The Birth of Our Lord
I. Hitherto we have had the manifestations of the Divinity of the unborn Messias. Now He appears, and we have the manifestation of His Humanity. First, He is shown to be Son of David. From pagan Rome went forth an order, and “the whole world” was put in motion for the general census. The Blessed Virgin was compelled to journey from the North to the South of Palestine to obey the heathen emperor. That command did not contemplate the birth of the Messias. The enrolment of the Holy Family seemed a most insignificant detail to the Roman rulers, yet now it stands forth as the one historical result of that census. This brought about the fulfilment of prophecy, by transferring the birth of Christ from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and proved Him to be the Son of David. Mary was summoned as heiress of David in the line of Nathan, Joseph as heir in the line of Solomon; and our Lord’s name was registered as inheriting His physical descent by Mary and His legal rights by Joseph, who was officially His father. How wonderfully does God turn the free actions of men to the fulfilment of His designs! How strangely do all things turn to the profit of the elect! Recognize the hand of God in all that happens to you. Observe further that the rights of Jesus are established under the cover of Mary’s name.
II. Secondly, Jesus is shown to be the Son of Man. “You shall find the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger” (Luke ii. 12). The second Adam does not appear before us as the first Adam does in history, a full-grown man, as if proceeding directly and entirely from the hand of the Creator. He does not appear, like another of His types, Melchisedech, as an isolated figure “without mother, without genealogy” (Heb. vii. 3). But He is a new-born Child in the arms of His Virgin-Mother. The swaddling clothes accentuate His weakness, and represent His mortality by their resemblance to the swathing-bands in which when dead He will be enwrapped. So He is shown to be subject to the infirmities of our race. The manger signifies a still lower depth. The misery of humanity is in some cases alleviated by wealth, and disguised by the pomp and dignity that some acquire. But Our Lord will have none of these. He will be superior to none, so that all may recognize Him as their brother. So He inherits all the lowliness and privations of humanity. Here again the Blessed Virgin invests Him with the emblems of His lowliness as well as with the proof of His royalty. Let the humiliation of Jesus move you to confidence in His love, and to contentment with those privations that He shares with you.
III. The Nativity also exhibits the Son of God as Son of Mary. The “Child” and the “Mother” are correlative terms; each suggests the other; they cannot be separated in our thoughts. The Blessed Virgin is no extraneous alien figure; she holds a necessary place in the mystery. Consider, also, that in the first ecstatic moments the Child belonged solely to His Mother. All led up to this. The forced departure from Nazareth, the exclusion from every house and caravanserai, the asylum in the stable, all carried out God’s design that none should witness the miraculous birth, and that Mary should be the one depositary of the divine secret. She alone welcomed the King when He entered His realm. Our Lord was content with this. The greeting which He received from the faith and love of one immaculate soul was more adequate to His infinite holiness and greatness than the material grandeur of a palace, the homage of courtiers, and the acclamations of an unintelligent multitude. The Virgin-Mother represented the whole human race at that moment. Her homage compensated for the absence of all other. Our Lord could not have been welcomed more magnificently by all mankind and all the hosts of heaven. Join your worship with that of the Holy Virgin; ask her to supply for your deficiencies.
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