Chapter IX — The Incarnation and Life of Eternal Wisdom

1. The Incarnation of Eternal Wisdom

104. The Eternal Word, Eternal Wisdom, having resolved in the great council of the Holy Trinity to become man in order to restore fallen man, made known to Adam, as is believed, and promised to the ancient patriarchs, as Holy Scripture shows, that he would become man to redeem the world.

That is why, during the four thousand years that elapsed since the creation of the world, all the holy persons of the Old Law begged for the Messiah with urgent prayers. They groaned, they wept, they cried out: "O clouds, rain down the Just One! O earth, bring forth the Savior! O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, veni ad liberandum nos."

But their cries, their prayers, and their sacrifices did not have enough strength to draw Eternal Wisdom, or the Son of God, from the bosom of his Father. They lifted their arms toward heaven, but they were not long enough to reach the throne of the Most High. They continually offered sacrifices, even of their hearts, to God; but they were not of great enough value to merit this grace of graces.

105. At last, when the time appointed for the redemption of men had come, Eternal Wisdom herself built a house, a dwelling worthy of her: Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum. [Prov 9:1] She created and formed the divine Mary in the womb of St. Anne, with more delight than she had taken in creating the universe. It is impossible to express, on the one hand, the ineffable communications of the Most Holy Trinity to this beautiful creature, and, on the other, the fidelity with which she corresponded to the graces of her Creator.

106. The impetuous torrent of the infinite goodness of God, violently held back by the sins of men since the beginning of the world, poured itself impetuously and in fullness into the heart of Mary. Eternal Wisdom gave her all the graces that Adam and all his descendants would have received from her generosity, had they remained in original justice. In a word, all the fullness of the divinity, says a saint, was poured into Mary, insofar as a pure creature is capable of receiving it. O Mary, O masterpiece of the Most High, O miracle of Eternal Wisdom, O prodigy of the Almighty, O abyss of grace, there is, I confess with all the saints, there is only he who created you who knows the height, the breadth, and the depth of the graces he has given you.

107. The divine Mary had in fourteen years of life such great growth in the grace and wisdom of God, so perfect a fidelity to his love, that she ravished with admiration not only all the angels, but even God himself. Her profound humility, reaching down to nothingness, charmed him; her all-divine purity attracted him; her lively faith and frequent prayers compelled him. Wisdom is lovingly conquered by such loving pursuit: "O quantus amor illius, cries St. Augustine, qui vincit omnipotentem! Oh! what was the love of Mary that conquered the Almighty!"

An astonishing thing: this Wisdom, from the bosom of his Father, wishing to descend into the womb of a Virgin to lie there among the lilies of her purity and give himself entirely to her by becoming man within her, dispatched the archangel Gabriel to greet her on his behalf, to tell her that she had won his heart, and that he desired to become man within her, provided she would give her consent. The archangel carried out his mission, assured Mary that she would remain a virgin while becoming a mother, and won from her heart, despite the resistance of her deep humility, the ineffable consent that the Holy Trinity with all the angels and the whole universe had been awaiting for so many centuries, when, humbling herself before her Creator, she said: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word!"

108. See how at the very instant that Mary consented to be the Mother of God, several wonders took place. The Holy Spirit formed from the purest blood of Mary's heart a small body and organized it perfectly; God created the most perfect soul he had ever created. Eternal Wisdom, or the Son of God, united himself, in a true personal union, to that body and that soul. And behold the great wonder of heaven and earth, the prodigious excess of the love of God: Verbum caro factum est: The Word was made flesh; Eternal Wisdom became incarnate. God became man, without ceasing to be God; this God-Man is called Jesus Christ, that is, Savior.

2. The Life of Incarnate Wisdom

Here is a summary of his divine life:

109. 1. He chose to be born of a married woman, although in reality she was a virgin, so that no one could reproach him for having come from an adulterous union, or for other very important reasons that the holy Fathers teach us. His conception was announced by the angel Gabriel, as we have just said. He became a child of Adam without being heir to his fault.

110. 2. This conception took place on a Friday, March 25; and on December 25, the Savior of the world was born in the town of Bethlehem, in a poor stable, where a manger served as his cradle. An angel announced to shepherds who were watching over their flocks in the fields that the Savior was born, and urged them to go and adore him in Bethlehem; and at the same time they heard a heavenly music of angels singing: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will."

111. 3. On the eighth day, he was circumcised according to the law of Moses, although he was not subject to it, and he received the name Jesus, sent from heaven. Three Magi, come from the East, came to adore him, guided by the appearance of an extraordinary star that led them to Bethlehem. This feast is called the Epiphany, that is, the manifestation of God, on January 6.

112. 4. He chose to present himself at the Temple forty days after his birth, and to observe all that the law of Moses prescribed for the redemption of the firstborn. Some time later, the angel warned St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin, to take the Child Jesus and his mother and flee to Egypt, to escape the fury of Herod, which he did. Some authors hold that Our Lord was two years in Egypt; others three; others, like Baronius, up to eight. His presence sanctified that whole country so that it might be worthy of being populated everywhere with holy anchorites, as was later seen. Eusebius says that at the entrance of Jesus Christ the demons took flight, and St. Athanasius, that the idols fell.

113. 5. At the age of twelve, the Son of God debated in the midst of the doctors with such wisdom that he filled all his hearers with admiration. After this event, sacred history says nothing more about him until his baptism, which was in the thirtieth year of his life; after which he withdrew into the desert, fasted forty days without eating or drinking, fought the devil, and remained victorious.

114. 6. After that he began to preach in Judea, to call the Apostles, and to work all those adorable wonders of which the sacred text makes mention. It suffices for me to note that in the third year of his preaching and the thirty-third of his age, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead; that he made his triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem on March 29; and that on the following April 2, which was a Thursday, the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, he celebrated the Passover with his disciples, washed the feet of his Apostles, and instituted the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist under the species of bread and wine.

115. 7. On the evening of that day, he was seized by his enemies, led by the traitor Judas. The next day, April 3, notwithstanding the feast, he was condemned to death, after being scourged, crowned with thorns, and treated with the utmost ignominy. On the same day he was led to Calvary and nailed to a cross between two criminals; and it was in this manner that the God of innocence chose to die the most shameful of all deaths and to endure the punishment due to a robber named Barabbas, whom the Jews had preferred to him. The ancient Fathers hold that Jesus Christ was fastened to the cross with four nails, and that from the middle of the cross there projected a piece of wood in the form of a seat, on which his body rested.

116. 8. The Savior of the world, after three hours of languishing life, expired in the thirty-third year of his age. Joseph of Arimathea had the courage to ask Pilate for his body, and he laid it in a monument he had recently built. But we must not forget that nature showed the grief she felt at the death of her author by various prodigies that occurred at the moment Jesus expired. He rose again on April 5 and appeared several times to his holy Mother and to his disciples during forty days, until Thursday, May 14, when he led his disciples to the Mount of Olives, and there, in their presence, he ascended by his own power into heaven, to the right hand of his Father, leaving the imprints of his sacred feet upon the earth.