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Objection 1: It would seem that Christ was not born without His
Mother suffering. For just as man's death was a result of the sin of
our first parents, according to Gn. 2:17: "In what day soever
ye shall eat, ye shall die"; so were the pains of childbirth,
according to Gn. 3:16: "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth
children." But Christ was willing to undergo death. Therefore for
the same reason it seems that His birth should have been with pain.
Objection 2: Further, the end is proportionate to the beginning.
But Christ ended His life in pain, according to Is. 53:4:
"Surely . . . He hath carried our sorrows." Therefore it seems
that His nativity was not without the pains of childbirth.
Objection 3: Further, in the book on the birth of our Saviour
[Protevangelium Jacobi xix, xx] it is related that midwives were
present at Christ's birth; and they would be wanted by reason of the
mother's suffering pain. Therefore it seems that the Blessed Virgin
suffered pain in giving birth to her Child.
On the contrary, Augustine says (Serm. de Nativ.), addressing
himself to the Virgin-Mother: "In conceiving thou wast all pure,
in giving birth thou wast without pain."
I answer that, The pains of childbirth are caused by the infant
opening the passage from the womb. Now it has been said above
(Question 28, Article 2, Replies to objections), that Christ
came forth from the closed womb of His Mother, and, consequently,
without opening the passage. Consequently there was no pain in that
birth, as neither was there any corruption; on the contrary, there
was much joy therein for that God-Man "was born into the world,"
according to Is. 35:1,2: "Like the lily, it shall bud forth
and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise."
Reply to Objection 1: The pains of childbirth in the woman follow
from the mingling of the sexes. Wherefore (Gn. 3:16) after the
words, "in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children," the following
are added: "and thou shalt be under thy husband's power." But, as
Augustine says (Serm. de Assumpt. B. Virg.), from this
sentence we must exclude the Virgin-Mother of God; who, "because
she conceived Christ without the defilement of sin, and without the
stain of sexual mingling, therefore did she bring Him forth without
pain, without violation of her virginal integrity, without detriment
to the purity of her maidenhood." Christ, indeed, suffered death,
but through His own spontaneous desire, in order to atone for us, not
as a necessary result of that sentence, for He was not a debtor unto
death.
Reply to Objection 2: As "by His death" Christ "destroyed our
death" [Preface of the Mass in Paschal-time], so by His pains
He freed us from our pains; and so He wished to die a painful death.
But the mother's pains in childbirth did not concern Christ, who
came to atone for our sins. And therefore there was no need for His
Mother to suffer in giving birth.
Reply to Objection 3: We are told (Lk. 2:7) that the
Blessed Virgin herself "wrapped up in swaddling clothes" the Child
whom she had brought forth, "and laid Him in a manger."
Consequently the narrative of this book, which is apocryphal, is
untrue. Wherefore Jerome says (Adv. Helvid. iv): "No midwife
was there, no officious women interfered. She was both mother and
midwife. 'With swaddling clothes,' says he, 'she wrapped up the
child, and laid Him in a manger.'" These words prove the falseness
of the apocryphal ravings.
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