Sermon 4A

SERMO 4/A

FROM THE SERMON ON THE THREE RODS
[FRAGMENT]

Why did the Lord first choose the lowly, the few, the unskilled, and the unrefined, when he had before his eyes a large crowd, fewer in comparison to those poorer ones, but in their kind many wealthy, noble, learned, and wise, whom he also later gathered? The Apostle explains the mystery: "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; and God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God chose the lowly things of this world and the things that are not, that is, things not counted, to nullify the things that are." For He came to teach humility and to conquer pride. A humble God had come: in no way would He first seek the high, who came so humbly. First, because He chose to be born of that woman who was betrothed to a carpenter. Therefore, He did not choose grand birth, lest nobility on earth boast. He did not even choose to be born in a very large city, but He was born in Bethlehem of Judah, which is not even called a city. To this day, the inhabitants of that place call it a village: so small, so insignificant, almost nothing, unless it were ennobled by the birth of the Lord Christ. Therefore, He chose the weak, the poor, the unlearned: not because He forsook the strong, the rich, the wise, the noble; but if He had chosen them first, they would seem to be chosen on account of their riches, their substances, their birth, and being puffed up by these things, they would not receive the salvation of humility, without which no one can return to that life wherefrom we have fallen through pride.

Therefore, he did not say "mother," because sometimes mothers are either too delicate or hand over their children to others for nurturing once they have given birth. Again, if he had only said: Like a nurse cherishing, and not added: her own children, it would seem as if they were received from another for nurturing. And he called himself "nurse" because he was nourishing; and his own children, because he himself had begotten them, saying: My children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. But he begets, just as the Church begets, with its own womb, not with its own seed.