Sons And Wealth

Vidimus certe divitias salutis et vitae; vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi Unigeniti a Patre. Quaeris, a quo Patre? Et Filius Altissimi vocabitur. Manifestum est quis Altissimus sit. Sed ne quis remaneat locus dissimulationis, Quod ex te nascitur Sanctum ait angelus Gabriel ad Mariam, vocabitur Filius Dei vere sanctum! Non dabis, Domine, Sanctum tuum videre corruptionem, quod nec Matri quidem abstulit incorruptionem. Crescunt miracula, multiplicantur divitiae, thesaurus aperitur. Quae generat, et mater et virgo est; qui generatur, et Deus et homo est. Sed nunquid dabitur sanctum canibus, aut margaritae porcis? Abscondatur certe thesaurus noster in agro, et pecunia nostra in sacculo reponatur. Operiatur conceptus sine semine Matris desponsatione, partus sine dolore, vagitibus parvuli, et moerore. Abscondatur et parturientis incorruptio legali purificatione; infantis innocentia solita circumcisione. Absconde, inquam, absconde, Maria, novi solis fulgorem; pone in praesepio, involve pannis infantem: nam et ipsi panni divitiae nostrae sunt. Pretiosiores siquidem panni Salvatoris omni purpura, et gloriosius hoc praesepe auratis regum soliis; ditior denique Christi paupertas cunctis opibus, cunctisque thesauris. Quid enim humilitate ditius, quid pretiosus invenitur, qua nimirum regnum coelorum emitur, et divina gratia acquiritur? sicut scriptum est: Beati pauperes spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est regnum coelorum; et apud apostolum: Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam. Habes commendatam a Deo humilitatem in nativitate. In hac enim exinanivit semetipsum, formam servi accipiens, et habitu inventus ut homo. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermo IV. De medicina laevae, et deliciis dexterae Excelsi, Sermones de Tempore Source: Migne PL 183.102c-103a

Certainly we have seen the riches of salvation and life, we have seen His glory, the glory as the Only Begotten of the Father. 1 Do you ask: from what Father? 'And he shall be called the son of the Most High.' 2 Manifest it is who is the Most High. But lest there remain some space for confusion, 'That which is born from you is holy,' said the angel Gabriel to Mary, 'He shall be called the Son Of God.' 3 O truly holy. 'You shall not give your holy one to see corruption, O Lord' 4 nor shall you take away any incorruption from the mother. The wonder increases, wealth is multiplied, the treasury is opened. She who begets is mother and virgin, He who is begotten is God and man. But shall that which is holy be given to dogs, or pearls to swine? 5 Certainly the treasure is hidden in the field and our wealth is placed in a sack. A conception without seed was worked in the mother, a birth without grief, without cries of child and sorrow. The incorruption of the birth was hidden by legal purification, the innocence of the infant by accustomed circumcision. Hide, I say, hide, Mary, the light of a new son. Place him in the manger, wrap him in swaddling clothes, for even those swaddling clothes are our wealth. More precious are the swaddling clothes of the Saviour than every purple, and more glorious the manger than the golden thrones of kings, and finally more rich is the poverty of Christ than every wealth and every treasure. For what is more rich than humility, what more precious can be found, what else can buy the kingdom of heaven and acquire Divine grace? So it is written: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven,' 6 And in the Apostle: 'God resists the proud, He gives grace to the humble.' 7 You have humility commended by God in the nativity. In which he emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, and He was found in the form of a man. 8 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons Concerning Various Things, from Sermon 4, On the medicine of the left hand, and the delights of the right hand of the Most High 1 Jn 1.14 2 Lk 1.32 3 Lk 1.35 4 Ps 15.10 5 Mt 7.6 6 Mt 5.3 7 James 4.6