God the Son of God the Father, but not two gods. He, after all, and the Father
SERMON 215 161 the mind conceive, or the heart consider, or the tongue describe the one who made the promise?
What cannot be suitably spoken can be faithfully believed
3. We believe also in his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, true God from true God,5 God the Son of God the Father, but not two gods. He, after all, and the Father are one,6 and through Moses he instills the truth into the people, when he says, Hear, Israel, the commandments of life; the Lord your God is one God (Dt 6:4). But if you want to work out how the eternal Son was bom of the eternal Father without time, the prophet Isaiah reproves you, when he says, His birth who will explain? (Is 53:8). And so you can neither work out nor explain the birth of God from God; all you are permitted to do is believe it, so that you may be saved, as the apostle says: But it is necessary for the one who approaches God to believe that he is, and that he will be a rewarder of those who seek him (Heb 11:6).
But if you desire to know about his birth according to the flesh, which he was pleased to take to himself for our salvation, listen, and believe that he was born of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary. Although, this birth of his too, who will explain? Who, after all, can put a proper value on the fact that God was willing to be bom a human being for the sake of human beings, that a virgin conceived without male seed, that she gave birth without loss of virginity, and that after giving birth she retained her integrity? Our Lord Jesus Christ, you see, was pleased to enter the womb of a virgin, undefiled to lodge in the body of a woman, to make his mother fruitful without her losing her virginity, to be formed by himself and come out, opening7 the undamaged womb of her that bore him; all this in order to shed upon her from whom he was pleased to be bom both the honor of being a mother, and the holiness of being a virgin. Who can work this out, who can explain it? So this birth too, who will explain?
Whose mind, after all, would be sufficient to ponder, whose tongue to express, not only that in the beginning was the Word who had no beginning to his being bom, but also that the Word became flesh (Jn 1:1.14), choosing a virgin to make a mother for himself, making himself a mother whom he would also preserve as a virgin? The Son of God with no mother conceiving him, the Son of man with no man begetting him; bringing fruitfulness to a woman by his coming, not depriving her of her integrity by his being bom. What is this? Who can tell it? Who can keep quiet about it? And wonderful to relate, what we are not capable of expressing we are not permitted to pass over in silence. We proclaim out loud in words what we cannot comprehend in the silence of our thoughts. Indeed we are unable to express this stupendous gift of God, because we are too little to explain his greatness; and yet we are obliged to praise him, lest by keeping silent we should remain ungrateful. But thank God, that what cannot be suitably spoken can be faithfully believed.