The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
And on earth peace . The peace of men with God, to whom Christ has reconciled us ; and, following on this, peace — that is, tranquillity of mind ; and in the third place, peace and concord with other men. Moreover, peace meant for the Jews every good — all prosperity and happiness. Some say that this peace is Christ Himself, “For He is our peace, who hath made both one,” Eph. ii. 14; for “it pleased God through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, bringing into peace all things, whether they be in heaven or on earth, by the blood of His Cross,” Colos. i. 20 (Vulg.), S. Augustine (Orat. contra Judaeos, Paganos, et Arianos , ax.), says:
“ Within the Virgin’s womb there were celebrated spiritual nuptials, God was joined to the flesh, and the flesh clave unto God, coming forth from hence like a bridegroom from his chamber, at whose wedding all creation was stirred up and seemed to exult. For the choir of angels proclaim, as the result of these nuptials, peace to men of good will; for He that was the Son of God became the Son of Man.”
Good will . These words may be taken in three ways — First, with reference to, and as qualifying, “men.” Peace be to men, and yet not to all men, but to those that are of good will. So S. Ambrose reads. Secondly, S. Leo (Serm. on the Nativity) : “Peace be to men, to make them of good will , that they may in all things subject and conform their will to God's will and law.”
But, as the Greek is εὐδοκία, which corresponds to the Hebrew רָצוֹן, ratson, and is generally attributed in Holy Scripture not to man but to God Himself, signifying the grace, benevolence, satisfaction , and love of God towards men, Gregory of Nyssa, Theophylact , and Euthymius give the following interpretation : Peace be to men, whom God deigned to pursue with this grace and display of good will — with His benevolence and love, freely and without their merit ; to give them such a Saviour and Reconciler to make peace between Himself and them. So, in Ps. v., it is said, “ With the buckler of Thy good will” (in Greek εὐδοκίᾳ) “hast Thou crowned us ” (Vulg.) — that is, surrounded us, as with a crown, with a buckler, which is Thy benevolence. And in S. Matt. xvii., “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” — in the Greek ηὐδόκησα. So, too, “ men of good will ” are elsewhere called “ the sons of love.” See Eph. i. 9.
Ver. 15. — And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven , the shepherds said one to another , Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass . This thing, a metonomy, common in Scripture, by which the word is put for the thing signified by it, as in ch. i. 37, “No word ” — that is, nothing “shall be impossible with God.” And in 2 Kings i. 4, “ What is the word that is come to pass ? ”
Which the Lord hath made known unto us . In the Greek ἐγνώρισεν — revealed, made known. Yea, and has given us, rather than the scribes and all others, a sign by which we shall find the Messiah that is born. Wherefore, if we, who have been invited by Him through an angel, do not visit and adore Him who is born for us, and revealed first to us, we shall be ungrateful to God, to the angels, and to Christ, and enemies to ourselves.
Ver. 16. — And they came with haste , and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger . With haste, from their longing and zeal to see Christ. Hence S. Ambrose remarks, “ Thou seest that the shepherds make haste ; for no one seeks after Christ with slothfulness .” And Bede, “The shepherds hasten, for the presence of Christ must not be sought with sluggishness ; and many perchance that seek Christ do not merit to find Him, because they seek Him slothfully.”
Ver. 17. — And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. They made known— in the Greek ἐγνώρισαν — they knew distinctly and with certainty. Or it may be translated, according to Pagninus, they made known ; Theophylact has, they published abroad. So, too, the Syriac version ; and hence it follows : —
Ver. 18. — And all they that heard it wondered at these things which were told them by the shepherds . The and is not found in the Greek, the Syriac, or the Arabic version, and with this omission the sense is plainer. But, according to the Roman version, the meaning is, they wondered at the birth of the Messiah, and at the other things that were said about him by the shepherds, namely, that an angel had appeared, that angels had sung “ Gloria in excelsis,” and Christ was lying in a manger, &c.
So the Gloss, Francis Lucas, and others. Lyranus, however, interprets the “and” as equivalent to “that is.” Hence it appears that the shepherds told to many what they had heard and seen respecting the birth of Christ ; and that therefore many went to the crib and saw Christ ; but that those only believed in Him whose hearts God touched efficaciously, while others, offended at His poverty, despised Him. S. Ambrose assigns the reason for this—“ The person of the shepherds was not despicable — assuredly the more precious in the eyes of faith, the more despicable it was to worldly wisdom. Not the schools crowded with their bands of wise men did the Lord seek, but a simple folk, that knew not how to deck out and colour the things they had heard. For simplicity is what is sought, ambition is not wanted.”
Ver. 19. — But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart — putting them together and comparing them — not as Bede would have it, the prophecies made about Christ by the prophets, but the things seen and reported by the shepherds with reference to the angels — the “Gloria in excelsis,” &c., with what she had experienced herself — the annunciation of Gabriel, the prophecy of Elizabeth and of Zacharias, and the other things which she herself had witnessed and felt in herself. And this she did, first, that seeing the wondrous harmony — all things agreeing so well together — she might be the more confirmed in her faith that the only begotten Son of God was born of her. So speaks S. Ambrose. Secondly, that by the sweet contemplation of these circumstances so consonant among themselves, she might feed her mind, and look with sure hope for the rest — namely, that God would bring this work to an end, and redeem mankind by Christ. Thirdly, that in good time she might unfold all these things and narrate them in order to the apostles, and especially to S. Luke, who was destined to write of them. Observe here in the Virgin the rare example of maidenly silence and modesty, of heavenly prudence, and of the firmest faith and hope, as she wonders at the present and waits for the future. She was comparing the signs of deepest lowliness which she saw with what she knew of His Supreme Majesty, the stable with heaven, the swaddling-clothes with that which is spoken of in Ps. civ., “covered with light as with a garment,” the crib with the throne of God, the beasts with the seraphim.
Ver. 20. — And the shepherds returned (to their flock, says Euthymius , for God would have the faithful, however exalted by Him, remain in the discharge of their several callings), glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen , as it was told unto them. Hence it is clear that the shepherds remained constant in the faith and gospel of Christ — nay, exulting and jubilant in the joy of the Holy Spirit at having seen Him.
Ver. 21. — And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, His name was called Jesus , which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb — when eight days were fulfilled — when the eighth day from His nativity was come. That the child should be circumcised — this indicates that He was circumcised; implying that He underwent the rite, not of obligation, but freely and of His own will. For, in the first place, He was God — the Author of the law, and, therefore, not bound by the law; and, in the second place, He was not of the common generation of men, who are procreated of the propagation of sin and conceived in iniquity, says Bede, but conceived and born of the Holy Spirit, and, therefore , without original sin, for wiping out of which circumcision was instituted. For circumcision was the sign and stigma of sin, the cautery with which it was burnt out, and in Christ there was no sin, no lust. So in His circumcision Christ humbled Himself to a still greater degree than in His nativity — in the latter He took upon Him the form of man, in the former the character of a sinner.
Here are seven reasons why Christ would of His own accord be circumcised, drawn from the writings of S. Cyprian, S. Augustine, Bede, and others, and given by S. Thomas, (part iii., quaest. 37, art. 1) : — First, to show the reality of His human flesh, as against Manichaeus, who said that He had a phantom body, Apollinarius, who said that the body of Christ is consubstantial with the Godhead , and Valentinus, who said that He brought His body from heaven.