CHAPTER VII

THE NATIVITY

     She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in
     swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there
     was no room for them in the inn.

     S. Luke II. 7.

It is very meet to bless thee who bore the Christ, O ever Blessed and Immaculate Mother of God.  More wondrous than the Cherubim and of greater glory than the Seraphim art thou who remaining Virgin didst give birth to God the Word.  Verily, do we magnify thee, O Mother of God.  In thee, O full of grace, all creation exults, the hierarchy of angels and the race of men.  In thee sanctified temple, spiritual paradise, glory of virgins, of whom God took flesh, through whom our God Who was before the world became a Child.  Of thy womb He made a throne, and its dominion is more extensive than the heavens.  In thee, O full of grace, all creation exults:  glory to thee.

     RUSSIAN.

We see a man and a woman on the road to Bethlehem where they are going to be taxed according to the decree of Augustus.  Bethlehem would be known to them as the home of their ancestors, for they were both of the lineage of David.  It was a painful journey for them for Mary was near the time of her delivery.  We follow them along the road and into the village, as the twilight fades, and see them seeking shelter for the night.  Bethlehem is a small place and the inn is crowded with those who have come on the errand with them, and the only place where they can find refuge for the night is a stable.  But they are not used to luxury, and the stable serves their purpose.

It also serves God’s purpose.  One understands as one reads this narrative of the Nativity what is meant by the Providential government of the world.  We see how various lines of action, each free and independent, yet converge to the production of a given event.  The different characters in the drama are all pursuing their own courses and yet the result is a true drama, not an unrelated series of events.  Caesar’s action, Joseph’s lineage, our Lord’s conception, all working together, bring about the fulfilment of prophecy by the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem.  There is in the universe an over-ruling will which works to its ends by co-operating with human freedom, and not destroying it.  We are not the sport of chance, not the slaves of fate, but free men; and yet through our freedom, through our blunders and rebellions and sins as well as through our obedience, the work of God is moving to its conclusion.  Man did all that he could to defeat the ends of God and to thwart God’s purpose of redemption.  Yet on a certain night in Bethlehem of Judea the light of God overcame the human darkness, and the voices of God’s angels pierced the human tumult, and Jesus Christ was born.  “God of the substance of his Father begotten before all worlds, man of the substance of his mother, born in the world; perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.”