventy weeks of Daniel ch. IX, and from other prophecies, that Christ's coming was at hand, in order that He might rescue Israel, that is, the faithful, from all evils, both from sins and from all miseries, partly in this life and partly in the future. Christ therefore is the consolation of the faithful, because outside Christ there is no hope of salvation, but mere despair and desolation. Hence Isaiah, promising Christ's coming, says in ch. XL, verse 1: "Be consoled, be consoled, My people, says your God: speak to the heart of Jerusalem." And ch. LI, 3: "The Lord shall console Sion." And ch. LXI, 1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, etc., that I might console all who mourn." And Paul, II Cor. I, 5: "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ does our consolation abound." For in Christ's time the state both of the commonwealth and of the Church of Israel was most afflicted. For their commonwealth, lacking its own princes, was under the yoke of Herod and the unbelieving Romans; and the Church under the yoke of impious priests, Scribes and Pharisees, who, of what sort they were, and how greatly they oppressed the people, and into how many errors and vices they led them, Christ teaches throughout ch. XXIII of Matthew, verse 5. For the deliverance, then, or the consolation of both, to be brought about by the Messiah, Simeon and the other pious Israelites are waiting.

AND THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS UPON HIM. — "The Holy Spirit," both sanctifying and of prophecy, as is clear from what follows. Note here: In Scripture the Holy Spirit is said to come upon, or be in someone, not only through sanctifying grace, but also through gratuitous grace, e.g. through prophecy, as He is here said to be in Simeon. So, in ch. I, 35, the Holy Spirit is said to be about to come upon the Blessed Virgin, that she may conceive the Son and become Mother of God, which is a gratuitous grace. And in verse 41, Elizabeth is said to be filled with the Holy Spirit when she began to prophesy.

UPON HIM. — In Greek ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν, that is, upon him, as if to say: The Holy Spirit, having descended upon him, possessed his soul, so that the man might appear not so much earthly as heavenly and divine, and this in order that his testimony concerning Christ might be irrefutable and beyond all exception.

That Simeon was blind, and recovered his sight at the touch of Christ, Celsus relates in On the Unbelief of the Jews, in Vigilius, which is circulated among the works of Cyprian. But Luke would not have been silent about so great a miracle, and one so opportune for this place.

Verse 26: He Should Not See Death Before He Had Seen the Christ of the Lord

26. AND HE HAD RECEIVED AN ANSWER (an oracle and divine promise: for this is in Greek χρηματίζειν; whence the Arabic: And it had been revealed to him) FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT (by internal inspiration) THAT HE SHOULD NOT SEE (experience) DEATH BEFORE HE HAD SEEN THE CHRIST OF THE LORD, — that is, the Messiah anointed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of grace, Isaiah XI, 2. Wherefore to Simeon here a singular and rare privilege was granted by God, namely that before his death he should see Christ already born.

Verse 27: And He Came in the Spirit Into the Temple

he surpassed Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and all the Patriarchs and Prophets, "who, as the Apostle says, died according to faith, not having received the promises" (concerning Christ and the graces and benefits of Christ), "but seeing them and saluting them from afar," Heb. XI, 13. Hence it is clear that Simeon was a man of singular sanctity and of holy desire and zeal, by which he constantly sighed and prayed for the coming of the Messiah, and therefore he merited to see Him.

27. AND HE CAME IN THE SPIRIT (by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, moved and stirred by the Holy Spirit, say Euthymius and Theophylact) INTO THE TEMPLE. — And the same Spirit who stirred him also gave him a sign by which he might recognize Christ among the many children being offered in the Temple; or rather He showed Him to him, inwardly suggesting and saying: Behold, this is the Christ whom I promised you should see before your death. Timothy, presbyter of Jerusalem, in his oration On Simeon, thinks he saw the Mother of God surrounded by a divine light among the other women, and from this sign understood her to be the Mother of the Messiah. Likewise the Carthusian: "Perhaps," he says, "he saw a certain divine splendor on the child's face."

Hence learn that God directs the mind and steps of the saints, so that the good thing predestined for them by God may meet them, as here Christ met Simeon. Therefore we, especially when about to set out on a journey, must constantly pray for this guidance, that by it we may be preserved from evil encounters and enjoy good ones, and we must say with the Psalmist: "Show me Your ways, O Lord, and teach me Your paths;" and: "Direct my steps according to Your word," Ps. CXVIII.

In the life of St. Ephrem we read that he, when entering a city, prayed God that something of good edification might meet him; and behold, a harlot met him, who, when she gazed at him fixedly, and was therefore severely asked by him why she did this so shamelessly, received from her this answer: "A woman should look at a man as if at her origin (for Eve was formed from Adam's rib); but a man should look at the earth, from which he was molded." The man of God felt himself rightly touched, and being compunct, he gave thanks to God that he had received so pious a warning of salvation from a harlot.

AND WHEN HIS PARENTS BROUGHT IN (into the Temple) THE CHILD JESUS (Mary and Joseph), TO DO ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOM OF THE LAW FOR HIM. — In Greek, kai en to synagagein, that is, and when they had brought Him in; for this sentence depends on the following verse. Whence Vatablus translates: "And when the parents brought in the child Jesus, etc., he also took Him into his arms."

Verse 28: And He Took Him Into His Arms, and Blessed God

28. AND HE TOOK HIM INTO HIS ARMS (embracing Him between his arms, and pressing Him most ardently and sweetly to his bosom and breast), AND BLESSED (praised and glorified) GOD, AND SAID. — Simeon, the swan or white cygnet, already about to die, sings most sweetly: so Simeon, white with holy old age, already about to die, here pours forth a swanlike and most sweet song. Hear Martial:

"With failing tongue he tunes his sweet songs, / The swan, himself the singer of his own funeral."

Thus the last sayings and writings of wise men are most honey-sweet; namely as their eloquence ripens with age. Cicero adds, Tusc. Disp. I: "Swans," he says, "are not without cause dedicated to Apollo, because they seem to have from him a power of divination, by which, foreseeing what good there is in death, they die with song and pleasure." So precisely Simeon here divines the felicity that will come to him through Christ after his impending death.

Verse 29: Now You Dismiss Your Servant, O Lord, in Peace

29. NOW YOU DISMISS YOUR SERVANT, O LORD, ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD (Your promise, says Theophylact, by which You promised me to prolong my life until I should see Christ: now I have seen Him, therefore let me depart and die) IN PEACE. — "You dismiss," in Greek apolyeis, that is, You release, that I may go forth from this body, as from a prison and chains in which I am bound, into the liberty, peace and quiet which the fathers enjoy in limbo, as if to say: O Lord, now my soul is satiated with everything which it desired to see. For I have seen Christ, whom alone I desired to embrace. I desire nothing more in this world: therefore I shall die willingly and gladly, or rather be released from the bonds of the body, that I may go to peace and quiet in the limbo of the fathers. So Tobias, ch. III, 6, and Abraham, Gen. XV, 15, desired to die in peace. For "peace" to the Hebrews signifies not only tranquility and quiet, but every good and happiness.

Wherefore Euthymius takes "peace" here as, first, the peace of thoughts, fluctuating between hope and fear of seeing Christ; second, the peace of an undaunted soul, not afraid of death; third, of joy; fourth, others take "peace" as the attainment of hope, as if to say: Hitherto I have hoped and been anxious to see Christ; now, having seen Him, having attained peace and being freed from anxiety, I desire to die. So Theophylact: "Before I saw the Lord," he says, "my mind was not at peace, awaiting Him, and always anxious when He would come: but now that I have seen Him, having attained peace and being freed from anxiety, I shall be (so to speak) dissolved." Fifth, "peace," that is, security from the dangers of the world, which death provides. So St. Cyprian, treatise On Mortality, ch. I: "Glad about his approaching death, now secure about his nearness," he says, "he took the child into his hands, and blessing God exclaimed, and said: Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word in peace: for my eyes have seen Your salvation. Showing namely and bearing witness that there is then peace for the servants of God, then free, then tranquil rest, when, drawn out of these whirlwinds of the world, we seek the harbor of an eternal seat and security, when, having stricken out this death, we come to immortality. For that is our peace, that the trustworthy tranquility, that the stable, firm and perpetual security." Hence it seems that Simeon was made the possessor of his wish, and died soon after: wherefore, going to limbo, he was the first to bring to Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and the other fathers sighing for Christ, the most joyful tidings of His being born and seen, and so heaped them all with marvelous joy.

Tropologically Origen: Simeon, he says, desires to die in peace, that is, in grace and friendship with God, in which the just man dies.

Symbolically: St. Augustine, sermon 20 On the Times: Now, he says, O Lord, dismiss me in peace, for I see peace, namely Christ, who will reconcile heaven with earth, God and the angels with men, and men with themselves.

Furthermore, Simeon obtained from God the fulfillment of his wish: for a little later he rested in peace. Hence St. Epiphanius, in his book On the Life and Death of the Prophets, ch. XXIV, places St. Simeon among the prophets, and says: "That Simeon ended his life weighed down with many years, almost worn out; yet he was not buried with the last honor obtained from the priests." He does not give any cause why this happened; but it is thought to be because, openly proclaiming Christ's coming, he stirred up against himself the envy and hatred of the other priests.

Tropologically: the Church daily at Compline towards evening sings this hymn of Simeon for two reasons. The first is, that she may admonish the faithful, and especially priests, to think of death, and so to live as if they were going to die that very evening. The second, that she may admonish them to put on the desire of Simeon, namely of passing from this vanity and the troubles of this life to the true and blessed life in heaven, so that, daily reciting this hymn, we may ask God to dismiss us, and say with Paul: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ," Phil. I. "See the just man," says St. Ambrose, "as it were enclosed in the prison of the bodily mass, willing to be dissolved, that he may begin to be with Christ. But he who desires to be dismissed, let him come into the Temple, let him come into Jerusalem, let him await the Christ of the Lord, let him receive into his hands the Word of God, let him embrace Him with works as it were with the arms of his faith. Then shall he be dismissed, so that he may not see death, because he has seen life."

So St. Mary of Egypt, near her death, receiving the Eucharist (which she had not received during the 40 years she lived in the desert) from St. Zosimas, weeping and rejoicing for devotion, sang: "Now You dismiss, O Lord, Your handmaid, according to Your word, in peace," and immediately gave back her soul to the Creator, as her Life records. St. Magdalene and many others did the same. Therefore, whenever we communicate, let us say with them: "Now You dismiss, O Lord, Your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen," nay, my mouth has tasted, and my stomach has received, Your salvation.

Verse 30: For My Eyes Have Seen Your Salvation

30. FOR MY EYES HAVE SEEN (because I now contemplate, with the eyes both of flesh and of heart, what I long desired, says Bede) YOUR SALVATION. — In Greek soterion, which the Septuagint usually use for the Hebrew yeshua, that is, salvation: but salvation by metonymy signifies the Savior. By "salvation," therefore, he understands Christ the Savior, whom the ancient Fathers desired to see, but Simeon alone saw, handled and embraced. Hear their desires: Jacob: "I will wait for Your salvation (that is, Christ the Savior, who is to be born from Judah and my posterity), O Lord," Gen. XLIX, 18. David: "My soul has failed for Your salvation. My eyes have failed for Your salvation. I was awaiting Your salvation, O Lord. I have longed for Your salvation, O Lord," Psalm CXVIII, 81, 123, 166, 174. "Render to me the joy of Your salvation," Psalm L, 14. "Show us, O Lord, Your mercy, and grant us Your salvation," Psalm LXXXIV, 8. So St. Basil on Psalm LXI; St. Augustine, book I Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets, ch. XI; Bede, Theophylact and others.

Verse 31: Which You Have Prepared Before the Face of All Peoples

31. WHICH YOU HAVE PREPARED BEFORE THE FACE (before the eyes, in the sight) OF ALL PEOPLES. — That all the peoples of all nations may draw salvation from Christ the Savior, as if to say: God did not hide Christ in a corner of Judaea, but set Him forth to all, and will soon proclaim Him through the Apostles throughout the whole world, so that whoever shall be willing to embrace His faith and law, may be saved by Him.

Verse 32: A Light for the Revelation of the Gentiles, and the Glory of Israel

32. A LIGHT FOR THE REVELATION OF THE GENTILES, AND THE GLORY OF YOUR PEOPLE ISRAEL. — It is in apposition, as if to say: "Your salvation," that is, Christ the Savior, You have given and prepared to this end, that He might be a light for the revelation, that is, for the enlightenment of the Gentiles, namely that He may enlighten the Gentiles, who do not know the true God, with the knowledge, faith and worship of Him; and that He might also be the glory, honor and ornament of Israel, that is, of the Jewish people. The Arabic: A light which appeared to the Gentiles; Theophylact: A light for the illumination of the darkened Gentiles; Euthymius: A light which restores sight to the Gentiles blinded by error; for he calls "revelation" the restoration of sight. So it is said in Psalm CXVIII, 18: "Reveal," that is, enlighten, "my eyes." For he who is blind, or sits in darkness, has as it were a veil before his eyes, which is revealed and removed by the light, so that he may see. Thus the veil of idolatry, of errors and vices, which was blinding the Gentiles, Christ revealed and took away, teaching them the true faith and worship of the true God, by which they may be saved. He therefore is the light of the world, John VIII, 12. He alludes to the oracle of Isaiah, who 700 years before had prophesied this very thing, saying in ch. XLII, 6: "I have given You (O Christ) for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, that You might open the eyes of the blind and lead forth out of confinement the bound, those sitting in darkness from the prison house," etc. Again, ch. XLIX, 6: "Behold, I have given You for a light of the Gentiles, that You may be My salvation even to the ends of the earth," etc. Lastly, ch. LX, 3: "The Gentiles shall walk in Your light." For this reason, in the Mass, especially on the feast of the Purification, we bless, light and carry candles: First, that we may profess Christ to be the light for the revelation of the Gentiles. Second, we pray that He may communicate to us His light of grace in this life, and of joy and glory in the next life; for which reason these lighted candles are given into the hands of the dying. See Amalarius, Durandus and the others who wrote on the Ecclesiastical Offices.

And the glory of Your people Israel. — As if to say: Christ, just as He is the light of the blind Gentiles, so He is also the glory of Israel, that is, of the Jews. Conversely, Christ was also the glory of the Gentiles, and the light of Israel, because to the Gentiles He brought great honor, and to the Israelites great knowledge of divine things: yet He is said rather to have brought light to the Gentiles, because they were in the darkness of unbelief; but glory to the believing Israelites. And this, first, because from their nation, since He was promised to their fathers by God, He took flesh: for this is a great honor of which the Jews can boast, namely that Christ is their fellow-tribesman, kinsman, and so a Jew. Second, because Christ lived and died in Judaea; and He lived with great glory of doctrine, holiness and miracles. Third, because in Judaea He first founded His Church: for the first believers were Jews, who then joined the Gentiles to themselves. Fourth, because in Judaea He rose from the dead and gloriously ascended into heaven, and from there sent the Holy Spirit with the gift of all tongues. Fifth, because He chose all the Apostles from the Jews, who converted all the Gentiles to Christ. Sixth, because He heaped upon the Jews who believed in Him great virtues, gifts and graces, and made them outstanding Saints, Doctors and Martyrs. He alludes to, indeed cites, the oracle of Isaiah, who foretold this, ch. XLVI, 13, saying: "I will give salvation in Sion, and My glory in Israel." And ch. LX, 1: "The glory of the Lord is risen upon you." And verse 2: "His glory shall be seen in you." Ch. LXII, 2: "The Gentiles shall see your just one, and all kings your renowned one;" in Hebrew and the Septuagint, your glory.

Verse 33: And His Father and Mother Were Marveling

33. AND HIS FATHER AND MOTHER WERE MARVELING AT THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE BEING SAID OF HIM. — "Father," namely Joseph, who is called the father of Christ, not only because he was His foster-father, and was commonly thought to be His father, but also because to him in marriage and to his wife Mary Christ was legitimately born, and on account of this offspring this marriage of Joseph with the Blessed Virgin was arranged and ordered by God. So St. Augustine, book II On the Consent of the Evangelists, ch. I; Bede, Jansenius and others. See what I said on Matth. I, 16.

MARVELING — Joseph and Mary, who, although she knew Christ would be the savior of Israel, yet did not know all that here the Holy Spirit through Simeon and Anna was prophesying about Him, namely that He Himself would be a light enlightening all the nations, that He would be for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, that a sword would pass through the soul of the Virgin, etc., and even if she had known these things,

Verse 34: Behold, This Child Is Set for the Ruin and Resurrection of Many

34. AND SIMEON BLESSED THEM, AND SAID TO MARY HIS MOTHER: BEHOLD, THIS CHILD IS SET FOR THE RUIN, AND FOR THE RESURRECTION OF MANY IN ISRAEL, AND FOR A SIGN WHICH SHALL BE CONTRADICTED.

HE BLESSED. — He prayed well for them. The form of the priestly blessing is prescribed in Num. VI, 24, and was this: "May the Lord bless you and keep you," etc.

THEM, — namely the parents, Joseph and Mary, as preceded, not the child Christ (though Jansenius would have it so as well), say Maldonatus, Franciscus Lucas and others: for the child, since He was the Messiah, his Savior and his God, he venerated and adored, and desired to be blessed by Him, not daring or presuming to bless Him, because — as was right — he reverenced Him supremely.

AND HE SAID TO MARY HIS MOTHER, — rather than to Joseph, both because she alone was the true and natural mother of Jesus, while Joseph was His father only by designation; and because Joseph seems to have died before the 30th year of Christ, when these things took place: wherefore the Blessed Mary alone experienced and felt these things in herself. To her alone, then, did Simeon here by prophetic spirit foretell both the prosperous and the adverse things which would befall her from Christ, that she might neither be exalted in prosperity, nor cast down in spirit in adversity, but on the contrary fortify and arm her breast against the former by modesty, against the latter by patience and fortitude.

BEHOLD, THIS CHILD IS SET FOR THE RUIN (in Greek ptosin, that is, fall, so the Arabic) AND FOR THE RESURRECTION OF MANY IN ISRAEL. — He alludes to that passage of Isaiah VIII, 14: "He shall be to you (the Lord, namely Christ) for sanctification, but for a stone of offense, and for a rock of scandal to the two houses of Israel, that is, for a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." And ch. XXVIII, 16: "Behold, I will send into the foundations of Sion a stone, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone," etc., which passage Paul cites and urges against the Jews unbelieving in Christ, Rom. IX, 33; and Peter, I Peter II, 6, and Acts IV, 11; and Christ Himself, Matt. XXI, 42, where I explained all these things. For Christ has been placed and set by God in the new or Christian Church as it were the foundation and corner stone, so that He might build upon Him all those who would believe in Him, and from them build up the spiritual house of the Church: because God had once promised this very thing to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and the other Patriarchs and Prophets. God did this directly with this mind and intention, that He might draw all the Israelites, that is, the Jews, to the faith of Christ, and so fit them into His Church and that on account of their vices they would contradict Christ when He came, and would dash themselves against Him as against a stone of stumbling and offense, and so be broken by Him and fall to their ruin, both present and future and eternal; yet for this reason He did not wish to change His prior purpose of sending and placing Christ, but to permit this rebellion and contradiction of the Jews against Him, so that on account of it Paul and the Apostles, heralds of the Gospel, might transfer the Gospel from the rebellious Jews to the Gentiles. Thus, in place of a few Jews, innumerable Gentiles would believe in Christ and be built up and saved in the Church, as Paul teaches at length in Romans 11. Behold, this was God's counsel, by which He set Christ as the cornerstone of the Church, who indirectly was "for ruin," but directly "for the resurrection of many in Israel." For by "ruin" is signified the destruction of the Jews who rebelled against Christ; by "resurrection," the salvation of those who believed in Him, because the rebellious fell from faith into perfidy, from obedience into rebellion, from knowledge of God and Holy Scripture into blindness and hardness of heart, from hope of salvation into despair and damnation, from heaven into hell. But those who believed in Christ, raised up by Christ's grace from the sins in which they lay, rose again into a new life of virtue and grace, awaiting the hope of glory. So St. Augustine, Bede, Theophylact, Euthymius, Toletus, and others throughout, indeed Christ Himself, Peter, and Paul in the passages already cited.

Nyssen adds that by "ruin" is meant the destruction of Judaea and Jerusalem by Titus: for this was inflicted on it, because it spurned Christ and crucified Him.

Tropologically, or rather symbolically, Theophylact says: Christ has been set for the fall and rising of Israel, that is, of the soul that repents and sanctifies itself through Christ's grace, because He causes pride, gluttony, and lust to die in it, and humility, abstinence, and chastity to rise in it.

Anagogically: the same Theophylact takes "ruin" as death, as if to say: Christ will be the cause that many, that is, all Israelites, should rise from death to immortality. But these mystical senses do not equally correspond to the literal sense, in which some fall into vices and others rise from them: hence they are less fitting and genuine.

AND FOR A SIGN WHICH SHALL BE CONTRADICTED. — In Greek, eis semeion antilegomenon, that is, for a sign of contradiction or contention, as the Syriac and Arabic translate it; Tertullian, in De Carne Christi, chap. 23, renders it, "for a sign that may be contradicted."

You will ask, what is this sign? First, Maldonatus and Francisco Lucas: Christ, they say, is set as a sign, that is, as a target for archers, against whom the unbelieving Jews and Scribes hurled not only railing words with their tongues but also wicked weapons with their hands. This was a target of contradiction, because they contended over striking and piercing Him, and the Scribes contradicted one another; so that Simeon alludes to that passage of Lamentations 3:12: "He has set me as a mark for the arrow; He has sent the daughters of His quiver into my reins."

Second, St. Basil, Bede, and Theophylact understand the sign of the cross, alluding to Isaiah 11:10: "In that day the root of Jesse, who stands as a sign (in Hebrew nes, that is, a banner, where the Septuagint renders it semeion, which Luke has here) of the peoples;" because Christ, lifted up on the cross, will be the standard-bearer, and will raise the banner of the cross, to which He will draw all the faithful as His soldiers, that they may fight against Jews, Mahometans, Pagans, and other impious soldiers of the devil who contradict the cross of Christ and most fiercely attack it. So Toletus.

Third and most plainly, Simeon alludes to that passage of Isaiah 8:18: "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me for a sign and for a portent in Israel." See what is said there. "Sign" therefore, or "portent," is here called the marvelous, new, and from of old unheard-of generation of Christ from a Virgin, and His heavenly and divine doctrine, life, death, resurrection, and miracles, by which He clearly signified and showed Himself to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and that God through Himself had bestowed on the world the redemption and salvation promised by the Prophets. To this sign of Christ not only the Jews and Gentiles contradict with their tongue, but also bad Christians by their impious life. So Origen, Jansenius. St. Basil agrees in his commentary on Isaiah, chap. 7, on the words "Behold, a Virgin shall conceive," saying: "A sign is the demonstration of some prodigious thing, transformed and altogether foreign to the common practice of men." Such was the life of Emmanuel, that is, of the incarnate Word, namely prodigious and portentous; for the Greek semeion signifies a sign, a portent, a prodigy, which is beyond the common practice of men. Tertullian also agrees, in his book De Carne Christi, chap. 23, who thinks that there is here an allusion to Isaiah 7: "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. We acknowledge therefore the contradictable sign, he says, of the conception and childbirth of the Virgin Mary, against which those academics say: She bore, and did not bear; virgin, and not virgin;" to which contradictors he himself replies: "She bore, in that the child was of her own flesh; and she did not bear, in that He was not from a man's seed. And virgin as regards a man, not virgin as regards childbirth;" because she bore, which is not usual for virgins, but for corrupted women, although she herself by a miracle conceived uncorrupted, and remained a virgin in giving birth.

Symbolically, Cajetan says: Christ was a sign of the reconciliation of the human race with God. And Dionysius says: Christ was a sign of the covenant between men and God, that no more flood would be brought upon the world. Others take "sign" as that by which God's sheep are marked, as if to say: by the faith of Christ, by baptism, and by the character as a sign, Christians will be marked, so that by this they may be distinguished from infidels.

Finally, Barradius thinks the allusion is to the bronze serpent, which Moses set up as a sign, so that those bitten by serpents, looking on it, might be healed (Numbers 21); as if to say: Christ has been set, or will be set, as a sign, just as the bronze serpent was set as a sign in the desert. Many will look upon Him with living faith, and will receive salvation and resurrection; very many will contradict Him and fall. He will be a sign set before all, to some a ruin, to others a resurrection.

Verse 35: And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Own Soul Also

35. AND A SWORD SHALL PIERCE YOUR OWN SOUL ALSO (the Arabic has "lance"; for the Greek rhomphaia signifies both a sword and a javelin, or lance), THAT THE THOUGHTS OF MANY HEARTS MAY BE REVEALED. — You will ask, what is this sword? First, some take the sword to mean doubt in the faith. For they think that the Blessed Virgin, when she saw Christ suffering such atrocious things violently from the Jews and dying on the cross, doubted His resurrection, whether He Himself would rise as He had foretold: for this doubt, like a sword, was cutting through the Virgin's soul, and separating her from Christ and from faith in Christ. So Origen here, hom. 17; Titus and Theophylact; Amphilochius, hom. On the Meeting of the Lord; the author of Questions on the New and Old Testament among the works of St. Augustine, Question 73. But this is an error: for to think this is unworthy of the Mother of God, and is contrary to the common sense of the Church. For thus the Blessed Virgin would have sinned by unbelief. Whence some excuse the authors just cited, saying that by "doubt" they understood wonder and the fluctuation of various thoughts, consideration and examination.

Second, St. Eucherius of Lyon, in his homily on the Sunday after the Octave of the Nativity, takes the sword to mean the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, namely the spirit of prophecy, as if to say: The sword of the prophetic spirit will pass through your soul, O Mary, that it may reveal to you the secrets of Holy Scripture and the hidden thoughts of men, as it revealed to you at Cana of Galilee the thoughts of Christ, when you said to the servants: "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do it." For unless you had known that Christ was about to command them to draw the water, which He Himself would change into wine, you would never have said this. So the Apostle says of the same spirit, Hebrews 4:12: "The word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Whence St. Ambrose here takes the sword to mean the prudence of the Virgin, not ignorant of the heavenly mystery. But this sword is symbolic and mystical, not literal, just as that of St. Hilary on Psalm 118, the letter Gimel, who takes the sword as the terror of the last judgment, which all must undergo, even the Blessed Virgin.

Third, some formerly, as Amphilochius testifies in the passage cited, opined from these words that the Blessed Virgin truly died by the sword, crowned with martyrdom; but this is against all the testimony of history.

Fourth therefore, and genuinely, the "sword" here is that of the torments inflicted on Christ, or rather of the contradiction which He mentioned a little before; for the contradiction of tongues in Scripture is called a "sword," as in Psalm 56:5: "The sons of men, whose teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword." And Psalm 63:4: "They have whetted their tongues like a sword." And Psalm 104:18: "The iron pierced his soul."

There are therefore here two swords: First, of the tongue and of contradiction: for the Blessed Virgin, hearing the reproaches, calumnies, and blasphemies hurled by the Jews and Scribes against Christ even as He was crucified, was wonderfully tormented by them, just as if a sword had pierced through her soul.

The second sword was of iron, namely of the nails and other instruments of torture, which pierced through not only Christ's body and soul, but also the Virgin's soul; in Greek dieleusetai, that is, will penetrate. Just as when someone with one sword stabs two persons near him at one blow, so that he kills the first, and pierces and wounds the second; so also this sword of the Jews killed Christ, and intimately penetrated, wounded, and tormented the Virgin Mother. So St. Augustine, epistle 59 to Paulinus; Sophronius, homily On the Assumption; Francisco Lucas, Jansenius, Toletus, Barradius, and others.

How great were the torment and grief of this sword may be estimated, with Toletus, first, from the suffering Son; namely from Christ crucified, whom the Mother of God loved supremely and more than herself, so that she would far rather have suffered and been crucified herself than see Christ her Son suffer and be crucified; therefore she grieved more over His Passion and Cross than she would have grieved over her own. For the measure of grief is love: for as great as is the love of the beloved, so great is the grief of the lover and of the one suffering with the sufferer. Second, from the atrocity and totality of Christ's torments; for He suffered the most atrocious things in all His senses and members: the Blessed Virgin suffered all the same things by compassion. Third, from the dignity of the person; that is, Christ who was suffering was true God and the Son of God, the Messiah and Savior of the world; wherefore it was unworthy, indeed horrendous and execrable, to scourge and crucify Him. This dignity the Blessed Virgin profoundly considered, and therefore she was profoundly tormented by His sufferings. Fourth, from its long duration, because Christ suffered His whole life, until He breathed out His spirit on the cross. Fifth, from solitude: for Christ alone was suffering, abandoned by the Apostles and by all His friends, indeed even by the angels and by God Himself. Whence He cried out: "My God, why have you forsaken me?" For although the Blessed Virgin stood by Him and suffered with Him, yet the mother's grief added a new and great grief to the Son: for He grieved wondrously that His mother should grieve and be tormented so much on His account, and this grief in turn was reflected by Christ back to His mother, for she herself grieved over Christ's grief to grieve and be afflicted. Sixth, from the horrendous calumnies and blasphemies which she continually heard hurled against Christ. Seventh, from the continual presence and sight of her crucified Son. Hence Damascene, book IV On the Faith, chap. 15: "The pains, he says, which she had escaped in childbirth, she endured at the time of the Passion, so that out of maternal affection she felt her own bowels being torn."

Wherefore the Doctors teach that the Blessed Virgin is a martyr, indeed more than a martyr, because the sword of other Martyrs pierced their bodies, but the sword of Christ pierced the soul of the Virgin: therefore just as Christ in suffering was more tormented than all the martyrs, so also the Blessed Virgin in suffering with Christ, and indeed she would have been worn out and dead from this torment and grief, had not God by a singular concurrence preserved her alive. Just as therefore St. John the Evangelist, having been immersed in a cauldron of boiling oil, is a martyr, because this torment would naturally have brought him death, had not God by a miracle preserved him alive: so also the Blessed Virgin.

You will say: The Jews did not want to torture and kill the Virgin, but only Christ. I reply: By torturing Christ they tortured the Virgin Mother; just as he who tortures the body also tortures the soul: for the Virgin was more closely joined to Christ in affection than the body to the soul. Add: The Jews persecuted all of Christ's relatives, like the Apostles and disciples, out of hatred of Christ: therefore also His mother: hence seeing her standing by the cross and being intimately tormented, they insulted Christ, and consequently His mother who was standing by Him. So St. Jerome, in the sermon On the Assumption of Blessed Mary, which is in vol. IX of the works of St. Jerome: "The blessed Mother of God, he says, was both a martyr and a virgin, although she ended her life in peace. Hence also the prophet Simeon testifies that she truly suffered, speaking to her: And a sword, he says, will pierce your own soul also. From which it is clear that she was more than a martyr. For other Saints, even though they suffered for Christ in the flesh, yet in the soul (because it is immortal) they could not suffer. But the blessed Mother of God, because she suffered in that part which is held to be impassible; therefore (so to speak) because she suffered spiritually and more atrociously by the sword of Christ's Passion, she was more than a martyr. Whence it is clear that, because she loved more than all, therefore she also grieved more, so much so that the force of grief pierced through and possessed her whole soul, as a testimony of her exceptional love: and because she suffered in mind, she was more than a martyr. Indeed her love was stronger than death, because she made the death of Christ her own." But note that this sermon is neither by St. Jerome nor by Sophronius (as Marius Victorinus would have it), who lived in the time of St. Jerome. Hence St. Jerome mentions it in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, both because this whole sermon attacks Nestorius, who came after St. Jerome and Sophronius; and because the author doubts whether the Blessed Virgin was assumed into heaven only in soul, or also in body, while the Church holds her to be assumed both in body and in soul. See Baronius, year of Christ 48, no. 9.

So also St. Ildephonsus, sermon 2 On the Assumption: "The Blessed Virgin, he says, was more than a martyr, because in her soul, no less in love than in grief, she was wounded inwardly by the sword." And he adds: "More radiant among the Martyrs, because she suffered in soul." So also St. Bernard, in his sermon on Apocalypse 12, A great sign appeared: "Your soul, he says, the force of grief will pierce, that we may proclaim you more than a martyr, in whom indeed the affection of compassion exceeded the sense of bodily passion." St. Bernardine of Siena, vol. II, sermon 61, art. 3, chap. 2: "So great, he says, was the Virgin's grief that, if it were divided among all creatures, all would suddenly perish."

Finally, the force of this sword and grief in the Virgin is recounted at length and pathetically by St. Bridget, in the Angelic Sermon, chaps. 17 and 18.

Tropologically, or rather symbolically, St. Bernard, sermon 29 on the Canticle, takes the sword or arrow, or as the Arabic translates it, the lance, to mean charity, because where there is grief, there is also love; for without grief one does not live in love, nor without love does one live in grief. For thus he says: "There is also a chosen arrow, the love of Christ, which not only fixed Mary's soul, but also pierced through it, so as to leave no part in the virginal breast empty of love, but that with all her heart, all her soul, and all her strength she might love, and might be full of grace. Or certainly it penetrated her, that it might come even to us, and we might all receive of that fullness, and that she might become the mother of charity, whose father is God who is charity." And after some lines: "And she indeed received in her whole self a great and sweet wound of love: but I should think myself happy if at times I could feel myself pricked even by the very tip of this sword, so that, having received even a small wound of love, my soul too might say: I am wounded with charity. Who will grant me in this way not only to be wounded, but even to be utterly conquered, to the very destruction of that color and heat which wars against the soul?"

THAT THE THOUGHTS OF MANY HEARTS MAY BE REVEALED. — This sentence is obscure and difficult. First, St. Hilary, who takes the "sword" as the day of judgment, easily explains it, as if to say: Therefore the sword, that is, the day of judgment, will be as it were cutting and opening the hearts of men, even of the Blessed Virgin, that from these may be revealed all secret thoughts, intentions, and volitions, and that He may judge them and reward or punish them. This is what is said of Christ, Apocalypse 1:16: "And from His mouth went forth a sword sharp on both sides."

Second, Eucherius, who takes the "sword" as the spirit of prophecy, explains it thus, saying that this was given to the Blessed Virgin so that she might know the secret thoughts of men.

Third, Euthymius, as if to say: Many seeing the miracles and wisdom of Jesus thought Him to have fallen from heaven, and not to be the son of the Blessed Mary: but when in the cross of Christ they saw her grieving and mourning so, they condemned their former thoughts and thought that she was truly the mother of Jesus, inasmuch as she felt and mourned His torments so much, as those of her own son. But all these explanations are foreign and forced.

Fourth, St. Augustine, epistle 59, near the end, explains it thus, as if to say: "Through the Lord's Passion, both the snares of the Jews and the weakness of the disciples were laid bare." For when Christ was abandoned, they fled. The first part fits the Jews; the second, about the disciples, is less fitting: for the disciples had not before their flight thought about it.

Fifth, Toletus expounds it more pointedly, as if to say: This sword, which will pierce your soul, O Virgin, will be the occasion that the thoughts of many hearts, which before were hidden, may be revealed. And this in fact happened: for a long time before Christ was killed, those leaders and chief men of the Jews had it in mind to kill Him; but for fear of the people they dared attempt nothing against Him.

Therefore the sword, that is, the torments by which Christ will be killed, will pierce through your soul, and at the same time will manifest the perverse thoughts of the Jews against Christ, which were hidden. But even before Christ's Passion the Jews and Scribes had often manifested them, everywhere caviling at His words and deeds, as is clear from John; granted that they concealed and dissembled their desire to kill Him.

Sixth therefore, most plainly and fully, the "that" signifies not so much purpose as consequence and outcome, and is to be referred not only to "sword," but also to the things which precede, namely to "He has been set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be contradicted;" so that the Scribes and Pharisees (now as it were heretics), who seemed to be patrons of justice and truth, and eager for the Messiah, might declare how foreign they were from the true Messiah and from justice, and how depraved a heart and thoughts they nourished against Him. For before Christ's coming they desired Him, hoping that He would come with pomp and treasures like Solomon, so that they might be increased by Him in honors and wealth. But when they saw Christ humble and poor, opposed to their ambition and avarice, and publicly censuring and rebuking it, they spurned Him and set themselves against Him, and began to plot His death secretly, and finally carried it out. For Simeon especially signifies here that the Scribes had long before secretly thought of inflicting death on Christ, and finally inflicted it on Him by ambushes and deceit: things which broke out at the death of Christ. Then therefore it was to be revealed and made plain who in Israel were upright, sincerely and constantly loving Christ; and who were wicked, despising, persecuting, and killing Him. So St. Augustine, epist. 59; Bede, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Francisco Lucas, and others; indeed Toletus' exposition coincides with this in part.

Verse 36: And There Was Anna, a Prophetess, the Daughter of Phanuel

36. AND THERE WAS ANNA, A PROPHETESS, THE DAUGHTER OF PHANUEL, OF THE TRIBE OF ASHER: SHE WAS FAR ADVANCED IN DAYS (she was aged and old, so that she might not be moved by youthful fervor, but might bear an aged and mature testimony to Christ), AND HAD LIVED WITH HER HUSBAND SEVEN YEARS FROM HER VIRGINITY. — "Anna" in Hebrew is the same as "grace," of which this Anna was full. Hence even today the proper name "Grace" is given to some women. Such was Grace, who lately at Hirado in Japan, in the year of the Lord 1624, generously, together with her four children and her whole family, met a glorious death for the faith of Christ, as the Annual Letters of Japan for the said year recount at length.

PROPHETESS. — That is, a teacher, says Francisco Lucas, who taught young women the law of God and piety, because at this time the Jews lacked Prophets to foretell future things. But that this Anna was properly a prophetess, who foretold hidden and future things, is plain from verse 38, where she prophesied about Christ. For although until the times of Christ the Jews lacked Prophets, yet God at the time of Christ again raised up Prophets, like John, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, who prophesied about Christ. Whence St. Ambrose says: "Not only from Angels, he says, and from Prophets, and from shepherds, and from parents, but even from elders and just persons did the Lord's birth receive testimony; every age and both sexes and the miracles of events build up our faith. A virgin gives birth, a barren woman bears, a mute man speaks, Elizabeth prophesies, the Magus adores, the one shut up in the womb leaps, the widow confesses, the just man waits."

Furthermore, Origen says: Anna merited the gift of prophecy by long chastity and fasting. Toletus adds that Anna was famous among the Jews for the gift of prophecy, so that everywhere by all she was called Anna the prophetess; and this is what Luke insinuates here.

DAUGHTER OF PHANUEL. — Phanuel therefore was the father of Anna, well known and famous in that age. "Phanuel" in Hebrew is the same as "the face of God"; his daughter is "Anna," that is, grace, for this proceeds from the face and mouth of God, and is breathed upon the faithful. Hence the place where Jacob saw God face to face was called by him "Phanuel," Genesis 32:30.

OF THE TRIBE OF ASHER. — This was a quiet, peaceful, strong tribe, rich in produce, as is clear from Genesis 49:20; and Deuteronomy 33:24 and 25. "Aser" in Hebrew is the same as "blessed." Anna was blessed. All these epithets add new endowments and praises to Anna, so that her testimony about Christ might be of greater moment and weight.

SHE WAS FAR ADVANCED IN DAYS, AND HAD LIVED WITH HER HUSBAND SEVEN YEARS FROM HER VIRGINITY. — That is, from her puberty, after her puberty, after she began to be capable of a husband and marriage: for she who is not pubescent, marriageable, and capable of corruption is not properly a virgin: hence infants are not properly virgins. Again, "from her virginity," that is, from the time of the marriage which she had entered as a virgin: for a married woman ceases to be a virgin; and they used to marry shortly after puberty in their fifteenth year, in which year the Blessed Virgin married Joseph.

Three things therefore are signified by this expression. First, that Anna married only once, and that in early puberty, which in women is in the twelfth year; but marriages were customarily deferred so they might be more pubescent, to age 15. Second, that before marriage she had lived honorably and chastely, and was a virgin. Third, that on her husband's death after seven years, she became a widow as a young woman in her 22nd year, and then by remarkable continence in the flower of her age she remained a widow for 84 years of her life, or, as St. Ambrose says, of her widowhood; for he himself thinks that Anna, after her husband's death, remained a widow for 84 years. If this is true, it follows that at this time, when she met Christ, she was one hundred and six years old; for she married at age 15, was married for seven years, became a widow at age 22, then lived as a widow 84 years, according to St. Ambrose: add all these years, and you have 106. Anna therefore is commended for her remarkable chastity, and that of three kinds, namely virginal, conjugal, and widowed. It seems God prolonged Anna's life out of love for her zeal to such an old age, that she might see Christ and proclaim Him, just as He did with Simeon.

Verse 37: A Widow Serving With Fastings and Prayers Day and Night

37. AND SHE WAS A WIDOW EVEN UNTIL (the translator reads heos, that is "until"; some now read hos, that is "about") EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS (of her life, or, as Ambrose says, of her widowhood, as I have already said: hence the Arabic translates, "and she was made a widow for eighty-four years"), WHO DID NOT DEPART FROM THE TEMPLE. — Not that she dwelt in the temple, but that she frequented it and persevered in it, as some devout women still do today, so that this is hyperbole. So Toletus, Jansenius, Maldonatus. Yet others think that she dwelt in the temple: for there were dwellings of religious women near the temple, who served God night and day, as is here said (such were afterward in the Christian Church the Deaconesses, and now still are the Nuns), as is clear from Exodus 38:8; 2 Maccabees 3:20; 1 Samuel 2:21. Of women, I say, both virgins, among whom was the Virgin presented in the temple, and widows, among whom this Anna seems to have been, as our Canisius proves at length in book 1 of his Marial, chap. 12.

SERVING WITH FASTINGS AND PRAYERS DAY AND NIGHT, — namely God, as the Arabic has it. For in Greek it is latreuousa, that is, worshiping with latria; for latria is offered to God alone. Whence it is clear that the heretics teach falsely that fasting is only mortification of the body, and not worship of God, except insofar as it is referred to prayer. For Luke here says that Anna served God equally by fastings and prayers. So Origen. The words "with fastings and prayers" therefore are ablatives of instrument, to which corresponds the dative in Greek, as if to say: Through fastings and prayers she served God "night and day."

Beautifully St. Chrysostom, hom. 42 to the People, commends nocturnal prayer: "See, he says, the dance of the stars, the deep silence, the great quiet, and admire the dispensation of your Lord. The soul is then purer, lighter, and more subtle, more lofty and nimble. The very darkness and great silence can induce compunction. But if you look at heaven, marked as it were with countless innumerable eyes by the stars," etc. And after some lines: "Bend your knees, groan, beg your Lord to be propitious to you. He is more appeased by nocturnal prayers, when you make the time of rest a time of mourning. Remember what words the King said: I have labored in my groaning, every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. However delicate you are, you are not more delicate than he; however rich you are, you are not richer than David, who again said: At midnight I rose to confess to you for the judgments of your justifications." So Christ gave the day to preaching, the night to prayer. "For He was passing the night in the prayer of God," Luke 6:12. So also Paul, as is clear from Acts 16:15; and 2 Timothy 1:3. So also St. Anthony, St. Hilarion, and the other anchorites; and even the Church, as is clear from the Nocturns which the monks still sing at night. See what is said on Deuteronomy 6:7.

Verse 38: She Coming Up at That Very Hour Gave Praise to the Lord

38. AND SHE, COMING UP AT THAT VERY HOUR, GAVE PRAISE TO THE LORD. — In Greek anthomologeito, that is, in turn, as though from another choir and sex she chimed in with Simeon, and "gave praise to the Lord," that is, was praising the Lord, and giving thanks to Him for Christ given and born, as though by alternate responses confirming Simeon's words.

Verse 39: And She Spoke of Him to All Who Looked for the Redemption of Israel

39. AND SHE WAS SPEAKING OF HIM, — namely of the Lord Christ, whom she had present, as if to say: Anna not only praised God, but also preached to others and proclaimed Jesus, asserting that He was the Christ, and exhorting all to believe in Him. Hence it is clear that Christ is Lord, that is, God.

TO ALL WHO WERE LOOKING FOR THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL, — to be accomplished by the Messiah, that is, who were awaiting the Redeemer Christ, who redeems Israel, that is, the faithful people who believe in Him, from sin, death, Satan, hell, and every evil. See what is said on verse 25.

Allegorically: Christ when born appeared to three groups in three ways. First, to the shepherds with an angel as indicator; second, to the Magi with a star as indicator and guide; third, to Simeon and Anna with the Holy Spirit as indicator. In a similar way God teaches some men through angels, others through miracles together with preaching, and a third group through the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit. Again, the shepherds saw Christ when born, but the Magi adored Him, while the elders Simeon and Anna embraced Him. So we too first acknowledge Christ; second, we adore Him; third, when we have grown not in years but in virtue we are not children but old men, we shall embrace Him with the two arms of love. So Jansenius.

Verse 40: And the Child Grew, and Was Strengthened, Full of Wisdom

40. AND WHEN THEY HAD PERFORMED ALL THINGS ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF THE LORD, THEY RETURNED INTO GALILEE, INTO THEIR OWN CITY OF NAZARETH. — Therefore at once they returned to Nazareth, and from there, in fear of the infanticide Herod, they fled with the child Jesus into Egypt. For this infanticide happened a little after the Virgin's purification, around Passover, says Euthymius, Toletus and others: although St. Augustine, book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chap. 5; Jansenius and Francisco Lucas think that they fled directly from Jerusalem into Egypt, and from there returning after nine years, returned to their own city of Nazareth, as Luke here says. See what is said on Matthew 2:13. Moreover, before the flight they returned to Nazareth, both because they lived there, in order to set their house in order; and that from the goods which they possessed there, they might prepare provisions and the other necessaries for the long journey into Egypt. There was abundant time for the flight, because from the second day of February, on which the purification took place, until Passover, when the infanticide is said to have occurred, about two months intervene.

AND THE CHILD GREW (in bodily size with age) AND WAS STRENGTHENED — in the strength and vigor of His limbs. The Greek, Syriac, and Arabic add "in spirit"; which Euthymius and Theophylact explain, not as though Christ daily received greater inner strength of spirit, since from the first instant of His conception He was full of grace and the Holy Spirit, but that He outwardly displayed and showed it more greatly through His speech and greater works. But the Latin and the Latin Fathers, as well as the translator, omit "in spirit": also from the Greeks, Origen and Titus.

FULL OF WISDOM. — The Greek pleroumenon signifies both "to be filled" and "to be full," so that it is the same as pleres. Ours therefore correctly translates "full"; because in reality from His origin Christ was full of inner wisdom, so that nothing could be added to Him. Yet the Arabic translates "He was being refilled with wisdom"; the Syriac, "He was being filled with wisdom." So also Origen, Theophylact, Euthymius, and Titus here, and St. Ambrose, in his book On the Sacrament of the Lord's Incarnation, chap. 7, which Theophylact explains thus: "Not, he says, taking up wisdom (for what is more perfect than He who was perfect from the beginning?), but gradually unveiling it. For if as long as He was small in stature He had shown all wisdom, He would have seemed prodigious, and to be a phantasm of a child, not a true child." Both expositions are true and fitting, and therefore both are here signified; namely that the boy Jesus was both inwardly full of wisdom, and outwardly showed the same, so that whoever saw His manners and gestures and heard His words would at once recognize Him to be full of wisdom, because nothing of childish levity, petulance, or foolishness appeared in Him; but with His face, mouth, and bearing He breathed gravity, modesty, prudence, and wisdom suited to that age, which befitted such a Child.

AND THE GRACE OF GOD WAS UPON HIM. — In Greek ep' auto, that is, "upon Him," as if to say: Grace, that is, the favor, benevolence, love, and care of God the Father toward the boy Jesus, inasmuch as He was His Son, brooded over Him as it were wholly from heaven, to adorn Him with His gifts and graces, and to moderate and compose Him in all His acts, so that all might see Him ruled by God and directed in all things, and that His actions were not so much human as divine. So Euthymius. In a similar way He said of John the Baptist, chap. 1:66: "And the hand of the Lord was with him."

Verse 41: And His Parents Went Every Year to Jerusalem at the Passover

41. AND HIS PARENTS WENT EVERY YEAR TO JERUSALEM, AT THE SOLEMN DAY OF THE PASSOVER. — God had commanded, Exodus 23:14, and Deuteronomy 16:16, that all men three times a year should go to the tabernacle or temple, there publicly to adore God and to offer Him oblations. The Blessed Virgin, after she returned from Egypt, although she was not bound by the law, nevertheless out of devotion joined herself to her husband and took her Son with her to the temple, that she might teach mothers to lead their sons from their tender years to the temple and to worship God. So Bede, Maldonatus, Jansenius, Francisco Lucas and others. Nor did she fear Archelaus, the son of the infanticide Herod, both because she prudently judged that in such a great gathering of all the Jews she could lie hidden for a few days, until she returned to Nazareth; and because she knew that she was dear and cared for by God, for whose honor she undertook this danger. So St. Augustine, book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chap. 10; and Luke insinuates this in verses 42 and 43. Yet some probably think that Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem until the twelfth year of His age; for in that year Archelaus was sent into exile by Augustus Caesar: hence Jesus could fear nothing from him, as I said on verse 1.

Verse 42: When He Was Twelve Years Old, They Went Up According to Custom

42. AND WHEN HE (the boy Jesus) WAS TWELVE YEARS OLD, AS THEY WERE GOING UP TO JERUSALEM ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOM OF THE FEAST DAY. — The Syriac: "as they were accustomed at the feast," namely to do at Passover.

Verse 43: When the Days Were Finished, the Boy Jesus Remained in Jerusalem

43. AND WHEN THE DAYS WERE FINISHED (in Greek, "after they had completed or fulfilled the days," namely of that feast, or Passover: for this was celebrated for seven days, which Luke here implies that Mary and Joseph all celebrated at Jerusalem, even though by the law they were not compelled to remain so many days), AS THEY WERE RETURNING (from Jerusalem to Nazareth), THE BOY JESUS REMAINED IN JERUSALEM, — that there He might pour forth some little ray of His "three days," not completed, but begun, that is on the third day, namely from the time of His being lost. For the first day was that on which they set out from Jerusalem, and in the evening at the inn they did not find Him among their kinsfolk; the second, on which they returned from the inn to Jerusalem; the third, on which they sought and found the holy Child in the holy temple. Thus St. Ambrose, Euthymius, and others. So it is said in verse 21: "And when eight days were accomplished," that is, on the eighth day Jesus was circumcised. And Mark VIII, 31: "The Son of man must... after three days (that is, on the third day) rise again."

IN THE TEMPLE. — For the place and seat of God incarnate is in the temple. There He must be sought, there He will be found — not in the marketplace, not in the tavern, not in the theatre. St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen imitated Christ in this: as Rufinus testifies, when they were studying at Athens, they knew only two streets of the city — one which led to the church, the other which led to the school.

Therefore Jesus spent the whole of these three days partly in prayer, partly in listening to the doctors and answering them in the temple. He received food when invited by the doctors or by bystanders who were marveling at His wisdom — though others, less plausibly, suppose that He lived by begging from door to door, as St. Bernard thinks (homily within the Octave of Epiphany); also Bonaventure, Alexander of Hales, and others; and St. Thomas favors this view (II-II, Question 187, art. 5), who proves that Christ sometimes begged from the verse: "But I am a beggar and poor." Psalm 39. On the other side Lyranus, Dionysius, Joannes Major here, and Abulensis on Matthew 17, Question 194, hold that Christ never begged, on the ground that begging was forbidden to the Jews in Deuteronomy 15: "There shall be no beggar among you." But these words signify not a precept but a promise of wealth, if they keep God's law — namely, that they would be so rich that none of them would have to beg.

And His parents knew not of it. — Because Jesus, while His parents were delaying somewhat in Jerusalem on account of devotion or business, asked their leave to go to His kinsfolk, as though He would go ahead with them. Having received it, He went to them, but soon withdrew Himself from them secretly and went to the temple — God so directing it that His parents, although otherwise always solicitous about Jesus, did not notice it, but, as follows, supposed Him to be in the company of the kinsfolk.

Verse 44: Thinking Him to Be in the Company, They Sought Him

44. BUT THINKING HIM TO BE IN THE COMPANY (of the kinsfolk and neighbors who had gone on ahead, with whom Mary and Joseph were soon to follow, intending to lodge and dine with them in the same inn that evening, and there to find Jesus, as they supposed) THEY CAME A DAY'S JOURNEY (namely in the evening to the same common inn); AND THEY SOUGHT HIM AMONG THEIR KINSFOLK AND ACQUAINTANCE.

Verse 45: Not Finding Him, They Returned to Jerusalem Seeking Him

45. AND NOT FINDING HIM, THEY RETURNED TO JERUSALEM, SEEKING HIM. — Because Jesus had been seen by none of the kinsfolk on the way, His parents concluded that He had remained in Jerusalem; therefore they sought Him there with great solicitude and anxiety. Origen gives the reason, and from him Theophylact and Titus, saying: "But why did they seek Him so anxiously? Did they suspect Him of being lost, or of having strayed from the way like a child? Far from it. For this could not have been the thought of most-wise Mary (since she knew Jesus to be full of wisdom, indeed to be God); nor could it ever happen that they should think to be lost the Child whom they knew to be divine. Rather, they sought Him lest He had in some way departed from them, lest perhaps He had left them, lest perhaps He should wish to remain not with them in Nazareth, but with others in Jerusalem, that He might there hasten to begin the office of teaching to which He had been sent by God." Origen adds: "They sought Him, he says, lest perhaps He had withdrawn from them, lest, leaving them, He had passed over to other things, and — what I think more likely — lest He had returned to heaven, when it had pleased Him to descend again, etc.; but she grieved, because she was a mother, and the mother of a Son worthy of immense love, since He had departed without her knowing or suspecting any such thing."

St. Antoninus adds that the mother feared lest Jesus might fall into the hands of Archelaus, the son of Herod the child-slayer, who would kill the boy. Euthymius and Franciscus Lucas think that the mother feared lest Christ had strayed from the road; for He did not know, nor was He familiar with, all the ways, nor the byways at the forks and crossroads. For although she knew this through divine and infused knowledge, yet through experimental knowledge — which this Child was following — she did not know it. Whether this is rightly said, let theologians see for themselves.

Verse 46: They Found Him in the Temple Sitting in the Midst of the Doctors

46. AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT AFTER THREE DAYS THEY FOUND HIM IN THE TEMPLE, SITTING IN THE MIDST OF THE DOCTORS, HEARING THEM, AND ASKING THEM QUESTIONS.

SITTING IN THE MIDST OF THE DOCTORS. — This is a Hebraism, meaning among the doctors, but in a lower place as a disciple — and this for this purpose, that by His questions about the imminent coming of the Messiah He might rouse the doctors to think about Him and to seek Him out; inasmuch as the scepter had now been transferred from Judah to a foreign-born Herod, and the seventy weeks of Daniel and the rest of the prophetic oracles concerning Christ were now fulfilled. For it is altogether likely that Christ questioned the doctors about the coming of the Messiah, and this for the purpose that His manifestation might not come unexpectedly upon the doctors, but that, when later He preached and worked miracles, He might more easily be received by them as the Messiah from these indications, as from sparks. Thus Euthymius.

ASKING THEM QUESTIONS. — First, because it became a child to question the doctors, not to teach them; yet Christ by questioning them taught them, says Origen: for to ask wisely is as much the mark of a learned man and a teacher as to answer wisely. So learned masters, learnedly teach by questioning. "For from one and the same fountain of doctrine," says Origen, "there flows both wise questioning and wise answering, and it belongs to the same science to know what you should ask and what you should answer."

Secondly, in order to teach young people modesty, and the eagerness to listen, to ask, and to learn — "lest, if they refuse to be disciples of truth, they become masters of error," says Bede.

Thirdly, that by questioning the doctors He might in turn be questioned by them, and so by His answers might teach them. Whence it follows:

Verse 47: All Who Heard Him Were Astonished at His Wisdom

47. AND ALL WHO HEARD HIM WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS WISDOM AND HIS ANSWERS. — Namely, that a twelve-year-old boy, the son of a carpenter, who had never attended schools, should be so versed in Holy Scripture, should ask so wisely and answer so acutely, that He even surpassed the doctors themselves — so that they said: "What manner of child shall this be?" Will He be a Prophet? Will He be the Messiah, whom we are now all eagerly awaiting day by day as the teacher of the world?

Verse 48: His Mother Said: Son, Why Hast Thou Done So to Us?

48. And seeing Him (the Greek adds auton, that is Him, namely Jesus), they were astonished. — Namely, the parents who were seeking Jesus, as is clear from verse 46, marveled and rejoiced that, contrary to His custom, they saw and found Him alone disputing with the doctors, bringing forth such great wisdom, and the doctors and the others standing by amazed at Him, etc.

AND HIS MOTHER SAID TO HIM: SON, WHY HAST THOU DONE SO TO US? BEHOLD, THY FATHER AND I HAVE SOUGHT THEE SORROWING (with toil, as the Arabic adds). — These are the words of a mother who is not rebuking Christ, but marveling and grieving, and sorrowfully expressing her sorrow. For the mother's reverence toward such a Son — namely, the God-man — would suggest this; and so it is likely that the mother said these things to Him not publicly in the assembly of the Doctors, but in private, calling Him aside, or after the assembly had been dismissed. So Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others.

So, — that You should withdraw Yourself from us, and remain alone in the city without our knowing it and while we were anxious?

THY FATHER AND I. — St. Augustine notes (Sermon 63 De Diversis, ch. 11) the Virgin's humility: although she knew herself to be wholly the mother of Christ and therefore the Mother of God — so that Joseph had no part in His generation — she nevertheless humbly puts herself after Joseph as her husband. "She expresses all things," says the Anonymous in the Greek Catena, "as a mother — confidently, humbly, and affectionately."

Tropologically: let the soul which has lost Jesus' grace through mortal sin, or its accustomed familiarity through venial negligence, seek Him: first, with sorrow and tears of a contrite heart; for, as Nazianzen says (Oration 3): "The tears of upright men (and add, of unrighteous men also, if they repent) are a flood that washes away sin and a cleansing of the world," such as was the Flood of Noah.

Secondly, let her seek Him with great solicitude and zeal, as the Blessed Virgin did, and in the temple — namely, by giving herself to prayer, reading, and meditation on spiritual things. Thus the bride sought and found her Bridegroom withdrawing Himself, in Canticles III, 2: "I will rise," she says, "and will go about the city, through the streets and the broad ways, I will seek Him whom my soul loveth; I held Him, and I will not let Him go." So let the soul, when she finds Christ, hold Him fast lest He slip away again.

Thirdly, let her seek Him among the doctors — that is, among learned and pious men who will instruct her in knowledge as well as in piety. So the bride, in Canticles I, 17, asking the Bridegroom: "Show me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest in the noonday?" — hears: "Go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds." See what is said there.

Verse 49: I Must Be About My Father's Business

49. AND HE SAID TO THEM: HOW IS IT THAT YOU SOUGHT ME? DID YOU NOT KNOW THAT I MUST BE ABOUT MY FATHER'S BUSINESS? — St. Ambrose holds these to be the words of one rebuking. And Christ, as Messiah and lawgiver, could by His own right rebuke His mother if she had sinned. But there was no fault of sin in His mother; therefore there was no rebuke of her in Christ. Yet these words do contain a kind of sharper questioning, like a rebuke, by which He may teach His parents and more sharply rouse them to learn His affairs — as parents are wont to spur their children, and masters their disciples, with sharper words to study and diligence.

These words of Christ, then, are the words of one instructing, consoling, and excusing Himself, and defending His action — as if to say: There was no need for you to seek Me, because you might have considered that I am beginning to deal with the affairs of the world's salvation, for which I have been sent by the heavenly Father. For you ought not to think that I will always remain with you, but that one day I will leave you and go to those affairs, as I have already begun to depart. Moreover, the fact that I went away without your knowing was done deliberately, that I might teach you that in these matters I do not depend on you, but on My heavenly Father, and that I must transact them by His will and counsel, not by yours. Therefore I have not given you the cause of your sorrow; rather, that sorrow was furnished to you partly by your love for Me, partly by your ignorance of the mystery just spoken of — for you did not know that I am occupied in My Father's business. For although it ought rightly to have come to your mind, your tender love for Me prevented it from coming, and turned this thought aside.

Whence Bede: "He does not," he says, "reproach her for seeking Him as her Son; but He compels her to lift up the eyes of her mind to Him to whom she rather owes Him — to Him whose eternal Son He is."

That you may understand this from its root and foundation, note that Christ, besides the divine actions which He had as God and Son of God — such as creating, preserving, and governing all things, and breathing forth the Holy Spirit — also had human actions, and these of two kinds: the former, which He had as man, common to other men, such as eating, walking, working, building, etc.; the latter, which He had as the God-man, or as Redeemer, proper to Himself as Christ — which therefore by St. Dionysius, in his book On the Divine Names, are called Theandric, that is God-manly, because they are the works partly of God and partly of man. Such were teaching, working miracles, calling disciples, creating Apostles, etc. In the former actions Christ willed of His own accord to obey His parents, from whom together with His nature He had received them as it were, and allowed Himself to be governed by them in those things; but in the latter, by no means — rather, He willed to be subject and obey God the Father alone, because these, being of a higher order, were received from God alone and directed by Him alone. Whence Christ, when His parents asked these things of Him as if by some maternal authority, answered that they were to be done not according to His parents' will and bidding, but according to God's — as is clear here, and in the changing of water into wine at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, John 2:4, and other similar passages, as is clear in Matthew 12:48.

Furthermore, Christ calls His theandric actions, which He performed as the God-man, the actions of God the Father, and attributes them to the Father and not to Himself: first, because for these He had been sent into the world by the Father; second, because Christ had His divinity from the Father, and these works were chiefly of His divinity; third, because He did them by the Father's command; fourth, because in these He was subject to none but the eternal Father alone — that He might teach that God's command or counsel must be set above even the most tender love of a mother, as when God calls someone to the religious life, to the priesthood, to martyrdom, or to the apostolate against the wishes of his parents. So in human affairs the son, as son, is subject to his parents in regard to paternal rights; but the same one, when he holds a public office — for instance, when he is king or prince — is not subject to his parents, but rules over them in regard to royal rights: for the king is the superior and lord of all who are in the kingdom, and consequently of his own parents; wherefore by the common right of the commonwealth he is bound to govern, direct, and correct them.

Verse 50: And They Understood Not the Word That He Spoke

50. AND THEY UNDERSTOOD NOT THE WORD THAT HE SPOKE TO THEM. — Some refer this ignorance to the hearers who were astonished at Jesus' wisdom and answers in verse 47. Others, by synecdoche, to Joseph alone. But plainly these words must be referred both to the Blessed Virgin and to Joseph; for although they themselves knew that their Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, yet they did not know in what manner He would carry out that office, or what those affairs of the Father were in particular about which He had said in verse 49 that He must be occupied — namely, whether, when, how He would teach, live, die, and be crucified for the salvation of the world. For these things had not yet been revealed to them by God; but they learned them in the course of time, either by experience or by Jesus' own revelation. Therefore, out of reverence for Jesus, they did not dare here to question Him curiously about what those mysteries might be, but prudently waited for an opportune time to learn them.

Verse 51: He Went Down With Them to Nazareth, and Was Subject to Them

51. AND HE WENT DOWN WITH THEM, AND CAME TO NAZARETH; AND HE WAS SUBJECT TO THEM. — "He came to Nazareth," of His own accord and willingly, although St. Bernard thinks that He came at His parents' urging. For he says (Sermon 19 on the Canticles): "When He had remained in Jerusalem, and had said that He must be about His Father's business, since His parents would not acquiesce, He did not disdain to follow them to Nazareth — the Master following His disciples, God following men, the Word and Wisdom following a carpenter and a woman."

SUBJECT. — In Greek, hypotassomenos, that is subjected, obedient — namely as to His human nature, which He had drawn from His mother, not as to His divine nature, which He had received from the eternal Father alone so fully and perfectly that He was equal to Him in all things and in nothing subject to Him, as St. Augustine teaches against the Arians (Bk. III Against Maximinus, ch. 18). Less fittingly, then, does St. Cyril (Bk. X of the Thesaurus, ch. 8) — from the verse 1 Corinthians 15: "Then shall the Son also Himself be subject" — concede that the Son, by reason of His origin, is subject to the Father even as to the divine nature which He has received from the Father, because in that nature, he says, He does what is pleasing to the Father: for the Father also does what is pleasing to the Son, and yet is not therefore subject to the Son. Paul therefore is speaking of the Son as to His human nature, according to which Christ will plainly subject Himself together with all His elect to God the Father on the day of judgment. Whence the other Fathers constantly assert that the Son, as to His divine nature, is not subject to the Father but equal.

Note: although the human nature in Christ, taken precisely in itself, was subject to His mother, yet because that nature was elevated by God to the hypostasis of the Word, and was therefore one with God — namely, one divine Person — it was thereby exempted from obedience to His mother, just as it was exempted from the laws of Augustus, of Herod, of the priests, and of the other princes. For He was now far more worthy, better, wiser than His mother and all of them — indeed, the Lord and God of all. Just as a religious or monk, if he is made Pope, is exempted from obedience to his Order, and indeed becomes the superior of the whole Order. Christ nevertheless, in order to give us an example of the highest humility and obedience, of His own free will subjected Himself to His mother, and even to Joseph, and obeyed them in all the things that had to be done at home — sweeping, building, and so forth.

Let children, says Augustine (Sermon 63 De Diversis), learn to be subject to their parents, because the world is subject to Christ, and yet Christ was subject to His parents. And St. Bernard, in Sermon 1 on Missus est, exclaims: "He was subject to them. Who? to whom? God to men, and not only to Mary but also to Joseph? On both sides amazement, on both sides miracle. And that God obeys a woman is humility without parallel; and that a woman has authority over God is sublimity without peer." And shortly after: "Blush, proud dust: God humbles Himself, and you exalt yourself? God subjects Himself to men, and you, longing to dominate men, set yourself before your Author? For as often as I desire to be over men, so often I strive to go before my God."

Christ then willed by His first and continuous life to obey for thirty years, in order to teach us by His example that the perfection of virtue and of the religious life consists chiefly in obedience. For, as Pope John XXII teaches (Extravagantes, Quorumdam, De Verborum significatione), poverty is a great good; greater is integrity (chastity); but greatest is obedience, because the first masters things, the second the flesh, but the third masters the mind and the soul. The same is taught by St. Augustine, and from him by St. Thomas (III part, Question 40, art. 1), where he teaches that austerity is only an aid to perfection.

Hear St. Basil, in his Monastic Constitutions, ch. 4: "In His first age Christ, being subject to His parents, gently and obediently bore every bodily labor. For since those people were indeed righteous and pious, but poor and not abounding in necessary things, etc., they were rightly devoted to constant bodily labors, gaining for themselves through these the things needful. And Jesus, being subject to them, as the Scripture says, by also bearing labors with them altogether, was declaring obedience. Therefore let us, as sons, learn to be subject to our parents." Origen (Homily 20 on Luke): "For because He saw Joseph older in age, He honored him with the honor of a parent, giving an example to all sons" that they should be subject to their parents. "For what should the Master of virtue do," says St. Ambrose, "but fulfil the duty of piety?" And Bede: "What else would He do among us than what He would have us do?"

Many things did Christ do, many things He spoke through thirty years, but Luke summed up all these in this one saying: "And He was subject to them." This is a magnificent eulogy of a Religious. His whole life He was obedient and subject to His superiors.

The reason a priori is, first, that he who obeys his Superior obeys God; for the Superior is the vicar of God, according to the saying of Christ: "He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me" (Luke 10). Whence St. Basil (Monastic Constitutions, ch. 22): "A Superior," he says, "is nothing else than one who bears the person of Christ, and is the mediator between God and men, sacrificing to God the salvation of those who are in his charge." And St. Benedict in his Rule: "The obedience that is shown to superiors is shown to God." And St. Bernard (De Praecepto et Dispensatione): "Him whom we hold in God's stead, we ought to hear as God in things that are not openly contrary to God." Therefore let the obedient one, when his Superior commands anything, regard it as God commanding him, and obey eagerly as God Himself.

Secondly, because obedience offers and slays as a holocaust to God the noblest faculties of man, namely the will and the judgment, when it denies them and resigns them to one's Superior in God's place. Whence St. Gregory (Moralia, Bk. 35, ch. 10), expounding 1 Samuel 15: "Obedience is better than sacrifice," gives this reason: "Because," he says, "by sacrifices another's flesh is slain, but by obedience one's own will is slain."

Thirdly, because obedience makes all the works that proceed from it golden and exceedingly meritorious. Wherefore "St. Francis," says Bonaventure in his Life, ch. 6, "resigning the office of Minister General, asked for a Guardian to whose will he might be subject in all things. For he asserted that the fruit of holy obedience was so abundant that for those who submitted their necks to its yoke, no portion of time passed without profit. And to the Brother with whom he was accustomed to travel, he was always wont to promise obedience and to keep it."

Fourthly, because obedience is the mother of all virtues. Whence St. Gregory in the place already cited: "Obedience alone," he says, "is the virtue which implants the other virtues in the mind, and once implanted guards them."

Fifthly, that God through Superiors surely and safely governs the obedient subject, and directs him straight to the harbor of eternal salvation. Whence Climacus (Step 4): "Obedience," he says, "is the perfect renunciation of one's own soul and one's own body, a voluntary death, a life without anxiety, a sailing without loss, a burial of one's will, a life of humility, and as it were a journey made by one asleep." And he adds: "To live in obedience is nothing else than to lay one's own burden on others' shoulders, to swim borne up on others' arms, and to be sustained on the waters lest we sink, but to cross without danger this great sea of life, and indeed by a very short voyage."

Wherefore Christ chose rather to lose His life than His obedience: "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." But hear the reward of so great an obedience: "For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (Philippians 2:8). Shall not, then, "an obedient man speak of victories"? (Proverbs 21:28). See what is said there.

Note secondly: it is the opinion of the ancients that Christ was subject to Joseph in practicing the trade of carpentry in wood, as I have said on Matthew 13 at the end. For it was fitting that He should practice carpentry with His foster father, who together with His natural Father is the maker of the world. By a Workman the human race was made; by a Workman it was fitting that it also should be restored.

These few things only does Luke relate concerning the boyhood and youth of Christ up to His thirtieth year. During all this time He lived a private life and remained unknown — which was truly an astonishing humility of the Son of God.

Other things which some bring forward from the apocryphal book entitled The Infancy of the Saviour and from others like it, the Church rejects. Whence St. Irenaeus writes thus of the Valentinian heretics (Bk. I, ch. 17): "They take up," he says, "in this matter even that fabrication, as though the Lord, when He was a boy and was learning His letters, when His Master, as is customary, said: 'Say A,' replied 'A.' Again, when the Master told Him to say 'B,' the Lord answered: 'Tell me first what A is, and then I will tell you what B is.'" Similar things are circulated in some Christmas songs, from which fanciful tales, as ridiculous and plainly unworthy of Christ, one must abstain; for Christ, being full of wisdom, did not attend schools. Whence the Jews said of Him: "How doth this man know letters, having never learned?" John 7:15.

Again, the miracles of the boy Jesus that are commonly related by some, St. Chrysostom refutes (Homily 20 on John). For His first miracle was the changing of water into wine at Cana of Galilee, as John says in chapter 2. He willed indeed to remain hidden until His thirtieth year and to practice carpentry. Whence St. Justin in the Dialogue against Trypho: "He used to make," he says, "plows, yokes," etc.; and so He often takes from them in the Gospel similitudes and metaphors, as when He says: "Take my yoke upon you." And: "No man putting his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." The same is held by Lyranus, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Dionysius the Carthusian, and Abulensis on Matthew 13 (Question 81), and Cajetan, and Franciscus Lucas on Mark 6:3 — although Paul of Burgos on Mark 6, and our Barradius here, and Simon of Cassia (Bk. IV, ch. 2) deny that Christ practiced carpentry, holding that Christ until His thirtieth year lived withdrawn like a Religious, and devoted Himself to prayer, contemplation, and fasting. If you object that the Nazarenes, who were His neighbors, when He was teaching said: "Is not this the carpenter?" — they answer from St. Augustine (De Consensu Evangelistarum, Bk. II, ch. 42): "They believed Him a carpenter for the same reason they believed Him a carpenter's son," as Matthew has it (ch. 13:55). But since the Nazarenes saw Jesus daily and zealously observed His works, they seem to have called Him a carpenter from the carpenter's work itself; for otherwise, if they had seen Him idle, they would have reproached His leisure and inertness, that by laboring He did not relieve His parents' poverty, nor help His father Joseph as he made things, nor work alongside him. Add to this: Christ wished by working as a carpenter to give an example of life to manual workers, that by building and working they should provide their own livelihood; for this is honorable. Furthermore, Joseph kept away from the company of carpenters who spoke scurrilous things — much more so Christ. Thus St. Paul was a tentmaker, even when he was preaching, as is clear from Acts 18:3.

AND HIS MOTHER KEPT ALL THESE WORDS IN HER HEART, — "as things to be ruminated upon and more diligently searched out," says Bede, that in the course of time she might more fully understand all that Christ was about to do and say, and at the same time might reveal them to St. Luke and the other Apostles to be written down, or to be handed down to posterity. Whence Titus: "For although," he says, "she did not fully grasp what was uttered by Him, she nevertheless understood that they were divine things and loftier than human sense; for she did not listen to Jesus as if He were a boy of twelve years, but received and observed His words as the words of a man perfect in every way" — or, as Euthymius puts it, "as words not simply of a boy, but of the Son of God."

Verse 52: And Jesus Advanced in Wisdom, Age, and Grace

52. AND JESUS ADVANCED IN WISDOM, AND AGE, AND GRACE WITH GOD AND MEN. — "Age," in Greek helikia, which the Syriac, Arabic, and others render as "stature" or "height," and our Latin translator so renders it at chapter 12:23. Both are true, and both fitting to this passage.

You will ask whether Jesus truly advanced in wisdom and grace as well as in age and stature. Setting aside Photinus, Nestorius, and Theodore — who taught that Christ was a mere man and therefore daily advanced in grace and merits before God, on whom as heretics St. Gregory Nazianzen pronounces anathema (Epistle 1 to Cledonius) — the same thing seems to be affirmed by St. Athanasius (Sermon 4 Against the Arians) and by St. Cyril (Bk. X of the Thesaurus, ch. 7). For they seem to say that the humanity of Christ gradually drew greater wisdom from the Word, as the Blessed Virgin and other men have drawn it. "The humanity of Christ," says St. Athanasius, "advanced in wisdom, gradually transcending human nature, namely being deified, and made the instrument of wisdom." The same is held by St. Cyril, who followed St. Athanasius both in doctrine and in the Alexandrian episcopate. What the mind of each was, I shall presently explain.

But the other Fathers teach the contrary. For Jesus from the first instant of His conception was full of wisdom and grace, as has been said on verse 40 — for this was due to His humanity by reason of its hypostatic union with the Word. Whence St. Gregory Nazianzen (Oration 20 in praise of St. Basil): "He advanced," he says, "in wisdom with God and men, not so as to receive any increase, since from the beginning He was complete in grace and wisdom, but in that these things gradually became apparent to men who did not know." For, as Theophylact says, "the flashing forth of His wisdom is itself His advance" — just as the sun, although it always shines with the same light, is yet said to grow in it, when it gradually unfolds it more from morning until noon. Whence Bede: "Christ advanced," he says, "not by lapse of time receiving what He did not have, but by unfolding the gift of grace which He had."

Note then that there were in the soul of Christ three kinds of knowledge: first, the beatific, by which He saw God and all things in God, and so was made blessed; second, that which was infused by God; third, the experimental, that is, acquired by daily use. The first two were imparted to Christ from the first instant of His conception so perfectly that they could not be increased. I say the same of Christ's habitual grace and glory. So St. Augustine (Bk. III On the Merit and Remission of Sins, ch. 29); St. Jerome on Jeremiah 31: "A woman shall compass a man"; St. Athanasius, Cyril, Nazianzen, Bede, Damascene, Euthymius, Bernard, St. Thomas, whom Suarez cites and follows (III part, Question 7, art. 12); and the Scholastics generally. For this is what the hypostatic union required.

Christ then is said to have advanced with age in wisdom and grace. First, in the estimation of men, and in outward appearance and manifestation. For Scripture sometimes speaks sometimes according to what is outwardly perceived, and according to what people commonly judge. Here, on the basis of the greater works which Christ performed, men judged that He was growing in wisdom and grace, just as other children grow. So Origen and Theophylact here, and Nazianzen, St. Athanasius and Cyril already cited, and to be cited more fully shortly.

Secondly, Christ properly grew in experimental wisdom; for through actual use He experienced many things and acquired greater experience. Hence "He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8).

Thirdly, and properly: although Christ did not grow in habitual wisdom and grace, yet He did grow in actual and practical wisdom and grace; for He brought forth more and more from day to day the strength of spirit and the heavenly wisdom that lay hidden in His soul, even as a Boy, so that in His countenance, gait, speech, and deeds He always brought forth greater acts of modesty, maturity, prudence, chastity, sweetness, piety, and the other virtues. "Grace" here could also be understood as graciousness — namely, that Christ daily made Himself more pleasing to God and men. But this greater graciousness includes an increase of grace: for without it no one becomes more pleasing to God.

You will say: Christ is said to have grown in grace as He grew in age, and that before God; therefore He truly grew in grace in Himself, just as He grew in age in Himself. St. Thomas answers (III part, Question 7, art. 12), and from him Suarez, that Christ truly grew in grace in Himself — not as to the habit, but as to the acts and effects produced from the habit, namely by performing more excellent works. Through these, although He Himself did not become holier, nor did He merit anything more on account of the infinite dignity of His person, and because from the beginning He had grace in its fullness, nevertheless those works of themselves were sufficient to increase grace, inasmuch as they contained new merit.

That St. Athanasius, in the place already cited, means this very thing and nothing else, is clear from what he adds: "That through Him He might exercise His own energy, and that wisdom might therefrom shine forth and become known to all." And a little before: "For as the magnitude of the body grew, the manifestation of His divinity grew along with it in Him, and it became known to all that He Himself was the temple of God, and that God dwelt in His body." That Cyril means nothing else is clear from what he adds: "Therefore not He Himself advanced, but the human nature did. For as the divinity in Him was daily manifested, He appeared more wonderful and wiser. He advanced indeed in His human nature in this manner: the wisdom of God, that is the Son of God, took our nature, and gradually, both by words and deeds, revealing the deification of the man assumed, He made Him advance by revealing Him," namely, in order to reveal His divinity by daily exercising greater operations of wisdom and grace, which the divinity present in Him suggested to Him; whence by those operations they were recognized by men, just as the soul, hidden in the body, is recognized through the vital and animal operations which it daily exercises more and more through the body. And a little before: "When therefore you hear that He advanced in wisdom and grace, do not think that anything was added to Him who can never need anything; but because He showed Himself daily wiser and more gracious to those who saw and heard Him, He is therefore said to have advanced. Thus by daily revealing Himself, not He Himself advanced, but those who marveled at Him and loved Him."

The Orientals object to Cyril that he so interpreted these words that they are spoken of the whole Christ, not of the Word or of His humanity alone, while they themselves understand them of the humanity alone — as the Council of Ephesus has it (Opposition to anathema IV of the Council). But Cyril himself in his Response says that he indeed thinks this way, lest Christ be divided into two: yet he teaches that the Son of God, although He is the Wisdom of the Father, is nevertheless said to advance in wisdom, when through the supreme union He fittingly took into Himself the properties of His humanity — as if to say: the Son of God is said to have advanced, because the humanity which He assumed advanced.

To this is added the exposition of Toletus: "By the name of wisdom and grace," he says, "is not understood the habit of grace and wisdom itself, but the very wise and gracious works and words that proceed from the inward wisdom and grace." Thus Ecclesiastes 10 says: "The words of the mouth of the wise are grace," that is, gracious. "Grace is poured abroad on thy lips," Psalm 44:3. "For the grace of his lips he shall have the king for his friend," Proverbs 22:11. "They wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth," Luke 4:22. "This is religion, to visit orphans," James 1 — that is, these are the works of religion. Furthermore, God could by His absolute power increase the grace given to Christ, since it is finite, and cause Christ to grow and advance in it as to its habit, as Vasquez teaches against Cajetan and others (III part, Question 7, art. 12, disputation 47, ch. 3). But it pleased God to act otherwise, and this was more consonant with the dignity of Christ united to the Word.

From what has been said, gather a fourfold (among other) distinction between the grace of Christ and our own. First: Christ had grace as it were naturally, both by virtue of the hypostatic union — for grace is connatural to it — and by virtue of His conception by the Holy Spirit; whereas to us every grace is undue and gratuitous, adventitious and supernatural.

Second: in us grace first blots out original sin and actual sins if there are any, and so, as it were secondarily, makes us pleasing to God; but in Christ grace was prior to — indeed without — any sin, primarily sanctifying Christ of itself; for from the grace of union with the Word habitual grace flowed forth, like a ray from the sun, instantly and naturally. Wherefore we are and are called adopted sons of God; but Christ is the natural Son of God, as St. Hilary teaches (Bk. XII On the Trinity), and Cyril (Bk. III on John, ch. 12).

Third: our grace is private and proper to each individual, and only the man in whom it is justifies; but Christ's grace is common: for it is the grace of the Head, which is poured out into all the members, that is, into all the faithful, and is communicated to them, and so sanctifies them. From this learn how great was the grace of Christ, inasmuch as it is derived to all the faithful like the sun and a fountain: for "of His fullness we all have received, and grace for grace," John 1:16.

Fourth: Grace in us (and indeed in the Blessed Virgin) grows through good works, but in Christ it did not grow, because, since it proceeded from the union with the Word — which from the very beginning of His conception was full and perfect — at that same instant this fullness of grace, which could not be increased, was given to Him.

Tropologically: Damascene, book III On the Faith, chapter XXII, says: Christ advances in wisdom and grace, not in Himself, but in His members, namely Christians. So also Cyril, already cited. For He Himself made progress by performing daily greater acts of the virtues, in order to teach us to do the same. For our whole life is either continual progress or decline. For when one does not advance, then he falls back; therefore, that he may not fall back, he must always advance, as St. Bernard teaches at length, epistle 253, where among other things he says: "The just man never thinks he has attained, never says: It is enough; but always hungers and thirsts after righteousness, so that, if he were always to live, he would, so far as in him lies, always strive to be more righteous, always endeavour with all his strength to advance from good to better. For he will pledge himself to the divine service not for a year, nor for a time as a hireling, but for eternity," etc.

WITH GOD AND MEN. — "For first one must please God, and then men," say Theophylact and Bede. For if we please God, He Himself will bring it about that we please men also, and will make us pleasing to them. It is not enough to please men, because this is often feigned and simulated; nor God alone, because this is private and secret: but "God and men," so that we may show to men also the grace by which we please God, and so attract them to the same: "for to God we owe our conscience, to our neighbours our reputation," says St. Bernard. For more moral applications see St. Ambrose; Barradius, Didacus Stella, and Vincentius Regius here.