Birth And Witnesses

Proxima dominica dilectionem vestram admonuimus, fratres, de diei hujus adventu, in qua diximus nos natalem Domini hodie etiam mundo teste suscipere. Mundus enim testimonium perhibet, dum nascente Christo, et ipse renascitur. Renascitur enim, cum de profundis noctium tenebris partu quodam lucis eruitur. Renascitur, inquam, cum ejus defectio finitur, claritas reparatur. Atque ideo in ortu Christi oportet magis ortum saeculi nos vocare. In hac enim die ad salvanda omnia oritur. Oritur enim die hac lux mundo, defunctis resurrectio, vita mortalibus ac propterea hodie non tam Salvatoris natalis est quam salutis. Nascitur ergo salus omnium Christus, quem regem gentium prophetae testantur: nascitur ex virgine, sicut Isaias declarat dicens: Ecce virgo in utero accipiet, et pariet filium, et vocabunt nomen ejus Emmanuel, quod est interpretatum nobiscum Deus. Probat ergo veritatem Domini ordo nascendi. Concepit virgo virilis ignara consortii: impletur uterus nullo libatus amplexu, et Spiritum sanctum castus venter excepit, quem pura membra servarunt, innocens corpus gessit. Videte miraculum matris dominicae. Virgo est, cum concipit, virgo cum parturit, virgo post partum. Gloriosa virginitas, et praeclara fecunditas! Virtus mundi nascitur, et nullus est gemitus parturientis; vacuatur uterus, infans excipitur, nec virginitas violatur. Dignum enim erat ut Deo nascente meritum cresceret castitatis: nec per ejus adventum violaretur integritas, qui venerat sanare corrupta: nec per eum pudicitia corporis laederetur, per quem donatur virginitas baptismatis impudicis. Natus igitur puer ponitur in praesepio, et haec sunt Dei prima cunabula: nec regnator coeli has indignatur angustias, cui habitaculum fuit virgineus venter. Idoneum plane Maria Christo habitaculum, non pro habitu corporis, sed pro gratia originali. Ergo exonerata felici onere Maria matrem se laeta cognoscit; quae se nescit uxorem; et est gloriosa de sobole, quae est ignara de conjuge; atque infantem se genuisse miratur, cum Spiritum sanctum se suscepisse testatur; nec, quia peperit innupta, terretur, quia testimonio utitur virginitatis et sobolis. Soboles enim dominicum Patrem indicat; virginitas stupentium suspicionem excusat. Inde virginitati divinitas testimonium perhibet; hinc naturae secretum. Testimonium, inquam, perhibet divinitas partui virginali. Ut concipiatur enim Christus secundum praenuntiationem Evangelii Spiritus sancti repletur gratia; virtute Dei Patris obumbratur, sicut ad Mariam dictum est: Spiritus sanctus superveniet in te, et virtus Altissimi obumbrabit tibi, et ideo quod nascetur ex te sanctum, vocabitur Filius Dei. In nativitate ergo Salvatoris completa est illa divina sententia, quae dicit: Duobus aut tribus testibus stabit omne verbum. Sanctus Maximus Taurinensis, Homilia V, Ante Natale Domini Source: Migne PL 57.235b-238a

We exhorted your love for the Lord's day that is near, which is His advent, concerning which we have said that even the world is a witness of the birthday of the Lord. For the world has its witness, since when Christ was born it was reborn. For it is reborn when from the deep darkness of its nights a light shone forth on account of a certain birth. It is reborn, I say, when its defect comes to an end and brightness is restored. Therefore, with this rising of Christ, we should also declare the rising of the world. For on this day everything rose up for salvation. On this day there is light for the world, resurrection for the dead, life for mortals, and so today is not only the birth of the Saviour but of salvation. Therefore Christ, the salvation of everyone, is born, whom a prophet gives witness to as the king of the nations, born from a virgin, for so Isaiah declares, saying, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and give birth to a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,' which translated is, God is with us. 1 The arrangement of the birth proves the truth of the Lord. A virgin who did not know a consort conceived, without amorous embraces her womb was filled, that chaste womb received the Holy Spirit, which pure members guarded, and an innocent body bore. See the wonder of the mother of the Lord. A virgin when she conceived, a virgin when she gave birth, a virgin after birth. Glorious virginity, wondrous fecundity. The world's virtue is born and she who gives birth does not groan. The womb is emptied, the infant comes out, and virginity is not harmed. For it was right that with God being born the merit of chastity should grow, and the coming of the one who came to heal corruption should do no harm to integrity. Through Him there was no injury to the modesty of the body, Him through whom virginity is given to the soiled by baptism. Thus the boy who is born is placed in a manger, and this is the first cradle of God, nor is this narrowness unworthy of the ruler of heaven, who had the womb of the virgin for a little house. It was fitting indeed that Mary was the dwelling place of Christ, and not for the covering of the body, but because of original grace. Therefore Mary was adorned with a happy burden and joyfully knew herself a mother, she who did not know herself a wife, she who is glorious through her offspring, she who knew not conjugal union, and wondered at the infant she had carried, when she bore witness to the Holy Sprit she had received, and because of the witness given by virginity and children she was not aggrieved when she gave birth unmarried. For the offspring declared a lordly father and dismissed the suspicion of senselessness. Hence Divinity gives witness to virginity , a secret of nature. Divinity, I say, gives witness to the virgin birth. For as Christ was conceived according to the foretelling of the Gospel, by the Holy Spirit filling with grace and with the shadowing power of God the Father, so it was said to Mary, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most High will shadow you, and therefore what will be born from you is holy, and shall be called the Son of God.' 2 Therefore with the Divine nativity the Saviour completes the Divine sentence that says, 'With two or three witnesses confirm every word.' 3 Saint Maximus of Turin, Homily 5, Before the Nativity of the Lord 1 Isaiah 7.14 2 Lk 1.35 3 Mt 18.16, Deut 19.15