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AND so you say, O heretic, whoever you may be, who deny that God was
born of the Virgin, that Mary the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ ought not
to be called Theotocos, i.e., Mother of God, but Christotocos, i.e., only
the Mother of Christ, not of God. For no one, you say, brings forth what
is anterior in time. And of this utterly foolish argument whereby you think
that the birth of God can be understood by carnal minds, and fancy that the
mystery of His Majesty can be accounted for by human reasoning, we will, if
God permits, say something later on. In the meanwhile we will now prove
by Divine testimonies that Christ is God, and that Mary is the Mother of
God. Hear then how the angel of God speaks to the Shepherds of the birth of
God. "There is born," he says, "to you this day in the city of David a
Saviour who is Christ the Lord." In order that you may not take Christ
for a mere man, he adds the name of Lord and Saviour, on purpose that you
may have no doubt that He whom you acknowledge as Saviour is God, and that
(as the office of saving belongs only to Divine power) you may not question
that He is of Divine power, in whom you have learnt that the power to save
resides. But perhaps this is not enough to convince your unbelief, as the
angel of the Lord termed Him Lord and Saviour rather than God or the Son of
God, as you certainly most wickedly deny Him to be God, whom you
acknowledge to be Saviour. Hear then what the archangel Gabriel announces
to the Virgin Mary. "The Holy Ghost," he says, "shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Do
you see how, when he is going to point out the nativity of God, he first
speaks of a work of Divinity. For "the Holy Ghost," he says, "shall come
upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." Admirably
did the angel speak, and explain the majesty of the Divine work by the
Divine character of his words. For the Holy Ghost sanctified the Virgin's
womb, and breathed into it by the power of His Divinity, and thus imparted
and communicated Himself to human nature; and made His own what was before
foreign to Him, taking it to Himself by His own power and majesty. And
lest the weakness of human nature should not be able to bear the entrance
of Divinity the power of the Most High strengthened the ever to be honoured
Virgin, so that it supported her bodily weakness by embracing it with
overshadowing protection, and human weakness was not insufficient for the
consummation of the ineffable mystery of the holy conception, since it was
supported by the Divine overshadowing. "Therefore," he says, "the Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow
thee." If only a mere man was to be born of a pure virgin why should there
be such careful mention of the Divine Advent? Why such intervention of
Divinity itself? Certainly if only a man was to be born from man, and flesh
from flesh, a command alone might have done it, or the Divine will. For if
the will of God alone, and His command sufficed to fashion the heavens,
form the earth, create the sea, thrones, and seats, and angels, and
archangels, and principalities, and powers, and in a word to create all the
armies of heaven, and those countless thousands of thousands of the Divine
hosts ("For He spake and they were made, He commanded and they were
created"), why was it that that was insufficient for the creation of
(according to you) a single man, which was sufficient for the production of
all things divine, and that the power and majesty of God did not entrust
that with the birth of a single infant, which had availed to fashion all
things earthly and heavenly? But certainly the reason why all those works
were performed by the command of God, but the nativity was only
accomplished by His coming was because God could not be conceived by man
unless He allowed it, nor be born unless He Himself entered in; and
therefore the archangel pointed out that the sacred majesty would come upon
the Virgin, I mean that as so great an event could not be brought about by
human appointment, he announced that there would be present at the
conception the glory of Him who was to be born. And so the Word, the
Son, descended: the majesty of the Holy Ghost was present: the power of the
Father was overshadowing; that in the mystery of the holy conception the
whole Trinity might cooperate. "Therefore," he says, "also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Admirably does
he add "Therefore," in order to show that this would therefore follow
because that had gone before; and that because God had come upon her at the
conception therefore God would be present at the birth. And when the maiden
understood not, he gave a reason for this great thing, saying: "Because the
Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and because the power of the Most High
shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born
shall be called the Son of God;" that is to say: That thou mayest not be
ignorant of the provision for so great a work, and the mystery of this
great secret, the majesty of God shall therefore come upon thee completely;
because the Son of God shall be born of thee. What further doubt can there
be about this? or what is there further to be said? He said that God would
come upon her; that the Son of God would be born. Ask now, if you like, how
the Son of God can help being God, or how she who brought forth God can
fail to be Theotocos, i.e., the Mother of God? This alone ought to be
enough for you; aye this ought to be amply sufficient for you.
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