milk flowing in an unusual manner, a teat alien to the natural order; A the Mother of the Lord is enrolled in the census, and Joseph is her spouse in name, not enjoying the communion of the act.
2. You have just heard the evangelist Luke saying: "In those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled. This first enrollment was made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judaea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child." Do you see how the words are small, but the mysteries are great? The Lord was carried in the womb, and the first census was decreed. He who has the whole creation written down, and who said to his own disciples: B "Rejoice and be glad, because your names are written in heaven," permitted his own Mother to be written down in the small Roman codices. Who would not speak? Who would not marvel at the humble condescension of the Lord? Above he is free, and below he is enrolled; above he is Son, and below he is servant; above he is King, and below he is a hireling; above he is rich, and below he is needy; above he is worshipped, and below he pays tribute; above he is a divine throne, and below a rustic cave; above he is the paternal and incomprehensible bosom, and below a small animal stall and a manger. Who would not marvel at such great things being above, and such vile swaddling clothes being below? He who looses is bound; he who feeds is fed; C the incomprehensible appears as a child; he who makes fountains gush forth borrows breasts; he who bears all things is borne in an inexplicable manner; he who is everywhere is circumscribed circumscriptively in a certain place. O stupendous things! Elizabeth gave birth in a bright little house, and the Virgin gave birth in a small cave; John was in a bed, and the Lord in a manger. The Lord’s birth from the Virgin is not without reason; his being wrapped in swaddling clothes is not without reason; his sucking the breast is not without reason; his being laid in a manger is not without reason; his being summoned by the enrollment of Augustus is not without reason; all things are done for a certain cause and reason, even if it is hidden. He is born of the Virgin, so that he might reform the first-formed Adam, who was fashioned from the clay of the virgin earth. D He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that he might loosen the bonds of our sins, untying bonds with bonds, according to the stated saying: "For every one is constricted by the bonds of his own sins." He sucked the breast, so that the milk of grace, which gushed forth from his own side, might flow; for milk is nothing other than whitening blood: he was laid in a manger, so that he might reform the human race, which had fallen into the manner of brute beasts.
the midst of two animals you shall be known." He accepted the enrollment under Augustus Caesar, so that he might reform the disorder of the world. This enrollment became a pledge of the world's order. B
3. And hear briefly that these things said are true. Before the Lord's becoming man, a great tyranny possessed the race of men; the earth was governed without reason; they mocked the kingly dignity; a huge crowd of kings was being produced among many men: if anyone had about a hundred men subject to him, he would immediately usurp the status of kingship. Such was the strife of men: when they coveted the principalities of certain places, and would not move from one place to another, except when sometimes they waged war on one another. When such confusion had persisted for a long time, as soon as 346 the Lord occupied the virginal palace on earth, he immediately put an end to that multi-rule, and planted monarchy, having allotted the Roman empire to preside over all, according to the pattern of the heavenly dwelling. For just as in heaven one kingdom of God prevails, and all the angels submit to his will, while the demons, in the manner of barbarians, refuse the rule; in the same way also on earth, even if there are many unsubdued nations, nevertheless one Roman empire prevails. For the sake of establishing this order, therefore, the king, held in the womb, commanded the first enrollment to be made under Augustus; whence he also allowed himself to be enrolled in the register of the Roman empire for the confirmation of the established laws. For then the law of the king prevails, when the king who legislates is the first to fulfill the law. For he who legislates and does not fulfill it, is an abrogator of the law rather than a legislator. Therefore, for the sake of establishing this good order, the first enrollment under Augustus took place, so that both the cult of the law might be redirected, and the nation of the Jews might be restrained, so that it might not be lawful C for the perverse Jews, if they lived by their own law, to kill the innocent, but that they might obey the laws under the yoke of necessity.
4. The aforementioned enrollment under Augustus was therefore necessary. For that very enrollment humbled the Jewish people, but exalted the race of the Christians, since the Jews, for fear of the Roman empire, no longer dared to use their former fury. Wherefore, after this enrollment, when they had seized the Lord and were hastening to hand him over to death, they did not dare to act according to their own will, as they had formerly done with the prophets, whom in blind impulse D they slaughtered, as the Jews who were using autonomy to kill those not liable, yet were bound to follow the laws under the yoke of necessity.
A And so they brought Him to Pilate, the governor of the Romans, having demanded an intervention, requesting judgment for those things being spoken of, and devising a way to obtain his consent. Wherefore Pilate, as the governor of the Romans, when he saw the Jews barking like dogs against the slaying of the Lord, and knowing that they had delivered Him up out of envy, asked the Jews, saying: "As you all know clearly, I find nothing in this man worthy of death, O Jews. Why do you hasten to defile the Roman authority, by restraining the just man with insolence, and wishing the innocent to be liable? I find nothing in this man worthy of death. Let Barabbas therefore be put to death, and let Christ be released: for the former is a murderer and seditious, but the latter is a benefactor and the author of life; seeing that you have adorned this accusation against Him." B But when they would not agree even on this basis, but proclaimed Pilate an enemy of Caesar, and said to Pilate’s face, as he was defending Christ: "You are no friend of Caesar, if you wish him to live who calls himself king." And yet, not even then did Pilate yield to the Jews so that they might do whatever they pleased by their own will. For if he had yielded to them, the Jews would have killed the Lord with stones, or would have sawn Him asunder with a wooden saw. And if this had been done, we would have suffered the loss of the cross; for among the Romans the form of punishment was the wood of the cross. Wherefore Pilate asked the Jews: "What do you wish that I should do with Jesus, who is called Christ?" (John xix, 12; Matt. xxvii, 22). But they, relying upon Roman procedure, cried out: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him," and immediately Pilate gave his consent; for he had received the nod from above.
C 5. By reason of this upright order, the first census was promulgated under Augustus Caesar: for if this census had not been previously ordained, the body of the Lord would by no means have been delivered for perfect burial; for the children of the Jews, in their excessive madness, were about to cast the body of the Lord either into the fire, or to submerge it in the sea. For if they cast into a pit of mire Jeremiah, who was a friend to them, what were they going to do to the body of the Lord, had they not found the Roman law restraining them? D Therefore, when it was not at all granted by Pilate to the Jews that they might receive the body of the Lord, Joseph of Arimathea, being a friend of Pilate, approaching him, asked for the body of the Lord, having brought a great price for that matter. Necessary, therefore, was the census made under Augustus Caesar; for although, as you have just heard, the betrothed of the Virgin
A was sorrowful, yet the whole world received the beginning of a better order. What is this, that the betrothed of the Virgin was sorrowful? Hear in few words. When Joseph the betrothed of the Virgin, as you have just heard, was arriving at Bethlehem because of the census of Augustus, with Mary, who was betrothed to him as his wife, being pregnant, Joseph was ignorant of the mystery hidden within the Virgin; he had not yet received the oracle of the angel. But the Virgin possessed the assurance, both by the word and by the swelling; for the more the body grew, so much the more carefree a life did the Virgin lead, at once keeping her virginity undefiled and carrying the fetus without even the least trouble; and she was not so much burdened by it as she was lightened.
6. And on account of this, Joseph was B distressed, as he saw her with child, being ignorant of the treasure hidden within; and, being sorrowful, he cast at her along the way these words, saying: "What is this that has appeared in you, Mary? Are you not she who, as a modest Virgin, was raised in the sacred enclosures? Are you not Mary, who did not endure to behold the face of a man? Are you not Mary, who against your own resolve were persuaded to be betrothed to me? Are you not Mary, who prayed to keep the unwithering rose of virginity? Are you not Mary, who loved Susanna and hated the Egyptian? Are you not Mary, who often read of Tamar who was violated, and loathed the licentious Amnon? Whither has that chamber of your temperance departed? Where is that spotless bridal-bed of your chastity? Where is that modest countenance of yours? I am covered in shame, and you act with boldness? Because I keep silent about your sin, do you hasten to approach all the more? Do you not see the swelling of your womb? The infant is stirring inside, and you are cheerful as if you have experienced no temptations? Go away, Mary; return to your house; seek out the thief of your modesty; be registered with him. I do C not accept that insult; you will find no excuse to plead against the punishment." Then the Virgin said to Joseph: "Why are you indignant, my betrothed? Why do you condemn me as having acted licentiously? Why do you gaze upon the swelling of my womb with insulting eyes? Why do you compel me to blush? I have become the glory of women; I have made them emerge from their former shame; I have recalled Eve; I have removed the flaming sword; and you bid me to be hidden? No one will be able to exact punishment from me, for I carry the common Lord of all. If I myself bear witness about myself, I shall be found greedy for vain glory. Wait a little while, Joseph, and the shepherds will persuade you of the truth, the Magi will make you more certain; the star will put you to shame, the angels will stir you to compunction. Now you doubt, but in a little while you will give glory, when you hear the heavenly host crying out in concert: 'Glory D to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men.'" Then you will kneel...
in the highest to God, and on earth peace, good will among men." A Then you will kneel, and shall not inquire. Do you not consider the crossing of our journey, O Joseph, and that no man is a companion to us on the way? Do you not see the sun putting on a more radiant garment? Do you not see all creation leaping for joy? Do you not see the mountains skipping? Do you not see the hills rejoicing? Do you not see the channels of the waters overflowing? Do you not see the Jordan running beyond its banks? From these signs surmise the truth, and do not doubt, Joseph, that I am pregnant. I have given myself as a loan, yet I have not been defiled: I have lent my womb, yet I have not violated my virginity. Do not refuse faith to what is set before you, O Joseph. When I shall be delivered, B then it will be known who I am; now I suffer reproaches, then I shall be called blessed; now you drive me away as a criminal, then you will beseech me to stay near as a holy one. Do not pride yourself as though you seem to guard me: for I, in fact, guard you. For He who deigned to make my womb His tabernacle, He is the guardian of the entire nature. Let us proceed, therefore, and let us be registered, so that both the military law and the imperial decree may be fulfilled.
7. In these things, Joseph, struck with awe, proceeded on his way, on the one hand treading the earth with his feet, but in his thoughts leaping above the clouds. C For what else remained for Joseph to do but to keep his mind at leisure on things above, since every good gift is given from above? For this reason, then, Joseph accompanied the Virgin, becoming at once both helper and observer of the things to come; not that the Virgin had need of a helper, and much less He who was carried in the Virgin, He who was and is the helper of all, and to whom the one who so cries out exclaims: "My help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth." But because it was necessary, by way of the economy of the task, for Joseph to be a helper, so that the Virgin might be reputed to be espoused, and so that the device might be hidden from the devil, D and he might not discover what was taking place—namely, how God deigned to live with men. What, then, of the evangelist Luke? For it is worth our while to see Joseph being made certain, and the little house where the Virgin brought forth the Lord, which bears the image of the Church: where the manger is the altar; the one who ministers in his place is Joseph; the deacons are the shepherds; the priests are the angels; the high priest is the Lord; the throne is the Virgin; the chalices are the breasts; the priestly vestment is the Incarnation; the fans are the cherubim; the paten is the Holy Spirit; and the Father is the lid of the paten. That the place where she brought forth the Lord prefigured the type of the Church, you have heard.
A The place where the Virgin brought forth the Lord was marked out, as you have just heard the evangelist Luke saying: “And it came to pass, when they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bring forth her son, the first-born; and she wrapped him in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” B O wondrous things! O the marvel, how brief the words, and how great the mysteries! “It came to pass, when they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bring forth.” O stupendous wonder, the Creator of times awaits the appointed time! He who established the limit for time, awaited the fixed duration of months, so that no one might imagine it to be a phantom or a mere appearance. “And it came to pass, when they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bring forth her son, the first-born; and she wrapped him in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger.” Consider the mystical birth-giving of the Virgin: she herself brought forth; she herself wrapped him in swaddling-clothes. Among the women of this age, one brings forth, and another wraps in swaddling-clothes; but not so with the Virgin; she herself brought forth, and she herself wrapped him in swaddling-clothes; and she, the untiring mother and uninstructed midwife, did not permit anyone with unclean hands to touch the unblemished fruit; she herself through herself tended him who was born of her, before her, and for her sake: “And she wrapped him in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Do you see, O beloved, how that lowly hostelry, where she who carried the womb within her once brought forth, and did not give birth a second time, nor sustained the mark of reproach, previously drew for us the type of the Church? Although some madmen, because they heard the evangelist Luke speaking thus: “And she brought forth her son, the first-born,” C have taught that there was a second conception of the Virgin, transforming incorruption into corruption, speaking in their dogmas thus: “He would not be called first-born, unless another were to follow.” But our adversaries produce as a witness for their own depravity not only Luke, but also the evangelist Matthew, who recounts these very things and affirms them even more openly; and those impious ones bring forward his words in their own writings, speaking those things which are recorded as having been received by Joseph in a vision, with the evangelist Matthew saying: “But an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, rising up, it says, took Mary his wife, D and they went into Egypt; and he knew her not until she brought forth her son, the first-born.” In a similar way the adversaries borrow these voices, so that they may teach that the glorious Virgin gave birth a second time. But away with such absurdity: this virginal and glorious state remained utterly spotless, and the glorious