THE BELIEF IN THE VIRGINAL BIRTH OF CHRIST IS CONSISTENT WITH REASON, AND
HIS LIFE BEFITTED, IN ALL RESPECTS, HIS DIGNITY.
Hitherto we have undertaken to prove the credibility and congruity of our
belief in the more difficult articles of the Christian creed. We will
now proceed to discuss such as are easier. First then, if God was able
to become Man, He was also able to be born of a virgin. For generation
signifies the production of a person, not of a nature; and birth means
the entrance into the world, not of human nature, but of an individual
man or woman, subsisting in that nature. Now, as the Person of the Son of
God subsisted in human nature, it was possible for God to be born of a
woman, from whom He took that nature. God might, certainly, have formed
the body of Christ from the earth, or from some other material. He might
have done so; but He did not, because it was more fitting that it should
have been born of a woman, in order that the sight of the Father of all
things deigning to have an earthly mother and kinsfolk and country, and
to suffer the infirmities of human life for love of us, should excite us
to deeper humility.
It was, likewise, most seemly that He who in Heaven had no mother, and
whose Father was the God of all Purity, should choose for His earthly
mother a spotless virgin, and that He should have no earthly father.[21]
* * * * *
It was, moreover, highly fitting that Christ should not have lived a
solitary life, but should have mingled with men. For since He had come
upon earth, in order, by His preaching, to induce mankind to seek for
eternal happiness, it was necessary that He should not, like St. John
the Baptist, lead an austere life but an ordinary one; that He should
follow, in His eating, drinking, and other habits of life, the customs
of His country; that thus He might enable men to profit by His words
and example. Neither, by choosing the common life, did He in any sense
contravene the principles of the spiritual life. For, perfection does not
necessarily consist in austerity, but in sincerity and ardent charity;
which, by fixing our mind on eternal things, ensures us against elation
in prosperity, and depression in adversity.
It was also most fitting that Christ should, by His poverty, set an
example to preachers, showing them that they ought to be free from
solicitude about earthly gains, and from the least taint of avarice. The
poverty of Christ, likewise, threw into stronger relief the power of
His Divine Majesty, which alone, unaided by worldly power or learning,
sufficed to transform the world. His miracles, again, are reasonably
to be expected, since it was by them that He manifested His Divinity.
Finally, if we reverently and humbly study all His words and works, we
shall find in them the most admirable sequence, and most perfect order.