Commentaria in Isaiam
Morally, let a virgin learn here what she ought to be. The first virgin, and the virgin of virgins, will teach her that she ought to be alma, that is, hidden, fleeing the eyes of men, living at home, loving secrecy, shunning the public. Alma, therefore, is not only the guardian but the first part of modesty. Tertullian teaches this and shows it graphically, in the book On the Veiling of Virgins: “The very desire of not being hidden,” he says, “is not chaste: it suffers something that is not a virgin’s: the study of pleasing men too, however good the mind with which she tries, necessarily imperils her by the publication of herself, while she is struck by uncertain and many eyes, while she is tickled by the fingers of those who point her out, while she is too much loved. So the brow is hardened, so modesty is worn away, so it is loosed, so one learns now to desire to please otherwise.”
St. Cyprian, in the book On the Dress and Discipline of Virgins: “A virgin,” he says, “ought not only to be, but to be understood and believed to be, so that no one on seeing a virgin may doubt whether she is a virgin. Let integrity show itself equal in all things, nor let the cultivation of the body disgrace its good.”
St. Ambrose, book 2 on Luke, on those words of Luke 1, And the angel being come in to her: “Alone,” he says, “in the inner chambers, whom no man saw, alone without companion, alone without witness, lest she be corrupted by any unseemly speech, she is saluted by the Angel.” For, as the same says in the Exhortation to Virgins: “Solitude befits modesty, and secrecy is the school of chastity.”
St. Jerome to Laeta, On the Instruction of a Daughter: “Let her imitate,” he says, “Mary, whom Gabriel found alone in her chamber, and therefore perhaps she was terrified with fear, because she saw a man whom she was not wont to see. Let her emulate her of whom it is said, Psalm 44:14: ‘All the glory of the king’s daughter is within.’ Let her also speak, wounded herself with the chosen dart of charity: ‘The king hath brought me into his chamber,’ Canticles 1:3. ‘Let her never go forth abroad, lest those who go about the city find her, lest they strike and wound her, and take away the veil of chastity, and leave her naked in her blood: rather, when anyone knocks at her door, let her say: I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower: I have washed my feet, I cannot defile them.’”
Such was the Blessed Asella, a Roman virgin, whom St. Jerome thus praises, epistle 45 to Marcella: “Shut in the narrow limits of a single cell, she enjoyed the breadth of paradise. The same ground was both floor and place of prayer and of rest. She so kept herself always within bounds, and guarded herself within the secrecy of her chamber, that she never set foot in public, never knew the speech of a man, and, what is more to be admired, loved her virgin sister rather than saw her. She hastened to the thresholds of the Martyrs almost unseen. And while she rejoiced in her purpose, she exulted the more vehemently in this, that no one knew her; so that she thought solitude a delight, and found in a turbulent city the desert of the monks. Her speech was silent, and her silence speaking.” See what I have said on the curiosity and violation of Dinah, Genesis 34:1.
Wrongly, then, do the Jews deny that Christ is treated of here, on the ground that he was called Jesus, not Emmanuel: for first, to be called in Scripture often signifies to be such as the name signifies, so that he may rightly be called by it. Thus Christ, chap. 9, is said to be called counsellor, wonderful, strong, prince of peace, father of the world to come, not that these were his proper name, but that he was such that he may deservedly be marked with these names and titles. Secondly, “name” here does not signify a proper name, but a surname or title of praise, as if to say: The name of Jesus, that is, his title, shall be Emmanuel, that is, God with us. Thus epithets and titles of honour are called names, as when the Emperor Trajan from the conquest of Dacia received the name Dacicus, and Scipio from the conquest of Asia Asiaticus. Thirdly, the name Emmanuel is in fact the same as the name Jesus, that is, saviour: for to save us from sin, death and hell no one could, except Emmanuel, that is, God-man, whose proper name is Jesus. Fourthly, a proper name is twofold: one, which from birth is imposed by parents, that by it he may be called by all, and such a name of Christ is Jesus; the other, signifying the proper nature and condition of the thing or person: such is Emmanuel; for it signifies that this man is not mere man, but God-man, and therefore is proper to Christ: for it agrees with no other. And so at the feasts of the Nativity, and often elsewhere, the faithful, rejoicing, call and invoke the born Christ Emmanuel, and by aphaeresis Noel.
SHALL CONCEIVE, AND BRING FORTH.—See here how virginity is not barren, but fruitful and fertile, which bore God the creator of all things. “Such a birth,” says St. Bernard, sermon 2 On the Advent, “befitted a virgin, that she should bear none but God; and such a nativity befitted God, that he should be born of none but a virgin.” Excellently, therefore, St. Ambrose, book 1 On Virgins: “The body of a virgin,” he says, “is the heaven,” that is, the seat and throne, “of God.” And the Poet:
No parent is more fruitful than thy mother, who alone gave so many goods by her child-bearing.
So spiritually St. Cecilia the virgin converted her husband Valerian, Tiburtius and many others, and bore them to Christ, so that the Church rightly sings of her: “Thy handmaid Cecilia serves thee, O Lord, like a busy bee.” Read the Life of St. Julian and Basilissa, and you will wonder how many thousands of men they, spouses and virgins at once, bore to God. God promises this fruitfulness to virgins, Isaias 56:3: “Let not the eunuch say: Behold I am a dry tree,” etc., on which matter more there.
AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED—that is, shall be; see Canon 29. The Hebrew is vekarath, feminine and second person, that is, and thou shalt call, as the Septuagint render, Pagninus and others, namely thou, O virgin! For elsewhere in the Old Testament fathers gave names to their sons, not mothers. But since here the Virgin conceives and bears without a father, she herself, as father as well as mother, imposes the name Emmanuel on her son. This is what Gabriel, announcing this birth to her, foretold, Luke 1:31: “Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.” For Jesus is the same as Emmanuel, as will soon appear.
EMMANUEL,—that is, God with us, as if to say: God will now be with us spiritually, O Achaz and ye Jews, freeing you from Rasin and Phacee; but when a virgin shall conceive and bring forth, the Word made flesh will be with us bodily, as if you were to say: The Virgin shall bring forth not Ezechias, not Sear Jasub, mere men; but Emmanuel, that is, God-man: this Emmanuel, however, shall bring forth Sear Jasub, that is, he shall convert the remnant of Israel, and cause them to be born again to God by baptism. For this reason in this prophecy God commanded Isaias to bring his son Sear Jasub with him.
From “Emmanuel” the Italians shortened Manuel, the French Noel, that is, God with us or our God is, which they repeat in the Christmas hymns, rejoicing, and hence call this feast Noel, that is, the feast of little Emmanuel.
What is Emmanuel? He is the great Lord and exceedingly to be praised, who was made for us a little child, exceedingly lovable.
What is Emmanuel? He is Jesus our redemption, love and desire, God the creator of all things, man at the end of the times.
What is Emmanuel? He is the Word an infant, a wise boy, God at the breast, says St. Bernard.
What is Emmanuel? He is the little child of Bethlehem, as St. Francis used to say with jubilation, reigning in heaven, and lying in the manger.
What is Emmanuel? He is the Word clothed with flesh, he is the God-man, Titus 2:4.
What is Emmanuel? He is the Word of life, “which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, that our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ,” 1 John, chap. 1, verse 1.
What is Emmanuel? He is “the great mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared to Angels, hath been preached to the Gentiles, is believed in the world, is taken up in glory.”
What is Emmanuel? He is Elohim dwelling in us, our brother, companion, familiar, friend and fellow. Therefore, O sons of Adam, love your brother, kiss the Son of the Mother of God, take sweet kisses with your Emmanuel, fair in form above the sons of men: but love and honour also his mother, blessed among women, who bore God to you in the flesh.