Mt: 1:18 Now
the generation of Christ was in this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy
Ghost.
“She was
found with child, of the Holy Ghost,” (Mt 1:18)
Our whole sermon is about the impregnation of the
Virgin Mary. But that you may perceive this material in your souls with the
sweetness of devotion first we shall salute the pregnant Virgin, etc. [Here all recite the “Hail Mary.”]
“She was found,” etc. I find a great difference in
sacred scripture between the conception of Christ and his birth, especially in
this because the birth of Christ was not entirely hidden and secret, rather he
wished that it would be announced to the world and published through the angels
and through the heavens, through the star in the east, through the animals,
through Eastern kings, just as it had already been prophesied. “I will move the
heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will move all
nations: and the desired of all nations shall come,” (Hag 2:7-8). Note, “the
heaven,” that is, the holy angels.
But about his conception he wished that it would
be hidden. To no one in this world was it revealed, not to the patriarchs, not
to the prophets, nor to holy persons, but only to the archangel Gabriel and to
the Virgin Mary, as it had been prophesied by Isaiah, “From the ends of the
earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret
to myself,” (Isa 24:16). And the prophet speaks in the person of Gabriel and
the Virgin Mary. Note, “from the ends of the earth.” The ends of the earth are
taken in two ways, either locally or temporally.
With respect to the first by calculating from the
center of the earth, that which is most distant from the center is the
circumference. The earth is the center, the circumference is the empyreal heaven.
Behold the ends locally from which Gabriel and the Virgin Mary heard the
praises of the just one, because it is a rule in holy theology that when he is
called just, it is understood absolutely, always of the savior.
As for the second, the ends can be taken
temporally. There are seven temporal ages of the world. The first was from Adam
to Noah. The second from Noah to Abraham. Third from Abraham to Moses. The
fourth from Moses to David. The fifth from David to the Babylonian captivity. Sixth
from the Babylonian exile to Christ. The seventh and last, from Christ to the
end of the world. About which the Apostle [Paul] says: “[We are] upon whom the
ends of the world are come,” (1Cor 10:11). Behold the temporal limits, about
which Gabriel and the Virgin Mary speak. “From the ends of the earth, “that is
in the ultimate age of the world “we have heard praises, the glory of the just
one,” that is, the savior. “Tell us Angel Gabriel about these praises and the
glory of the savior. Say something to us.” He responds, “My secret to me,”
supply “I shall keep.” See how the conception of Christ was hidden and secret. About
which David said: “He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers
falling gently upon the earth,” (Ps 71:6). The difference then is clear between
the birth of Christ and his conception.
Nevertheless although his conception was so secret
at the beginning, nevertheless it gradually became manifest, because a pregnant
woman at least in giving birth reveals her pregnancy. So it was of the Virgin
whose belly and uterus had swelled, and she could no longer hide her pregnancy.
On this account the proposed theme speaks, “She was found with child.” The
theme is clear.
And since I am concerned with the pregnant Virgin
in this sermon, I find that the Virgin was found pregnant by her fiancé Joseph
in three ways:
First through sense experience, [per experientiam
sensualem]
Second through divine wisdom, [per sapientiam
divinalem]
Third through a special excellence. [per
excellentiam specialem]
For each of these the theme speaks, “She was found
with child,” (Mt 1:18) etc.
SENSE EXPERIENCE
I say first, that the Virgin Mary was found
pregnant by her espoused Joseph through sense experience. All knowledge is had
through some sense perception. Through sight we recognize colors; through
hearing, sound; through the sense of smell, odors; through taste, flavors;
through touch, hard or soft, hot or cold. If you say to someone “How do you
know this?” He replies: “Because I have seen or heard it,” etc. It is clear
therefore that all our cognition is through the senses. The Philosopher
[Aristotle], “Sense is not deceived about the proper object, especially sight
unless there is a defect.” On account of this honorable judges make a great
difference between eyewitnesses and hearsay [de auditu], or belief [credentia].
An eyewitness is greater. And so Christ rebuked the Jews who refused to
believe, saying, “We speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and
you receive not our testimony,” (Jn 3:11). Note “what we know” namely, I and
the holy prophets, “we speak,” in this way, from sight. The Virgin Mary was
found by her espoused Joseph to be with child. Imagine how after Mary had
conceived, filled with joy she went to visit Elizabeth her cousin [literally,
her related sister], who was pregnant with John the Baptist, as the angel had
told her. She stayed with her for three months, as Luke says, (cf. Lk 1:56).
Her fiancé Joseph came to Nazareth to visit her,
and saw her womb swollen, so he found her pregnant. Think how Joseph should
have wondered, because he had not touched her. Moreover, as the holy doctors
say, after they had become engaged, the Virgin Mary persuaded her fiancé, who
was also a virgin, that they would take a vow of virginity together. So much
the more did he wonder when she seemed pregnant. Therefore the beginning of
today’s gospel says, “When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before
they came together,” that is, to live together and have relations, “she was
found to be with child, of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph her husband,
being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her
away privately,” (Mt 1:18-19).
Think also when she was found pregnant by her
parents, who did not believe that she had sinned, but they wondered what this
was. On the one hand they were thinking of her great devotion; on the other
hand they saw her pregnancy. Her mother said to her, “Daughter, what is this?”
The Virgin Mary replied to her mother, this is that which pleases God, who can
do to his creatures whatever he pleases. “O daughter, what will people say,
that my daughter got pregnant before she was married.”
Think of the distress of the Virgin, who dared not
reveal because “my secret to me.” Think of the entanglement in which Joseph
found himself, who was old and poor, and the Virgin Mary, young and stunningly
beautiful. Bernard says that Joseph, on one hand was considering the holiness
of the Virgin, and that it could not be that she had sinned, and on the other
hand he beheld her pregnant. And since by nature a woman cannot conceive
without a man, therefore like an olive, his heart was between two millstones.
SIGNS OF A BAD WOMAN
And because he was prudent and wise he considered
all the signs of a bad woman, which are: 1) an irreligious heart, 2)
garrulousness in speech, 3) personal untidiness, 4) voraciousness in eating and
drinking, 5) laziness toward work, 5) vanity of dress, and 6) contempt for her
husband. Each of these signs indicate a woman is bad. But Joseph found none of
these signs in the Virgin Mary. Rather, the total opposite; all the signs of a
good woman.
1) The first sign of a dishonorable [inhonesta]
woman is an irreligious heart toward God, disregarding masses and sermons,
because she does not fear God. May God keep her from being inconsiderate,
because unless a woman retains a fear of God, no other fear will hold her back
from evil. Fear of God and devotion restrained Susanna lest she sin, when she
said, “I am straitened on every side: for if I do this thing, it is death to
me: and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands. But it is better
for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of
the Lord,” (Dan 13:22-23).
Joseph however was thinking about his fiancée
whether she was devout, or irreligious, and he saw that he had never seen such
a holy and devout woman, because she always wanted to pray, or read, or
contemplate. And on this foundation of devotion a woman should ground herself,
otherwise she will fall. “For other foundation no man can lay, but that which
is laid,” (1Cor 3:10). But Joseph did not find these things in the Blessed
Virgin Mary, since she was most devoted and ardent toward God. So scripture
says of her in Proverbs, “The woman that fears [God], she shall be praised,”
(Prov 31:30).
2) The second sign is garrulous talkativeness.
[garrulatio oris loquax]. God keep her from the opportunity. Reason, because no
devotion remains in the soul from words, just as no scent remains in the nutmeg
jar which is left open. Authority: “Where there are many words, there is
oftentimes want,” namely of goodness (Prov 14:23). And so you should raise your
little daughters lest they become talkative. And so, 1 Tim: “Let the woman
learn in silence, with all subjection,” (1Tim 2:11), otherwise it is a bad
sign. But a quiet woman is good.
Note the signs of taciturnity of the Blessed
Virgin, because she is painted with her eyes larger than her mouth, and so she
is properly represented to indicate that she had a great eye of the heart for
thinking and contemplating, but a mouth small for speaking little. Mary “kept
all these words in her heart,” (Lk 2:51). Joseph considered for himself if his
fiancée was loquacious, or garrulous, and he saw that she was not. Moreover she
preferred not to speak. A sign of this, as I said, that the Virgin had large
eyes and a small mouth, is clear in the portrait which St. Luke painted, which
is in Rome.
3) The third sign is bodily untidiness. When a
woman goes about, lascivious, dissolute and vulgar, it seems that she has ants
on her feet [formicas in pedibus!]. Ambrose: A man’s body is an image of his
soul. So Solomon says, “A woman [meets him] in harlot’s attire prepared to
deceive souls; talkative and wandering, not bearing to be quiet, not able to
abide still at home, now abroad, now in the streets, now lying in wait
near the corners,” (Prov 7:10-12). And she immediately put herself at the
windows etc.
But Joseph did not find this sign in the Blessed
Virgin, because she never left home, unless when she went to the temple. And
thus she went about totally composed. She always had her eyes toward the ground
in a gesture of holiness. She never went dancing, but went about with downcast
eyes. So scripture says about her, “How beautiful are you, my love, how
beautiful are you! your eyes are doves’ eyes, besides what is hid within,”
(Song 4:1). The Holy Spirit says “how beautiful are you” to the Virgin twice,
because she is beautiful in body and beautiful in soul. Note, “Your eyes are
doves’ eyes,” he does not say, “falcons’ eyes.”
4) The fourth sign is stuffing the belly with food
and drink. It is a bad sign in a man and in a woman, because of those nearby
parts, and stimulate each other. Hence a full belly immediately stimulates its
neighbor, and because of this a gluttonous person necessarily is lustful. Holy
Scripture says of the gluttons, “They shall eat … and shall lift up their souls
to their iniquity,”(Hos 4:8).
But the Virgin Mary ate very little, only enough
to sustain the body. She was almost always fasting.
5) The fifth sign is laziness, as when some woman
says, “I will not work. I have brought so much from my dowry to my husband.” Therefore
St. Bernard [De consideratione, II, 13,22] writes, “Idleness is the mother of
trifles, the stepmother of virtues,” so because our body is of the earth, it
has the conditions of the earth, which if left uncultivated, brings forth
thorns of lust, and weeds of bad thoughts and sins. Also, about the body of the
lazy, on this account Sacred Scripture says of the body, “Send him,” — the
servant, that is, the body which is like a servant who is to be directed – “to
work, that he be not idle: For idleness has taught much evil,” (Sir
33:28-29).
But the Virgin was never lazy, rather she was
always busy about holy works. Jerome says that she would arise in the middle of
the night and pray. Then she spun and wove.
6) Sixth is vanity and excess in dress [ornatus]. Women
may dress themselves decently and honestly according to their status and
condition, but when they pour all their time and zeal in dressing themselves,
or their body and they don’t care about their soul, God help them, because such
women are vain and have a vain heart. So Scripture says, “Vanity of vanities,
and all is vanity,” (Eccl 1:2). Note the rule of the Apostle [Paul], “Women
also in decent apparel: adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with
plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire, but as it becomes
women professing godliness, with good works,” (1Tim 2:9-10). Note “sobriety” in
measure, according to the condition of their status and the ability of their
husband. But there are many women with no regard, and they should be ashamed at
what they wear, like the outfit or jewelry which a prostitute wears. And so
scripture says, “Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: the woman that fears
the Lord, she shall be praised,” (Prov 31:30).
But the Blessed Virgin did not care about jewelry.
She washed her face well with the pure water of tears. St. Anne, her mother was
adorning her with much jewelry [dives]. Out of love for her mother she wore it
in the house, but not outside the house. But the daughters of today do just the
opposite.
7) The seventh sign is contempt of the husband. It
is a sign that she has her heart for another, when she argues with her husband
about fashion [de genere ?] and about other things, she immediately wants him
to get it for her. According to scriptures, a woman ought to honor her husband,
and so the Apostle commands, saying, “Let the woman learn in silence, with all
subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over
the man: but to be in silence,” (1Tim 2:11). We also read in Esther 2, that
Assuerus and his people were saying, “Let all wives, as well of the greater as
of the lesser, give honor to their husbands…and that the husbands should be
rulers and masters in their houses,” (Est 2:20,22).
Neither is this sign of contempt found in the
glorious Virgin, because although she was young, beautiful, noble and rich, and
her spouse old, and poor, nevertheless she honored him more than any woman in
the world. All in all, Joseph found no sign of a bad woman in the Virgin Mary,
but all the virtues and traits [afflictiones?, perhaps affectiones] of a good
woman.
On the other hand he considered whether nature
would permit a woman to conceive without a man, and he saw that it seemed not. See
how perplexed he was; it was like his heart was pressed between two millstones.
On the one hand he was afraid to make her condition public, because she would
have immediately been stoned to death, according to the law. On the other hand,
since he was a just man, lest he seem to consent, he thought about going away
quietly and leaving her. And so the prophecy of David was fulfilled saying, in
the person of Joseph, “Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness has
covered me. And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and
be at rest?… and I abode in the wilderness,” (Ps 54:6-7,8). As for his
proposal: note “fear” of consenting in sin if he stayed with her, and
“trembling” lest he defame an innocent one. So he proposed to put her away. It
is clear, therefore, how the Virgin Mary, “was found with child,” (Mt 1:18).
Morally. You should take care, like Joseph, that
there be no impediments when you wish to contract marriage, like parental
[permission], or affinity, or something else. And so it is an ordination of the
church that it be declared. And so scripture says, “Marriage honorable in all,
and the bed undefiled,” (Heb 13:4). It is honorable when there is no
impediment.
DIVINE WISDOM
Second, I say that the Virgin Mary was found to be
with child, through divine wisdom. This is based on a rule of theology, says
St. Thomas in I Pars that the mysteries of God, that is the secrets, depending
on his will alone cannot be known unless through his revelation. None of you
can know my heart unless I should reveal and manifest it. How much more so with
God.
But that which happens naturally can be known. In
this way doctors know the hour of death of a sick person, because although the
effect is in the future, nevertheless the cause is already present. Not so with
the will of God. And so scripture says, “For who among men is he who can know
the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is?,” (Wis 9:13). It
is added, “And who shall know your thought, unless you give wisdom, and send
thy Holy Spirit from above,” (Wis 9:17). Now Joseph, when he saw that his
fiancée was pregnant, could not naturally know the truth, because the
conception of Christ had no natural cause. For it did not come through the
celestial constellations, nor through angelic processes, nor elemental, or
human, therefore it could not have been known unless through divine revelation.
Think, therefore how Joseph, who was a holy man, just and good, turned to God
in prayer about this, asking the good pleasure of God to reveal [the answer],
according to that of James, “But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God,
who gives to all men abundantly, … and it shall be given him,” (Jas 1:5). So
Joseph did, when he wanted at night to retire, he first kneeled down in prayer,
saying, “Lord, you have given me a great grace, giving me this damsel as my
fiancée, but Lord, I see that she is pregnant. How is it that a woman so holy
is pregnant?” and similar words. And he wept much.
I believe also that the Blessed Virgin, on the
other hand was praying to God, lovingly compassionate over her predicament, and
that her saddened fiancé might be consoled. I believe that even the mother of
the Virgin was praying that they not be disgraced, etc. Think how God listened
to these devout prayers. The Gospel says, “But while he thought on these
things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying:
Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary as your wife, for that which is
conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son: and
you shall call his name JESUS. For he shall save his people from their sins. Now
all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the
prophet, saying: Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with
us,” (Mt 1:20-23). Think, how the angel spoke to him the prophecy of Isaiah,
“Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,” (Isa 7:14), not the Father
nor the Holy Spirit. Think what kind of joy Joseph had, when he knew the truth.
From this a question emerges: Why did the Virgin
not reveal it to him, when she saw his sadness, and perplexity, because he
believed her – although nowadays a fiancé does not believe his fiancée. I
respond that a secret entrusted should not be revealed, where the one by whom
the secret is entrusted, is good, just and holy. Otherwise it can be revealed. “For
it is good to hide the secret of a king,” (Tob 12:7). Therefore the Virgin
Mary, who had a most delicate conscience, chose not to reveal it, lest she
offend the king, especially God.
Note [this is] against many vain persons who, if
God gives them some grace or revelation, cannot keep silence. They immediately reveal
it, and wrongly, unless about this they expressly know the will of God,
especially because sometimes they believe the illusions of the devil to be
divine revelations. They are like hens who can not keep quiet until they lay an
egg. About such scripture says, “He who discloses the secret of a friend loses
his credit, and shall never find an intimate friend,” (Sir 27:17). See the
reason why the Virgin Mary did not reveal the secret committed to her to Joseph
or to her mother, but the Holy Spirit revealed it to Elizabeth.
SPECIAL EXCELLENCE
Third, I say that the Virgin Mary was found to be
with child through a special excellence. Generally, when women are pregnant,
they are thin, pale, tired and hungry for all kinds of things. But it was not
so with the Blessed Virgin. Some holy theologians say that from the fact that
the Virgin was pregnant, rays of splendor shone forth from her face, especially
when she was close to childbirth. This can be proved in three ways, through
philosophy, through theology and through experience.
As for the first, the Philosopher Aristotle says
that every natural agent to the extent that it gives of the substantial form,
to that extent it also gives the accidents following the form. What gives fire,
gives also heat and light. So God the Father, of his substantial form, gave his
Son to the Virgin Mary. That the Son of God is called “form,” the authority of
scriptures: “Who being in the form of God,…emptied himself, taking the form of
a servant,” (Phil 2:6-7). It is no wonder then that it conveys a radiance in
the face etc. And so when pregnant, the Virgin was more beautiful and more
glowing.
Second, it is proved theologically. We read in
Exodus 34, that because Moses had spoken with God on the mountain, rays of
splendor shone forth from his face, so much so that the people could not even
gaze on him. Behold the reason. If the face was so splendorous from just a conversation
with God, how much more therefore the face of the Virgin Mary from the
conception of his Son. The Apostle Paul makes this point saying, “Now if the
ministration of death, engraved with letters upon stones, was glorious; so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the
glory of his countenance, which is made void: How shall not the ministration of
the spirit be rather in glory?” (2Cor 3:7-8). The “ministration of death” was
the law of Moses which did not confer a life of glory.
Third, it is proved by experience, of a crystal
lamp, which is beautiful in itself and bright, but if the lamp within is
lighted it shall be more beautiful and even brighter. The same with the Virgin
Mary. Think how her body, beautiful and pure like a lamp, and the light inside
illuminating the whole world is the Son of God. No wonder therefore if the
Virgin was then brighter and more beautiful, inasmuch as the text says that
Joseph “knew her not,” (Mt 1:25). From these rays of splendor, because eternal
light was in her.
Note here how Joseph, having received the divine
revelation, humbly sought pardon from the Virgin for his suspicion which he had
had of her, saying, “O Blessed, why did you not tell me, because I believed
you. And that she comforted him sweetly congratulating him that he would be the
groom and companion of the mother of the Son of God, and his parent. O blessed
family [societas]. How reverently, then, did they both adore God incarnate in
the womb of the Virgin.
And so if you wish to have this association for
yourself, you should do like the merchant Valentine did, who every year on
Christmas, invited [to his home] one poor old man and one woman having a little
child. They represented for him the Virgin with her son, and Joseph. It was
revealed about him that at his death the Virgin with her son and Joseph
appeared to him, saying, “Because you have received us in your house, so we
receive you into our house.” About this Christ says, in Matthew 25, “Amen I say
to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to
me,” (v. 40). And so the money which you pay out in gambling, you should for
the love of Christ give to the poor. The poor however, who do not have, nor can
give money to themselves, can at least present tomorrow [Christmas day] as many
“Hail Marys” as days she bore him in the womb, or how many weeks, or months.
Forty weeks, nine months, 277 days.
