BETHLEHEM HAS OPENED EDEN. ANONYMOUS: Bethlehem has opened Eden: Come, let us see! We have found joy hidden! Come, let us take possession of the paradise within the cave. There the unwatered stem has appeared, from which forgiveness blossoms forth! There the undug well is found from which David longed to drink of old!14 There the Virgin has borne a child, and at once the thirst of Adam and David is made to cease.
Therefore let us hasten to this place where for our sake the eternal God was born as a little child! IKOS OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD.15
MARY IS THE TEMPLE FOR JESUS’ FLESH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The book of the sacred Gospels referring the genealogy to Joseph, who was
descended from David’s house, has proved through him that the Virgin also was of the same tribe as David, inasmuch as the divine law commanded that marriages should be confined to those of the same tribe. And Paul, the interpreter of the heavenly doctrines, clearly declares the truth, bearing witness that the Lord arose out of Judah.16 The natures, however, which combined unto this real union were different, but from the two together is one God the Son, without the diversity of the natures being destroyed by the union. For a union of two natures was made, and therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. And it is with this notion of a union that we proclaim the Virgin to be the mother of God, because God the Word was made flesh and became man, and by the act of conception united to himself the temple that he received from her. For we perceive that two natures, by an inseparable union, met together in him without confusion, and indivisibly. For the flesh is flesh and not deity, even though it became the flesh of God. In like manner also the Word is God and not flesh, though for the dispensation’s sake he made the flesh his own. But although the natures which came together to form the union are both different and unequal to one another, yet he who is formed from them both is only one. We may not separate the one Lord Jesus Christ into man and God, but we affirm that Christ Jesus is one and the same, acknowledging the distinction of the natures, and preserving them free from confusion with one another.
COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 1.17
FIRSTBORN OF ALL HUMANITY. BEDE: He calls the Lord “firstborn,” not because we should believe that Mary gave birth to other sons after him, since it is true that she was memorable for her unique perpetual chastity with Joseph her husband. But he properly names him “firstborn” because, as John says, “But to as many as received him he gave them the power to become sons of God.”18 Among these sons he rightfully holds the primacy who, before he was born in the flesh, was Son of God, born without
beginning. However, he descended to earth. He shared in our nature and lavished upon us a sharing in his grace, so that “he should be the firstborn of many brothers.”19 HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.6.20
FIRSTBORN IN GRACE. BEDE: He is the only-begotten of the substance of the divinity, firstborn in the assuming of humanity; firstborn in grace, only- begotten in nature. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.7.21
CHRIST BECAME A HUMBLE CHILD. AMBROSE: He was a baby and a child, so that you may be a perfect human. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that you may be freed from the snares of death.22 He was in a manger, so that you may be in the altar. He was on earth that you may be in the stars.
He had no other place in the inn, so that you may have many mansions in the heavens.23 “He, being rich, became poor for your sakes, that through his poverty you might be rich.”24 Therefore his poverty is our inheritance, and the Lord’s weakness is our virtue. He chose to lack for himself, that he may abound for all. The sobs of that appalling infancy cleanse me, those tears wash away my sins. Therefore, Lord Jesus, I owe more to your sufferings because I was redeemed than I do to works for which I was created. . . .
You see that he is in swaddling clothes. You do not see that he is in heaven. You hear the cries of an infant, but you do not hear the lowing of an ox recognizing its Master, for the ox knows his Owner and the donkey his Master’s crib.25 EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.41-42.26
SWADDLING CLOTHES, NOT TYRIAN PURPLE. BEDE: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”27 It should be noted that the sign given of the Savior’s birth is not a child enfolded in Tyrian purple, but one wrapped with rough pieces of cloth. He is not to be found in an ornate golden bed, but in a manger. The meaning of this is that he did not merely take upon himself our lowly mortality, but for our sakes took upon
himself the clothing of the poor. Though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich.28 Though he was Lord of heaven, he became a poor man on earth, to teach those who lived on earth that by poverty of spirit they might win the kingdom of heaven. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 1.29
THROUGH SWADDLING CLOTHES JESUS LOOSES THE BANDS OF SIN. JOHN THE MONK: Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and celebrate, all who love Zion! Today the ancient bond of the condemnation of Adam is loosed. Paradise is opened to us: the serpent is laid low. Of old he deceived the woman in Paradise, but now he sees a woman become mother of the Creator. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!30 The sinful vessel that brought death upon all flesh has become the first fruits of salvation through the Theotokos for all the world. For from her the all-perfect God is born a child, and by his birth he sets the seal on her virginity. Through his swaddling clothes he looses the bands of sin. And through becoming a child he heals Eve’s pangs in travail. Therefore let all creation sing and dance for joy, for Christ has come to restore it and to save our souls! STICHERA OF THE
NATIVITY OF THE LORD.31
SWADDLING CLOTHES AND MANGER SIGNAL A HUMAN BIRTH. CHRYSOSTOM:
To prevent you from thinking that his coming to earth was merely an accommodation, and to give you solid grounds for truly believing that his was real flesh, he was conceived, born and nurtured. That his birth might be made manifest and become common knowledge, he was laid in a manger, not in some small room but in a lodging place before numerous people. This was the reason for the swaddling clothes and also for the prophecies spoken long before. The prophecies showed not only that he was going to be a man but that he would be conceived, born and nurtured as any child would be.
AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 7.49.32
LIKE FODDER IN A MANGER. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He found humanity reduced to the level of the beasts. Therefore he is placed like feed in a manger, that we, having left behind our carnal desires, might rise up to that degree of intelligence which befits human nature. Whereas we were brutish in soul, by now approaching the manger, yes, his table, we find no longer feed, but the bread from heaven, which is the body of life. COMMENTARY ON
LUKE, HOMILY 1.33
JESUS WAS BORN IN A STABLE OF DUNG. JEROME: He found no room in the Holy of Holies that shone with gold, precious stones, pure silk and silver.
He is not born in the midst of gold and riches, but in the midst of dung, in a stable where our sins were filthier than the dung. He is born on a dunghill in order to lift up those who come from it: “From the dunghill he lifts up the poor.”34 ON THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD.35
HEAVENLY LIGHT IN AN EARTHLY INN. AMBROSE: He is brought forth from the womb but flashes from heaven. He lies in an earthly inn but is alive with heavenly light. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.42-43.36
THE LORD OF CREATION HAS NO PLACE TO BE BORN. JEROME: The Lord is born on earth, and he does not have even a cell in which to be born, for there was no room for him in the inn. The entire human race had a place, and the Lord about to be born on earth had none. He found no room among men. He found no room in Plato, none in Aristotle, but in a manger, among beasts of burden and brute animals, and among the simple, too, and the innocent. For that reason the Lord says in the Gospel: “The foxes have dens, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”37 HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 44.38
THE INCARNATION GUIDES US TO OUR HOME. BEDE: He who sits at the right hand of the Father goes without shelter from the inn, that he may for us get ready many mansions39 in the house of his heavenly Father. Hence we have “because there was no room for him in the inn.” He was born not in the house of his parents but at the inn, by the wayside, because through the mystery of the incarnation he is become the Way by which he guides us to our home, where we shall also enjoy the Truth and the Life. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.7.40