For the Evangelist follows and says: While he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Why Jesus? For, he says, he shall save his people from their sins. Therefore it is understood that Jesus in the Hebrew language is interpreted in Latin as Savior, which we notice from the very explanation of the name. For as if it were asked, why Jesus? He immediately added, explaining the reason for the name: For he shall save his people from their sins. This we devoutly believe, this we most firmly hold, that Christ was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary.
The usefulness of heretics and of Judas the betrayer.
So what do they say? If I find, he says, falsehood, surely you do not believe everything. I have found it, let us see. I count the generations. For by their slanders they invite us to this point, and they bring us. If we live piously, if we believe in Christ, if we do not desire to fly from the nest before the time, they bring us to this point, that we may know the mysteries. Therefore let Your Holiness attend to the usefulness of heretics; and indeed the usefulness according to God, who uses even evil well. According to them, however, this is rendered, which they wanted; not what God does well through them. How much good did God make out of Judas? By the passion of the Lord the nations were saved. But in order that the Lord might suffer, Judas betrayed him. Therefore God both frees the nations by the suffering of the Son, and punishes Judas for his crime. For the sacraments which lie hidden there, no one would discuss, content with a simpler faith; and therefore no one would find out, because no one would discuss, unless the slanderers knock. For when heretics slander, the little ones are disturbed: when they are disturbed, they inquire: their inquiry is like a striking from the head on the mother's breast, so that they may suck as much as is enough for the little ones. They, disturbed, seek; but those who know and have learned, because they have searched, and God opened to them knocking, they open also to the disturbed ones. And thus it happens that they are useful for finding the truth, while slandering to lead into error. The truth would indeed be sought more negligently, if it did not have deceitful adversaries. For, it is necessary, he says, that there be heresies. And as if we sought the cause, he immediately added: That those who are approved may be made manifest among you.
The generations of fourteen three times, with Jeconiah counted twice, are found in Matthew.
What then do they say? Behold, Matthew counts the generations and says that from Abraham to David there are fourteen, and from David to the Babylonian captivity fourteen, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ fourteen. When you add up three times fourteen, you get forty-two. However, they count and find forty-one generations and raise an objection, and mockingly insult. What then does it mean when it is said in the Gospel that there are three sets of fourteen, yet all counted are found to be not forty-two, but forty-one? Without a doubt, it is a great mystery. And we rejoice, giving thanks to the Lord, because even through the occasion of the detractors, we discover something that delights us the more the more it was concealed. As we have previously stated, we present a spectacle of the mind. Therefore, from Abraham to David, there are fourteen. Then the count starts from Solomon: for David begot Solomon. The count starts from Solomon and reaches Jeconiah, during whose life the deportation to Babylon took place; and these are another fourteen generations, with Solomon counted at the beginning of the second interval, and also Jeconiah, to whom the number closes, fulfilling the fourteen. The third interval begins from Jeconiah himself.
Why Jechoniah is counted twice.
May Your Holiness attend to a mystical and sweet matter: I confess to you the taste of my heart; from this, I believe that when I express it and you taste it, you will proclaim the same thing. Therefore, pay attention. From Jeconiah, beginning the number of the third interval, up to the Lord Jesus Christ, there are fourteen: because Jeconiah is counted both as the final of the previous interval and as the initial of the subsequent interval. But someone might say: Why is Jeconiah counted twice? Nothing happened previously in the people of Israel that was not a mystery of future things. Jeconiah is indeed not unreasonably counted twice: for if there is an end between two fields, or a stone, or some wall of separation, and he who is on this side measures up to that wall, and he who is on the other side begins measuring again from the same place. But why was this not done in the first connection of the interval, where we count fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and another fourteen without repeating David, but we begin counting from Solomon? The reason must be given, which contains a great sacrament. May Your Holiness attend. Then the migration into Babylon happened, when Jeconiah the king was established in place of his deceased father. The kingdom was taken from him, and another was established in his place. But yet, migration to the Gentiles happened while Jeconiah was still alive. For no fault is attributed to Jeconiah for which he was deprived of the kingdom: but rather the sins of those who succeeded him are brought forward. Therefore, captivity follows, they go to Babylon. Not only the wicked go; but also the saints go along with them. In that captivity was the prophet Ezekiel, in that was Daniel; there, three boys were ennobled among the flames. They went according to the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah.
The transition of the Gospel to the nations is figured in the migration to Babylon.
Remember Jecoiachin, reproached without any fault, then ceased to reign, and made the transition to the Gentiles, when he was taken to Babylon: and consider the prefigured image of future things in the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Jews did not want our Lord Jesus Christ to reign over them, whom they found no fault in. He was rejected in Himself, and also rejected in His servants; and the transition was made to the Gentiles, as if into Babylon. For this is what Jeremiah also prophesied, commanding the Lord to go into Babylon. And whoever other prophets told the people not to go into Babylon, Jeremiah accused them as false prophets. Let those who read the Scriptures remember with us: those who do not read, believe us. Therefore Jeremiah, from the Lord's perspective, threatened those who did not want to go to Babylon: but to those who went, he promised peace there, and a certain happiness in renewing vineyards and planting gardens and the abundance of fruits. How therefore does the people of Israel now not go to Babylon in a figure, but in truth? From where were the Apostles? Were they not from the Jewish people? From where was Paul himself? For he also says, "I am an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin." Therefore many Jews believed in the Lord. From there the Apostles were chosen: from there were the more than five hundred brothers who were worthy to see the Lord after His resurrection: from there were the one hundred and twenty in the house, when the Holy Spirit came. But what does the Apostle say in the Acts of the Apostles when the Jews rejected the word of truth? "It was necessary that we should first speak the word of God to you; but since you reject it, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." Therefore the transition to Babylon was made according to the spiritual dispensation of the time of the Lord's Incarnation, which was prefigured at the time of Jeremiah. But what does Jeremiah say to those who migrate to Babylon about these Babylonians? "For in their peace," he says, "shall your peace be." Therefore, when Israel was migrating even through Christ and the Apostles to Babylon— that is, the Gospel came to the Gentiles—what does the Apostle say as if from the voice of Jeremiah at that time? "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." There were not yet Christian kings, and he prayed for them. Therefore, Israel praying in Babylon was heard. The voices of the Church were heard, Christians were made: and you see fulfilled what was said figuratively: "In their peace shall be your peace." For they received the peace of Christ, and ceased to persecute Christians; so that now the churches might be built in the security of peace, and the people planted in the agriculture of God, and all nations might bear fruit in faith, hope, and charity that is in Christ.
Christ is portrayed as a cornerstone between Jews and Gentiles in Jeconiah.
There was a migration to Babylon then under Jehoiachin, who was not allowed to reign over the people of the Jews, as a type of Christ, whom the Jews did not want to reign over themselves. Israel transitioned to the Gentiles, that is, the preachers of the Gospel passed to the peoples of the Gentiles. Why, then, do you marvel that Jehoiachin is counted twice? Indeed, if he bore the figure of Christ transitioning from the Jews to the Gentiles, consider what Christ is among the Jews and Gentiles. Is he not that cornerstone? Consider at the corner the end of one wall and the beginning of the other wall. Up to that stone you measure one wall, and from it the other. Therefore, the cornerstone is counted twice, which connects both walls. Therefore, Jehoiachin, bearing the figure of the Lord, as a type of the cornerstone, foreshadowed. And just as Jehoiachin was not permitted to reign over the Jews, but was exiled to Babylon, so Christ, the stone which the builders rejected, became the head of the corner, so that the Gospel might reach the Gentiles. Therefore, do not hesitate to count the head of the corner twice, and the written number comes to you; and so there are fourteen, and fourteen, and fourteen: and yet they are not forty-two generations, but forty-one. Because just as the order of stones, when it is directed in a straight line, all are counted individually; but when the order is twisted to form an angle, that stone where it twists must be counted twice; because it belongs to both the order that ends at it and the order that begins from it: thus the order of generations, as long as it remained in that people, did not form an angle at the interval of twice seven, that is, fourteen; but when the order was twisted, so as to be exiled to Babylon, it was as if an angle was made by Jehoiachin; so that it was necessary to count him twice as a type of that venerable cornerstone.
Why the genealogy of Christ is traced through Joseph.
Another one of their accusations is this: they say that the generations of Christ are counted through Joseph and not through Mary. Let Your Holiness observe this briefly. They say it ought not to be through Joseph. Why ought it not to be through Joseph? Wasn't Joseph the husband of Mary? They say, "No." Who says this? For the Scripture says by angelic authority that he was. "Do not be afraid," it says, "to take Mary as your wife. For what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." He is also commanded to give the child a name, although he was not born from his own seed. "She will bear a son," it says, "and you shall name him Jesus." But the Scripture intends to show that he was not born from Joseph's seed, when it says, with concern regarding her pregnancy: "It is from the Holy Spirit." And yet the paternal authority is not taken away from him; he is commanded to give the child a name. Moreover, the virgin Mary herself, well aware that she conceived Christ not from his embrace and intercourse, still calls him the father of Christ.
Joseph called the father of Christ by Mary. Christ does not deny being the son of Joseph.
Pay attention in what manner. When the Lord Jesus Christ was twelve years old according to his humanity, who according to God is before time and without time, he remained with them in the temple, and was disputing with the elders, and they marveled at his teaching. But they, returning from Jerusalem, sought him among their companions, namely among those who were traveling with them; and not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem troubled, and found him disputing in the temple with the elders, when he was, as I have said, twelve years old. But why marvel? The Word of God never remains silent, but is not always heard. Therefore he is found in the temple, and his mother said to him: Why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been seeking you sorrowing. And he replied: Did you not know that I must be in what is my Father's? He said this because he was the Son of God in the temple of God. For that temple was not of Joseph but of God. Behold, someone says, he did not allow himself to be called the son of Joseph. Be more patient, brothers, because of the shortness of time, so that the sermon may suffice. When Mary said: Your father and I have been seeking you sorrowing; he answered: Did you not know that I must be in what is my Father’s? For he did not wish to be their son in such a way as not to be understood as the Son of God. For the Son of God, always the Son of God, creating even them themselves. But the Son of Man from time, born of a virgin without marital seed, yet he had both parents. How do we prove this? Mary already said: Your father and I have been seeking you sorrowing.
The modesty and humility of Mary should be imitated by women.
First, brothers, above all for the discipline of women, our sisters, the holy modesty of the Virgin Mary should not be overlooked. She had borne Christ, an angel had come to her and said to her: "Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High." She had merited to bear the Son of the Most High and was most humble: she did not put herself before her husband, nor did she take precedence in order or name, to say, "I and your father"; but she said, "Your father and I." She did not pay attention to the dignity of her womb, but regarded the marital order. For a humble Christ would not have taught his mother to be proud. "Your father and I were sorrowing seeking you," she said. "Your father and I," she said, because the man is the head of the woman. How much less ought other women to be proud? For even Mary herself was called a woman, not having lost her virginity, but by the proper designation of her people. For the Apostle also said of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Born of a woman"; yet he did not disrupt the order and context of our faith, in which we confess that he was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. For she conceived as a virgin, gave birth as a virgin, and remained a virgin. But all the Hebrews called women "feminas." Hear the most evident example. The first woman, whom God made from the side of the man before they had intercourse, which is written to have happened after they left paradise, was already called a woman, with Scripture saying: "He made her into a woman."
Christ does not deny Joseph as a father.
Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ replies: "It was necessary for me to be in the things of my Father"; He does not indicate the Father as God in such a way as to deny Joseph as father. How do we prove this? According to the Scripture, which says thus: "And he said to them: Did you not know that I must be in the things of my Father?" But they did not understand what he said to them. And when he came down with them, he went to Nazareth, and was subject to them. He did not say: "He was subject to his mother"; or, "He was subject to him"; but, "he was subject to them," he says. To whom was he subject? Were they not parents? Both were parents to whom he was subject, in the dignity by which he was the son of man.
The obedience of the child Jesus is to be imitated by children.
For a long time women were receiving the commandments: now let children receive them, so that they may obey their parents and be subject to them. The world is subject to Christ, Christ is subject to parents.
Christ is both the son and Lord of David.
You see, therefore, brethren, that he did not say: "I must be about my Father's business," so that we would understand it as if he had said, "You are not my parents." But those parents are temporal, that Father is eternal. Those parents are of the Son of Man, that Father is of the Word and His Wisdom, Father of His Power, through whom all things were formed. If all things are formed through Him, who reaches from one end to the other mightily and arranges all things gently, then through the Son of God even those were formed to whom later that same Son of Man would be subject. And the Apostle says that he is the son of David: Who was made to him, it says, of the seed of David according to the flesh. But the Lord Himself proposes a question to the Jews, which in these very words the Apostle solves. For when he said: Who was made to him of the seed of David; he added to this, according to the flesh, so that it might be understood that according to divinity, He is not the son of David, but the Son of God, the Lord of David. For in another place, the Apostle says so, when he commended the lineage of the Jews: Whose are the fathers, he says, of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. What is according to the flesh is from there the son of David: but what is over all, God blessed forever, is from there the Lord of David. Therefore, the Lord says to the Jews: Whose son do you say the Christ is? They responded: David. For they knew this, as it was easily understood from the preaching of the Prophets. And indeed he was of the seed of David, but according to the flesh through the virgin Mary betrothed to Joseph. So when they responded that Christ is the son of David, Jesus said to them: How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet"? If then David in spirit calls him Lord, how is he his son? And the Jews could not answer. Thus, we have it in the Gospel. He did not deny being the son of David; so that they would not be ignorant that he is the Lord of David. Indeed, they held in Christ what was made in time: they did not understand in Him what is in eternity. Therefore, wishing to teach them about his divinity, he posed a question about his humanity: as if he were saying, "You know that Christ is the son of David; answer me, how is he also the Lord of David." But lest they say, "He is not the Lord of David"; he interposed David himself as a witness. And what does he say? Surely he speaks the truth. For you also have it in the Psalms as speaking to David: From the fruit of your body I will set one upon your throne. Behold the son of David. How is he also the Lord of David, who is the son of David? He said, he says: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand. Do you marvel that David has his son as Lord, when you see Mary has given birth to her own Lord? The Lord of David, because God; the Lord of David, because of all: but the son of David, because the son of man. The same is Lord, the same is son: the Lord of David, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal to God: but the son of David, because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
Marriage is made, not by carnal union, but by conjugal love.
Therefore, Joseph was not any less the father, even though he did not have relations with the mother of the Lord. It is not lust that defines a wife, but marital love. Let Your Holiness pay close attention. In a short while, the Apostle of Christ will say in the Church: “It remains that those who have wives be as though they had none.” And we know many of our brothers, fruitful in grace, who, in the name of Christ, abstain from carnal desire by mutual consent, but do not abstain from marital love. The more that desire is restrained, the more firmly this love is established. Are there not spouses who live in such a manner, not seeking the fruits of the flesh from each other, not demanding the debt of bodily desire from each other? Yet, she is still subject to her husband because it is fitting; and the more so, the more chaste she is. And he loves his wife truly, as it is written: “In honor and sanctification,” as a co-heir of grace, as Christ loved the Church. Therefore, if there is a union, it is a marriage. It is not any less a marriage because they do not engage in what can happen even outside of marriage, and illicitly so. If only everyone could live that way; but many cannot. Therefore, let us not separate those who can, nor deny the status of husband or wife to those who do not unite carnally, but are connected in heart.