The Troubles Of The Nativity

Audiens autem Herodes rex turbatus, est omnis Jerosolyma cum eo. Existimans illum regem fore terrenum, quasi de successore regni turbatus est. Semper enim grandis potestas majori timori subjecta est. Sicut ramum arborum in excelso positarum, etiam si lenis aura flaverit, movet: sic et sublimes homines in culmine dignitatum exsistentes etiam levis nuntii fama conturbat. Humiles autem, sicut in convalle, plerumque in tranquillitate consistunt. Aut ideo turbabatur, audiens regem natum Judaeos ex genere Judaeorum, cum esset ipse genere Idumaeus, ne, regno revoluto iterum ad Judaeos, et ipse a Judaeis expellerentur, et semen ejus post ipsum praecideretur a regno. Puto quod non tantum Herodes a semetipso turbantur, quantum diabolus in Herode. Herdoes enim timebat, quod suspicabatur: diabolus autem timebat, quod vere sciebat. Herodes hominem aestimabat, diabolus Deum cognoscebat. Audierat enim jam angelos aere clamantes Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Ideo quanto magis testes addebantur pro Christo, tanto magis destructionem potestatis sua diabolus timebat. Unusquisque ergo eorum zelo proprio turbabatur, et secundum suam naturam sui regni successorem timebat: Herodes terrenum, diabolus autem caelestem. Nam nec Herdoes terreretur, si caelestem regem nasci suspicatus fuisset, nec diabolus, si terrenem. Vis scire, quia non tantum ipse turbabatur, quantum diabolus in eo? Ecce et Judaicus populus turbabatur, qui magis de auditu isto gaudere debuerat, quia rex Judaeus surgere dicebatur, designatus a Deo. Sed turbabantur, quia de adventu justi non poterant iniqui guadere. Aut certe turbabantur timentes ne forte iratus Herodes Judaico regi, genus ejus vexaret. Nam quemadmodum, certantibus ventis, mare concutitur, sic regibus adversantibus sibi, populus regni vexantur. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia I Source: Migne PG 56.639

When king Herod heard he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 1 He was troubled because he judged Him to be a worldly king, a successor to his kingdom. Great power is always subject to great fear. As the branches of trees set on a height are moved even by a light breeze, so highly placed men in elevated places are troubled by the least word of rumour. The humble, as set in a valley, commonly remain at peace. Or perhaps he was thus troubled by hearing that a Jewish king from the Jews had been born, when he was of the people of Idumaea, lest the kingdom be returned again to the Jews and He be expelled from the Jews and his lineage be cast out of the kingdom. I think that Herod was not only troubled in himself but the devil in him was troubled just as much. Herod feared because he suspected, but the devil feared because He knew the truth. Herod judged Him to be a man, the devil knew Him to be God. For he had already heard the angels crying out 'Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will.' 2 So as more witnesses were added for Christ, so much more did the devil fear for the ruin of his power. Each of them then was troubled according to his jealousy and each according to his nature feared a successor to his kingdom. Herod feared a terrestrial king, the devil feared a heavenly one. For Herod would not have feared if a heavenly king had been born, nor the devil if it were a terrestrial one. You wish to know how it was that not only was he troubled so much and the devil in him? Behold, even the Jewish people were troubled, who by the hearing of this should have rather rejoiced, because it was said that the king of the Jews had risen, marked out by God. But they were troubled, because those who are iniquitous cannot rejoice at the coming of a righteous man. Or certainly they were troubled because they feared that with Herod angered because of a Jewish king he would become a trouble to his people. For as contending winds stir up the sea, so do opposed kings cause trouble to the people of the kingdom. Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 1 1 Mt 2.3 2 Lk 2.14