This Advent, on each Sunday, we will take a look at Saint Augustine’s thoughts on the Incarnation contained in his Sermon 191. Go here to read the first part of the sermon. The sermon now focuses on the miracle of the Virgin Birth:
Thus the prediction of the Psalmist was fulfilled: Truth is sprung out of the earth. Mary, a virgin before conception, remained a virgin after childbirth. Far be it that in this earth, that is, in the flesh out of which Truth has sprung, integrity should be marred. Indeed, after His Resurrection, when He was thought to be merely a spirit and not actually corporeal, He said: ‘Feel me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.’ Nevertheless, the substance of His mature body passed through closed doors to His disciples. Why, then, could He, who as a grown man was able to enter through closed portals, not pass through incorrupt members as an infant? To neither the one nor the other of these marvels do unbelievers wish to give their assent. Therefore, faith believes both, because infidelity believes neither. In truth, this is that type of unbelief which sees no divinity in Christ. Furthermore, if faith believes that God was born in the flesh, it does not doubt that the two miracles are possible to God, namely, that though the doors of the house were closed, He manifested His mature body to those within the house, and that as an infant He came forth, a spouse from His bride-chamber, that is, from the virginal womb, leaving His Mother’s integrity inviolate.
For God no miracle is impossible, even the miracle of giving hope to a broken world.
