Homily 8 — Matthew 2, verses 11 to 15

“And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother.” [a]

How, then, does Luke say that he was lying in the manger? Because at the birth itself she laid him there at once. It is quite likely that, with such a large crowd gathered for the registration, they could find no house, and Luke points to this too when he says that she laid him there “because there was no room.” But afterward she took him up and held him on her knees. For no sooner had she arrived at Bethlehem than her labor came to its end — so that from this too you may learn the whole plan of salvation, and see that these things were not done at random or by chance, but were all being carried out according to a divine foreknowledge and a prophetic order.

But what was it that moved them to worship? The Virgin was not conspicuous, the house was not distinguished, and nothing else they saw was of a kind to amaze them or draw them. Yet they not only worship; they also “open their treasures” and “offer gifts” — and gifts not as to a man but as to God, for the frankincense and the myrrh were a sign of this. What, then, moved them? The same thing that stirred them to set out from home and come so long a journey: both the star and the light that God kindled in their minds, guiding them little by little to a more complete knowledge. Surely, if it had not been so, they would not have shown such great honor, when everything in sight was ordinary.

That is why nothing in the outward circumstances there was great. It was a manger, and a shed, and a mother in poor circumstances — to set before your eyes, stripped and bare, the love of wisdom of those wise men, and to prove to you that they came to him not as to a mere man but as to God and Benefactor. So they were not put off by anything they saw outwardly; they even worshiped him and brought gifts. And these gifts were not only free of Jewish crudeness, since they did not sacrifice sheep and calves; they also came close to the self-offering of the Church, for what they offered him was knowledge, obedience, and love.

“And being warned by God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country by another way.”

See from this too their faith: how they were not put off, but are teachable and thoughtful. They are not troubled, and they do not argue with themselves, saying: “And yet, if this child is great and has any power, what need is there of flight, and of slipping away in secret? Why is it that when we came openly and boldly, and stood up to so great a people and to a king’s madness, the angel sends us out of the city like runaways and fugitives?” But they neither said nor thought any of these things. For this above all belongs to faith: not to ask for the reasons behind what is commanded, but simply to obey the commands laid on us.

“And when they had departed, behold, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Get up, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt.’” [c]

There is something here worth looking into, both about the magi and about the child. For if even they were not troubled, but received everything in faith, it is worth our while to examine why they and the young child are not kept safe by staying where they were, but they go off to Persia as fugitives, and he with his mother to Egypt. What, then? Should he have fallen into Herod’s hands, and, having fallen into them, not been killed? No — then he would not have been thought to have taken flesh at all; the greatness of the plan of salvation would not have been believed.

For if, while these things are happening and much is being arranged in a hidden way, after the manner of human beings, some have dared to say that his taking on our flesh is a fable — into what depths of ungodliness would they not have been wrecked, if he had done everything in a way befitting his Godhead and according to his own power?

As for the wise men, he sends them off quickly. At one stroke he commissions them as teachers to the land of the Persians, and cuts short the king’s madness, so that Herod might learn that he was attempting the impossible, might quench his anger, and might give up this useless effort. For it is worthy of his power not only to overcome his enemies openly but also to deceive them with ease. So, for example, he deceived the Egyptians too, in the case of the Jews. He had the power to transfer their wealth openly into the hands of the Hebrews, but he told them to do it secretly and by craft; and this, no less than the other miracles, made him an object of terror to his enemies.

At any rate, the people of Ashkelon and all the rest, when they had taken the ark and been struck down, and afterward were advising their countrymen not to fight or set themselves against him, brought this forward along with the other miracles, saying, “Why do you harden your hearts, as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When he had mocked them, did he not afterward send his people out, and they departed?” They said this because they counted this latest sign no less than the signs done openly as a proof of his power and his greatness.

And the same thing happened on this occasion too — something enough to astonish the tyrant. Think what Herod was likely to feel, and how his very breath must have been stopped, deceived as he was by the wise men and laughed to scorn in this way. And what if he did not become better? That is not the fault of the one who arranged all this so wonderfully. It is the excess of Herod’s madness: he did not yield even to what had the power to persuade him and turn him back from his wickedness, but went on still further, to receive an even sharper punishment for such great folly.

But someone may ask: “Why is the young child sent into Egypt?” In the first place, the evangelist himself has given the reason, saying, “That it might be fulfilled: ‘Out of Egypt I have called my Son.’” At the same time, from then on the beginnings of bright hopes were being announced to the world in advance. Babylon and Egypt, more than any other places on earth, were burned up with the flame of ungodliness. So he showed from the first that he meant to correct and restore them both, and by this led people to expect his generous gifts for the whole world as well: to the one he sent the wise men, and the other he visited himself, with his mother. [g]

Besides what I have said, there is another lesson we are taught here, one that contributes not a little to true self-control in us. What is it? To expect trials and plots from the very beginning. See how this was so at once, right from his swaddling clothes. At his birth you see first a tyrant raging, then flight following, and a departure beyond the border; and his mother, guilty of no crime, is exiled to the land of the barbarians. This is so that when you hear these things — supposing you are counted worthy to serve in some spiritual work, and then see yourself suffering incurable troubles and enduring countless dangers — you will not be greatly troubled, or say: “What can this be? Surely I ought to be crowned and celebrated, and be glorious and famous, for carrying out the Lord’s command.” No, having this example, you will bear everything nobly, knowing that this above all is the rule for all spiritual things: to have trials everywhere as their companions.

See, at least, how this is so not only with the mother of the young child but also with those barbarians. They, for their part, slip away secretly like fugitives; and she, who had never stepped over the threshold of her house, is commanded to undertake so long and painful a journey, because of this wonderful birth and her spiritual labor.

And here again is a wonder: Palestine plots against him, and Egypt receives and protects the one who is plotted against. For, as it appears, types took place not only in the case of the patriarch’s sons but in our Lord’s own case too. In many instances, we can be sure, what he did at that time foretold what was to happen afterward — as, for example, in the matter of the donkey and the colt.

Now the angel, when he appears, speaks not with Mary but with Joseph. And what does he say? “Get up, take the young child and his mother.” Here he no longer says “your wife,” but “his mother.” For once the birth had taken place, and the suspicion had been removed, and the husband had been set at rest, from then on the angel speaks openly, calling neither the child nor the wife his: “Take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt.” And he gives the reason for the flight: “For Herod,” he says, “will seek the young child’s life.” [i]

When Joseph heard these things, he was not offended, nor did he say: “This is hard to understand. Did you not say just now that he would ‘save his people’? And now he does not even save himself. We must flee, and go far from home, and be away a long time. The facts contradict the promise.” No, he says none of these things, for the man was faithful. Nor is he curious about the time of his return, even though the angel had left it open in this way: “Stay there until I tell you.” Yet even this did not make him shudder. He submits and obeys, and bears all his trials with joy.

This is because God, in his love for humankind, mixed pleasant things in with these hardships. That is his way with all the saints: he makes neither their dangers nor their relief continual, but weaves the life of all the righteous out of both. He did this very thing here too. Consider: Joseph saw the Virgin pregnant. This threw him into turmoil and the utmost distress, for he suspected the young woman of adultery. But at once the angel was there to remove his suspicion and take away his fears; and when he saw the child born, he reaped the greatest joy. Again, no small danger follows this joy: the city is troubled, and the king in his madness is looking for the one who was born. But this trouble was followed in turn by another joy: the star, and the worship of the wise men. Again, after this pleasure, fear and danger: “For Herod,” he says, “is seeking the young child’s life,” and he had to flee and withdraw like any mortal, since the time for working miracles had not yet come.

For if he had shown wonders from his earliest infancy, he would not have been counted a man. Because of this, I may add, the temple is not built all at once. Instead there is an ordinary conception, and nine months, and labor pains, and a delivery, and nursing, and silence for so long a time; and he waits for the age of full manhood — so that in every way the mystery of his plan of salvation might be accepted.

Someone may say: “Then why were even these signs worked at the beginning?” For his mother’s sake; for the sake of Joseph, and of Simeon, who was soon to depart; for the sake of the shepherds and of the wise men; for the sake of the Jews. For if they had been willing to pay careful attention to what was happening, they would have gained no small advantage from this event too, in view of what was to come.

And if the prophets do not mention what concerns the wise men, do not be troubled. They neither foretold everything nor were silent about everything. For just as seeing these things happen without any warning would naturally have caused great astonishment and alarm, so being told everything beforehand would have lulled the hearer to sleep, and would have left nothing for the evangelists to add.

And if the Jews should raise a question about the prophecy, and say that the words “Out of Egypt I have called my Son” were spoken about themselves, we would tell them: this is a law of prophecy, that in many cases much that is spoken of one set of people is fulfilled in another. Of this kind is what is said about Simeon and Levi: “I will divide them,” he says, “in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” And yet this did not happen to them themselves, but to their descendants. Again, Noah’s saying about Canaan came to pass in the Gibeonites, Canaan’s descendants. And one can see that what was said about Jacob came to pass in the same way. Those blessings that say, “Be lord over your brother, and let your father’s sons bow down to you,” were not fulfilled in Jacob himself — how could they be, when he was in fear and trembling, and bowed down to his brother over and over again? — but in his offspring they were. [k]

The very same may be said in this case too. For which may more truly be called the son of God: the one who worships a calf, and is joined to Baal of Peor, and sacrifices his sons to demons — or the one who is Son by nature and honors the one who begot him? So if this man had not come, the prophecy would not have received its proper fulfillment. It is worth noticing, too, that the evangelist hints at the same thing by the phrase “that it might be fulfilled,” implying that it would not have been fulfilled unless he had come.

And this makes the Virgin, too, glorious and distinguished in no ordinary degree: that the very thing that was the whole people’s special claim to praise, she also might from then on have as her own. I mean this: they were proud of their coming up out of Egypt and used to boast of it — which the prophet too was hinting at when he said, “Did I not bring up the foreigners from Cappadocia, and the Assyrians from the pit?” — and he makes this distinction belong to the Virgin as well.

Rather, both the people and the patriarch, by going down there and coming up again, were together completing the type of his own return. As they went down to escape death by famine, so he went down to escape death by conspiracy. But whereas they, on arriving, were freed from the famine only for the time being, he, when he had gone down, made the whole land holy by setting his foot on it.

At any rate, notice how, in the midst of his lowly circumstances, the signs of his Godhead come to light. First of all, the angel, in saying “Flee into Egypt,” did not promise to travel with them, either going down or coming back — hinting that they have a great fellow traveler in the child who had been born. He was the kind of child who changed everything the moment he appeared, and brought it about that his very enemies served this plan of salvation in many ways. So magi and barbarians leave behind the superstition of their fathers and come to worship. So Augustus serves the birth at Bethlehem by his decree for the registration. Egypt receives him and protects him when he has been driven from his home and plotted against, and gains a kind of first impulse toward being joined to him — so that later on, when she heard him preached by the apostles, she might at least have this to boast of, that she had received him first. And yet this privilege belonged to Palestine alone; but the second proved more fervent than the first.

And now, if you should come to the desert of Egypt, you will see that desert become better than any paradise: tens of thousands of choirs of angels in human form, nations of martyrs, companies of virgins, and all the devil’s tyranny put down, while Christ’s kingdom shines out in its brightness. And the mother of poets and wise men and magicians, the inventor of every kind of sorcery, who spread it among all the rest — you will see her now taking pride in the fishermen, and treating all those others with contempt, and carrying about everywhere the tax collector and the tentmaker, and protecting herself with the cross. And these good things are found not in the cities only, but in the deserts even more than in the cities. For in truth, everywhere in that land one may see the camp of Christ, and the royal flock, and the way of life of the powers above. [o]

And you will find these rules in force not among men only, but among women as well. Yes, women no less than men practice this love of wisdom — not by taking up a shield and mounting a horse, as the solemn lawgivers and philosophers of the Greeks direct, but by taking on another and far more severe fight. For the war against the devil and his powers is common to them and to the men, and the delicacy of their nature is no hindrance at all in such contests, since these struggles are decided not by the body’s build but by the mind’s choice. That is why in many cases women have actually been keener in the contest than men, and have set up more brilliant trophies. The sky is not so glorious with its varied choir of stars as the wilderness of Egypt, showing us on every side the tents of the monks.

Whoever knows that ancient Egypt — the Egypt that fought against God in frenzy, that was a slave to cats, that feared and dreaded onions — will know well the power of Christ. Or rather, we have no need of ancient histories, for even now there remain relics of that senseless race, as a sample of their former madness. Yet these people, who once all broke out into such great madness, now seek wisdom about heaven and the things above heaven. They laugh to scorn the customs of their fathers, acknowledge the wretchedness of their ancestors, and think nothing of the philosophers. They have learned from the facts themselves that everything of theirs was nothing but the inventions of foolish old women, and that the real philosophy, the one worthy of heaven, is this one, which was proclaimed to them by the fishermen.

And for this very reason, along with their great exactness in doctrine, they also show that intense seriousness in their lives. For when they have stripped themselves of everything they own and are crucified to the whole world, they press on further still, and use the labor of their bodies to feed those in need. Just because they fast and keep watch, they do not think it right to be idle during the day. They spend their nights in the holy hymns and in vigils, and their days in prayers and, at the same time, in working with their own hands, imitating the zeal of the apostle. “For if he,” they say, “when the whole world was looking to him, still kept a workshop and practiced a trade for the sake of feeding those in need, and when he was busy in this way did not even sleep at night — how much more is it right that we, who have made our home in the wilderness and have nothing to do with the turmoil of the cities, should use the leisure of our quiet for spiritual labors!”

So let all of us be ashamed, both rich and poor, when those who have nothing at all but a body and hands press on and strive eagerly to find from them a supply for the poor, while we, who have endless stores at home, do not touch even what we have to spare for these purposes. What plea will we have then, tell me? And what sort of excuse?

Consider further how these Egyptians were once greedy and gluttonous, along with their other vices. That is where the fleshpots were that the Jews remembered; there was the great tyranny of the belly.

Yet because they had a willing mind, they changed. Catching fire from Christ, they set sail at once on their voyage toward heaven. And though they were more fiery than the rest of mankind and more headstrong, both in anger and in bodily pleasures, they imitate the bodiless powers in gentleness and in all the rest of that freedom from passion that belongs to self-denial.

Now anyone who has been in that country knows what I mean. But if someone has never entered those tents, let him call to mind the one who is on everyone’s lips even now — the one whom Egypt brought forth after the apostles — the blessed and great Antony. And let him say to himself, “This man too was born in the same country as Pharaoh; yet he was not harmed by it. He was granted a divine vision, and he showed the kind of life that the laws of Christ require.” [s]

Anyone will know this perfectly when he has read the book that contains the story of that man’s life, in which he will also see much prophecy. I mean his prediction about those infected with the errors of Arius, and his statement of the harm that would come from them; for God had even then shown them to him and sketched out before his eyes all that was coming. This, above all the rest, serves to prove the truth: that no one belonging to the heresies outside has such a man to name. But do not depend on us for this information. Look carefully into what is written in that book, and you will learn everything exactly, and from it be trained in much self-denial.

And I give this advice: that we should not merely read what is written there, but also imitate it. For if we pay attention to ourselves, none of these things will be a hindrance to us. Abraham had an ungodly father, yet he did not inherit his wickedness; and Hezekiah had Ahaz, yet he became dear to God. Joseph too, in the middle of Egypt, adorned himself with the crowns of self-control; and the three young men no less, in the middle of Babylon and of the palace, when a table like those of Sybaris was set before them, showed the highest self-denial; and so did Moses in Egypt, and Paul in the whole world. Nothing was a hindrance to any of these in the race of virtue.

Let us, then, keep all these things in mind, put out of the way these useless pleas and excuses of ours, and apply ourselves to the labors that the cause of virtue demands. For in this way we will draw more favor from God to ourselves, and persuade him to help us in our struggles, and we will obtain the eternal blessings. May we all attain them, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and victory forever and ever. Amen.