Taking Up Man

Sunt autem stulti qui dicunt: Quare non poterat aliter Sapientia Dei homines liberare, nisi susciperet hominem, et nasceretur de femina, et a peccatoribus omnia illa pateretur? Quibus dicimus: Poterat omnino, sed si aliter faceret, similiter vestrae stultitiae displiceret. Si enim non appareret oculis peccatorum, lumen eius aeternum utique, quod per interiores oculos videtur, inquinatis mentibus videre non possent. Nunc autem quia visibiliter nos commonere dignatus est, ut ad invisibilia praepararet, displicet avaris, quia non aureum corpus habuit; displicet impudicis, quia de femina natus est (multum enim oderunt impudici, quod concipiunt et pariunt feminae); displicet superbis, quod contumelias patientissime pertulit; displicet delicatis, quia cruciatus est; displicet timidis, quia mortuus est. Et ut non vitia sua videantur defendere, non in homine dicunt sibi hoc displicere, sed in Filio Dei. Non enim intellegunt quid sit aeternitas Dei, quae hominem assumpsit; et quid ipsa humana creatura, quae mutationibus suis in pristinam firmitatem revocabatur, ut disceremus, docente ipso Domino, infirmitates quas peccando collegimus, recte faciendo posse sanari. Ostendebatur enim nobis ad quam fragilitatem homo sua culpa pervenerit, et ex qua fragilitate divino auxilio liberetur. Itaque Filius Dei hominem assumpsit, et in illo humana perpessus est. Haec medicina hominum tanta est, quanta non potest cogitari. Nam quae superbia sanari potest, si humilitate Filii Dei non sanatur? Quae avaritia sanari potest, si paupertate Filii Dei non sanatur? Quae iracundia sanari potest, si patientia Filii Dei non sanatur? Quae impietas sanari potest, quae caritate Filii Dei non sanatur? Postremo quae timiditas sanari potest, si resurrectione corporis Christi Domini non sanatur? Erigat spem suam genus humanum, et recognoscat naturam suam; videat quantum locum habeat in operibus Dei. Nolite vos ipsos contemnere, viri; Filius Dei virum suscepit. Nolite vos ipsas contemnere, feminae; Filius Dei natus ex femina est. Nolite tamen amare carnalia; quia in Filio Dei nec masculus nec femina sumus. Nolite amare temporalia; quia si bene amarentur, amaret ea homo quem suscepit Filius Dei. Nolite timere contumelias et cruces et mortem; quia si nocerent homini, non ea pateretur homo quem suscepit Filius Dei. Haec omnis hortatio, quae iam ubique praedicatur, ubique veneratur, quae omnem obedientem animam sanat, non esset in rebus humanis, si non essent facta illa omnia quae stultissimis displicent. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, De Agone Christiano, Cap XI Source: Migne PL: 40.297-298

There are some dull folk who say 'Why was the wisdom of God not able to liberate men in a different way, but that He must become a man and be born from a woman and suffer all those things from sinners?' To whom we say, 'Indeed He was able, but if He did otherwise, your dullness would again be displeased. For if He did not appear to the eyes of sinners, wicked minds would not be able to see His eternal light, which is seen by the inner eye. Now indeed because visibly He deigned to warn us that we be prepared for things unseen, He displeases the avaricious because He does not have a golden body, He displeases the lustful because he was born from a woman, for many of them hate this, I mean, that women actually conceive and bear children, and He displeases the proud because He suffered abuse patiently, and He displeases the delicate because He was crucified, and He displeases the cowardly, because He died. And that they seem not to make excuse for their own faults, they say that it is not as man that He displeases, but as the Son of God. For they do not understand the eternity of God, which took up man, and how He recalled this human creature from its mutability to its original stability, which we have learnt by the teaching of the Lord Himself, that the infirmities which we gather up by sinning are able to be healed by acting rightly. For it was shown to us to what weakness man comes by his own fault, from which weakness the Divine help liberates. Thus the Son of God took on man, and in that humanity suffered. And this medicine for men is so great that none greater can be thought. For what is able to heal pride if the patience of the Son of God does not heal it? What is able to heal impiety if it is not healed by the love of the Son of God? What timidity can be healed, if the resurrection of our Lord Christ does not heal it? He lifts up the hope of the human race, that it might examine its nature, that it might see what place it has in the works of God. Do not despise yourself, man, for God has taken up man. Do not despise yourself, woman, for the Son of God is born of a woman. Do not love carnal things, because in the Son of God there is neither male nor female. Do not love temporal things, because if it were good to love these things, the man whom the Son of God took up would have loved them. Do not fear abuse and torments and death, because if they were harmful to a man, the man whom the Son of God took up would not have suffered them. Which whole exhortation, that now everywhere is preached, everywhere revered, which heals every obedient soul, would not be among us, if these things were not done which displease the dullest. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On The Christian Struggle, Chapter 11