have not been able to give birth to Christ; but for Christ's sake you have declined
SERMON 192 47
Mary is the mother of unity
2. Be jubilant, virgins of Christ; the mother of Christ is your companion. You have not been able to give birth to Christ; but for Christ's sake you have declined to give birth at all. He wasn't bom of you, but he was bom for you. And yet, if you remember his words, as indeed you ought to, you, yes you too are his mothers, because you do the will of his Father. He said himself, you see,
Whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother (Mk 3:35). Be jubilant, widows of Christ;4 you have dedicated your holy continence to the one who made virginity fruitful. Be jubilant too, married chastity, all of you living faithfully with your husbands;5 preserve in your hearts what you have foregone in the body. Where the flesh can no longer be preserved from sexual relations, let the conscience remain virgin in faith, in the way in which every Church is virgin.6 With Mary, loving virginity gave birth to Christ; with Anna, aged widowhood recognized Christ the babe; with Elizabeth, married chastity, and an old woman's fertility, enrolled under Christ's banner.7
So then, because Christ is truth and peace and justice, conceive him in faith, give birth to him in works, so that what Mary's womb did for the flesh of Christ, your hearts may do for Christ's law. How, I mean to say, can you have no part in Mary's childbearing, when you are members of Christ? Mary gave birth to your head, the Church to all of you, because she too is both mother and virgin; mother in her womb of charity, virgin in the integrity of her faith and piety. She gives birth to whole peoples,8 but they are members of one person, whose body and wife she is. In this respect too she resembles that virgin mother, because in all that multitude she is the mother of unity.
Christ bent down to pick us up
3. And so let us all together, one in mind and heart, with chaste thoughts and holy affections, celebrate the birthday of the Lord, the day on which, as I said at the beginning of this sermon, Truth sprang up from the earth. Already, you see, what comes next in the psalm has happened. Because the one who sprang from the earth, who was bom, that is, from the flesh, seeing that he came from heaven and is above all,9 has undoubtedly, after ascending to the Father, as justice looked forth from heaven (Ps 85:11). This is the justice, indeed, which he commends to us in his own words, when he promises the Holy Spirit: He will convince the world, he says, of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. Of sin, because they have not believed in me; of justice, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me (Jn 16:8-10). That's the justice which has looked forth from heaven. From the height of heaven, you see, is his going forth, and his return is as far as the height of heaven (Ps 19:6).
In case, though, anyone should think lightly of truth because it sprang from the earth,10 when like a bridegroom he came forth from his chamber (Ps 19:5), that is from the virgin's womb, where the Word of God was mated to the human creature in an inexpressible kind of marriage; so in case anyone should think