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From: Titus 2:11-14

The Incarnation, the Basis of Christian Ethics and Piety

[11] For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, [12] training
us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and
godly lives in this world, [13] awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the
glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, [14] who gave himself for us to
redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are
zealous for good deeds.

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Commentary:

11-14. This section is almost like a hymn in praise of saving grace and God’s
loving kindness as manifested in Christ. The terse, sober style, with phrases
piled on one another, and very few verbs, is typical of St. Paul. The duties just
described (2:1-10) — of older men, women, young people and slaves — all point
to Christians’ having a common lifestyle, which is the fruit of grace. God is the
source of that grace, and salvation its goal, and it is given to us through Jesus
Christ.

Thus, divine grace manifested in the Incarnation is actively at work to redeem us;
it brings salvation; it sanctifies us, enabling us to live godly lives; and it is the ba-
sis of our hope in the second coming of the Lord. All these dimensions of the ac-
tion of grace summarize revealed doctrine on righteousness (justification) in Je-
sus Christ. Thus, in the Incarnation, God’s salvific will, embracing all men, is ma-
nifested in a special way (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); in the Redemption, Christ, the only Me-
diator and Savior (cf. 1 Tim 2:5) obtains for us the gift of grace, whereby man be-
comes a sharer in the good things of salvation. Jesus is our model; by means of
grace he instructs the Christian on how to control his defects and grow in virtue.
The instruction we receive is not only an external one: God inwardly moves us to
seek holiness (cf. Rom 5:1-5 and note). Grace also channels our hope, for Chris-
tians are motivated not only by the memory of a past event (our Lord’s life on
earth) but also, and especially, by the fact that Jesus is in the glory of heaven
even now and that we are invited to share his inheritance (cf. 2 Pet 3:12-13).

13. “The glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”: an explicit confession
of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, who is stated at one and at the same time
(with only one article in the original Greek) to be God and Savior. This expres-
sion is the hinge on which the entire hymn turns: Jesus Christ our God is the
one who came at the Incarnation, who will manifest himself fully at his second
coming, and who through his work of redemption has made it possible for man
to live a live pleasing to God.

This verse is reminiscent of Romans 9:5, where St. Paul wrote: “to them belong
the patriarchs, and of their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God
over all, blessed for ever. Amen.”

14. The mention of Jesus Christ at the end of the previous verse leads St. Paul
to summarize the doctrine of the Redemption in this lovely passage. Four essen-
tial elements in redemption are listed: Christ’s self-giving; redemption from all ini-
quity; purification; and Christ’s establishment of a people of his own dedicated to
good deeds. The reference to Christ’s self-giving clearly means whereby we are
set free from the slavery of sin; Christ’s sacrifice is the cause of the freedom of
the children of God (analogously, God’s action during the Exodus liberated the
people of Israel). Purification, a consequence of redemption, enables a man to
become part of God’s own people (cf. Ezek 37-23). The expression “a people of
his own” is a clear allusion to Exodus 19:5: through the covenant of Sinai God
made Israel his own people, different from other nations; through the New Cove-
nant of his blood Jesus forms his own people, the Church, which is open to all
nations: “As Israel according to the flesh which wandered in the desert was al-
ready called the Church of God, so, too, the new Israel, which advances in this
present era in search of a future and permanent city, is called also the Church of
Christ. It is Christ indeed who has purchased it with his own blood; he has filled
it with his Spirit; he has provided means adapted to its visible and social union
[...]. Destined to extend to all regions of the earth, it enters into human history,
though it transcends at once all times and all racial boundaries” (”Lumen Gen-
tium”, 9).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 2:1-16

The Birth of Jesus

[1] In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world
should be enrolled. [2] This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was gover-
nor of Syria. [3] And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. [4] And Jo-
seph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city
of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage
of David, [5] to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. [6]
And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. [7] And she
gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid
Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Adoration of the Shepherds

[8] And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. [9] And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. [10] And the angel
said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which
will come to all the people; [11] for to you is born this day in the city of David, a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord. [12] And this will be a sign for you: you will find
a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” [13] And suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying,
[14] “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He
is pleased!”

[15] When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to
one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has made known to us.” [16] And they went with haste, and
found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

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Commentary:

1. Caesar Augustus was Roman emperor at this time, reigning from 30 B.C. to
A.D. 14. He is known to have commissioned various censuses, one of which
could well be that referred to by the evangelist. Since Rome normally respected
local usages, censuses were carried out in line with Jewish custom whereby
every householder went to his place of origin to be listed in the census.

6-7. The Messiah is born, the Son of God and our Savior. “He made Himself a
child [...] to enable you to become a perfect man; He was wrapped in swaddling
clothes to free you from the bonds of death [...]. He came down on earth to en-
able you to rise up to Heaven; He had no place in the inn so that you might have
many mansions in Heaven. He, being rich, became poor for our sake — St. Paul
says (2 Corinthians 8:9) — so as to enrich us with His poverty [...]. The tears of
this crying child purify men, they wash away my sins” (St. Ambrose, “Expositio
Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.”).

The new-born Child does not yet speak, but He is the eternal Word of the Father.
Even from the manger in Bethlehem He teaches us. “We must learn the lessons
which Jesus teaches us, even when He is just a newly born child, from the very
moment He opens His eyes on this blessed land of men” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ
Is Passing By”, 14). The main lesson He gives us concerns humility: “God hum-
bled Himself to allow us to get near Him, so that we could give our love in ex-
change for His, so that our freedom might bow, not only at the sight of His power,
but also before the wonder of His humility.

“The greatness of this Child who is God! His Father is the God who has made
Heaven and earth and there He is, in a manger, ‘because there was no room at
the inn’ (Luke 2:7); there was nowhere else for the Lord of all creation” (St. J.
Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 18).

Our hearts should provide Jesus with a place where He can be born spiritually;
that is, we should be born to a new life, becoming a new creature (Romans 6:4),
keeping that holiness and purity of soul which we were given in Baptism and
which is like being born again. We contemplate the birth of our Savior when
we pray the “third mystery” of the Holy Rosary.

7. “First-born son”: it is usual for Sacred Scripture to refer to the first male child
as “the first-born” whether or not there were other brothers (cf., for example, Exo-
dus 13:2; 13:13; Numbers 15:8; Hebrews 1:6). The same practice is to be found
in ordinary speech; take, for example, this inscription dating from approximately
the same time as Christ was born, which was found near Tell-el-Jedvieh (in Egypt)
in 1922, which states that a woman named Arsinoe died while giving birth to “her
first-born son”. Otherwise, as St. Jerome explains in his letter “Adversus Helvidi-
um”, 10, “if only He were first-born who was followed by other brothers, He would
not deserve the rights of the first-born, which the Law lays down, until the other
had been born” — which would be absurd, since the Law ordains that those first-
born should be “ransomed” within a month of their birth (Numbers 18:16).

However, Jesus Christ is first-born in a much deeper sense independent of natu-
ral or biological considerations — which St. Bede describes in these words, sum-
marizing a long tradition of the Fathers of the Church: “Truly the Son of God, who
was made manifest in the flesh, belongs to a more exalted order not only be-
cause He is the Only-begotten of the Father by virtue of the excellence of His di-
vinity; He is also first-born of all creatures by virtue of His fraternity with men: con-
cerning this [His primogeniture] it is said: ‘For those whom He foreknew He also
predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be
the first-born among many brethren’ (Romans 8:29). And concerning the former
[His being the Only-begotten] it is said ‘we have beheld His glory, glory as of the
only Son from the Father’ (St. John 1:14). Thus, He is only-begotten by the sub-
stance of the Godhead, and first-born through His assumption of humanity; first-
born by grace, only-begotten by nature. This is why He is called brother and Lord;
brother, because He is the first-born; Lord, because He is the Only-begotten” (”In
Lucae Evangelium Expositio, in loc.”).

Christian Tradition teaches, as a truth of faith, that Mary remained a virgin after
Christ’s birth, which is perfectly in keeping with Christ’s status as her first-born.
See, for example, these words of the Lateran Council of 649: “If anyone does not
profess according to the holy Fathers that in the proper and true sense the holy,
ever-Virgin, immaculate Mary is the Mother of God, since in this last age not with
human seed but of the Holy Spirit she properly and truly conceived the divine
Word, who was born of God the Father before all ages, and gave Him birth with-
out any detriment to her virginity, which remained inviolate even after His birth:
let such a one be condemned” (Canon 3).

8-20. At His birth Christ’s divinity and His humanity are perfectly manifested: we
see His weakness — the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7) — and His divine po-
wer. Christian faith involves confessing that Jesus Christ is true God and true man.

The salvation which Christ brought us is offered to everyone, without distinction:
“Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11). That is
why, even at His birth, He chose to manifest Himself to different kinds of people
— the shepherds, the Magi and Simeon and Anna. As St. Augustine comments:
“The shepherds were Israelites; the Magi, Gentiles. The first lived near-by; the
latter, far away. Yet both came to the cornerstone, Christ” (”Sermo De Nativitate
Domini”, 202).

8-9. These shepherds may have been from the neighborhood of Bethlehem or
even have come from further afield in search of pasture for their flocks. It was
these simple and humble people who were the first to hear the good news of
Christ’s birth. God has a preference for the humble (cf. Proverbs 3:32); He hides
from those who consider themselves wise and understanding and reveals Him-
self to “babes” (cf. Matthew 11:25).

10-14. The angel announces that the new-born Child is the Savior, Christ the
Lord. He is the “Savior” because He has come to save us from our sins (cf. Mat-
thew 1:21). He is “the Christ”, that is, the Messiah so often promised in the Old
Testament, and now born among us in fulfillment of that ancient hope. He is “the
Lord”: this shows Christ’s divinity, for this is the name God chose to be known
by to His people in the Old Testament, and it is the way Christians usually refer
to and address Jesus and the way the Church always confesses her faith: “We
believe [...] in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.”

When the angel tells them that the Child has been born in the city of David, he
reminds them that this was where the Messiah Redeemer was supposed to be
born (cf. Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6), who would be a descendant of David (cf.
Psalm 110:1-2; Matthew 22:42-46).

Christ is the Lord not only of men but also of angels, which is why the angels re-
joice at His birth and render Him the tribute of adoration: “Glory to God in the high-
est.” And, since men are called to share, like them, in the happiness of Heaven,
the angels add: “And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
“They praise the Lord,” St. Gregory the Great comments, “putting the notes of
their hymn in harmony with our redemption; they see us as already sharing in
their own happy destiny and rejoice at this” (”Moralia”, 28, 7).

St. Thomas explains why the birth of Christ was revealed through angels: “What
is in itself hidden needs to be manifested, but not what is in itself manifest. The
flesh of Him who was born was manifest, but His Godhead was hidden, and there-
fore it was fitting that this birth should be made known by angels, who are mini-
sters of God. This is why a certain brightness accompanied the angelic apparition,
to indicate that He who was just born ‘reflects the glory of the Father’ (Hebrews 1:
3)” (”Summa Theologiae”, III, q. 36, a. 5 ad 1).

The angel also tells the shepherds that Christ is a man: “You will find the babe
wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (verse 12) — as foretold in
the Old Testament: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the govern-
ment will be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6).

14. This text can be translated in two ways, which are compatible with each
other. One is the version chosen by the RSV; the other, as an RSV note points
out: “other ancient authorities read ‘peace, good will among men’”; a variant is
the translation used in the Liturgy: “Peace on earth to men who are God’s friends.”
Essentially what the text says is that the angels ask for peace and reconcilia-
tion with God, which is not something which results from men’s merits but rather
comes from God’s deigning to have mercy on them. The two translations are com-
plementary, for when men respond to God’s grace they are fulfilling God’s good
will, God’s love for them: “Iesus Christus, Deus homo”: Jesus Christ, God-man.
This is one of ‘the mighty works of God’ (Acts 2:11), which we should reflect up-
on and thank Him for. He has come to bring peace on earth to men of good will’
(Luke 2:14), to all men who want to unite their wills to the holy will of God” (St.
J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 13).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.