On the Virgin Birth
Augustine of Hippo
About the Text: St. Augustine (354–430) preached regularly throughout his over thirty years as a bishop in Hippo. Unfortunately, we have only about a fifth of what would amount to nearly two thousand sermons over his tenure as a preacher. This sermon, preached on the occasion of Christmas, reflects on the birth of Christ from a virgin—before, during, and after the birth of Jesus—and thereby the consecration of virginity as a state of life higher than marriage.
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The Word of the Father, by whom times were made, was made flesh, made His birthday for us in time: and He willed to have one day in human birth, without whose divine will no day passes. He Himself precedes all the spaces of the ages with the Father: He Himself poured Himself out of His mother on this day into the courses of years. The maker of man was made man: that, ruling the stars, He might suck at the breast; that the bread might hunger, that the fountain might thirst, the light might sleep, the way might be weary from the journey, truth might be accused by false witnesses, the judge of the living and the dead might be judged by a mortal judge, justice might be condemned by the unjust, discipline might be scourged with scourges, a cluster of grapes might be crowned with thorns, the foundation might be hung on a tree, virtue might be weakened, salvation might be wounded, life might die.
To bear these and similar unworthy things for us, that He might free the unworthy; when neither did He, who suffered so many evils for our sake, deserve any evil, nor did we, who through Him received so many good things, deserve any good. For these reasons, then, He who was before all ages without beginning of days, the Son of God, deigned to become the Son of Man in the last days; and He who was born of the Father, not made by the Father, was made in the mother whom He had made; that from her He might be born here at some time, who could never and nowhere have been except through Him.
Thus was fulfilled what the Psalm had foretold: “Truth arose from the earth” (Ps 84:12). Mary was a virgin before conception, a virgin after birth. For far be it that integrity should perish in that earth, that is, in that flesh from which truth arose. For after his resurrection, when he was thought to be a spirit, not a body: “Handle,” he says, “and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me to have” (Lk 24:38). And yet the solidity of that youthful body let itself in to the disciples through unopened doors.
Why then, could He who entered as a great man through closed doors, not also go out as a little man through incorruptible members? But unbelievers want to believe neither this nor that. Therefore rather faith believes both; because unbelief does not believe both. Indeed, it is unbelief itself, to which there seems to be no divinity in Christ. Moreover, if faith believes that God was born in the flesh, it does not doubt that both are possible in God; so that both the body of an adult, with the door of the house locked, might be presented to those placed within, and the infant bridegroom might proceed from his chamber, that is, from the virginal womb, unharmed by the mother’s virginity.
For there the only-begotten Son of God deigned to unite human nature to Himself, that He might associate the immaculate Church with His immaculate Head: whom the Apostle Paul calls a virgin, not considering in her only virgins in body, but desiring the uncorrupted minds of all. “For I have espoused you,” says he, “to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2). The Church, therefore, imitating the mother of her Lord, since she could not in body, is nevertheless both mother and virgin in mind.
Therefore, Christ in no way took away the virginity of His mother by being born, who made His Church a virgin by redeeming her from the fornication of demons. From her uncorrupted virginity were you holy virgins begotten, who, despising earthly marriage, have chosen to be virgins also in the flesh, and rejoice and solemnly celebrate this day the birth from a Virgin. For He was born of a woman, who was not conceived in a woman by a male. He who brought you what you should love, did not take away from the mother what you love. He who heals in you what you have drawn from Eve, may He not corrupt what you have loved in Mary.
Therefore, she whose footsteps you follow, both did not remain with a man that she might conceive and, when she gave birth, she remained a virgin. Imitate her as much as you can; not in fruitfulness, because you cannot do this, but in virginity. She alone could do both, of whom you wished to have one; because you lose this if you wish to have both. She alone could do both, who gave birth to the Almighty, through whom she could. For only the only Son of God, in this unique way, was to become the Son of Man. And yet Christ is not for you nothing because he is the fruit of one virgin. For you, the very Son whom you could not bear in the flesh, has been found in your heart a Spouse: and such a Spouse, whom your happiness holds as a Redeemer, that your virginity does not fear a destroyer.
For He who did not take away the virginity of the mother by bodily birth, much more preserves it in you by spiritual embrace. Nor do you therefore consider yourselves barren because you remain virgins. For even the pious integrity of the flesh itself pertains to the fruitfulness of the mind. Do as the Apostle says: “since you do not care about the things of the world, how to please your husbands; care about the things of God, how to please him in all things” (1 Cor 7:34); that you may have a mind fruitful not of the womb but of virtues.
Finally, I address all, I say to all; I appeal to every chaste virgin, whom the Apostle espoused to Christ, with this word. What you marvel at in the flesh of Mary, do in the recesses of the soul. He who believes with his heart unto righteousness, conceives Christ: he who confesses with his mouth unto salvation, gives birth to Christ. So in your minds also may fertility abound, and virginity endure.