Commentaria in Isaiam
Moreover Emmanuel was theandros, God-man; hence his actions are called by St. Dionysius, chap. 2 of the Divine Names, theandric, that is, God-manly. For in Christ there were threefold actions: first, divine, as to create and rule the world, to breathe forth the Holy Spirit, etc.; second, human, as to eat, to make, to labour, etc.: in these he was subject to his mother; third, theandric, which were partly of God, partly of man, and properly of Emmanuel. Such were teaching, working miracles, creating the Apostles, and all the works of the Redeemer. In these he was subject to God the Father alone: for they were of a higher order, and were received from the Father alone and directly: whence Christ calls them the works of the Father, and when his parents ask them as if by command, he answers that they are to be done not at the nod of parents but of God.
Finally note: He does not say: His name shall be called: “We with God,” but “God with us.” For we did not first seek God, but he sought us. So even today he desires to be with us: we often flee him, and rush to our destruction. For why do we seek the riches and pleasures of the world so ardently, unless that, although he has come to be with us, we yet wish to be without him? See here God’s immense kindness toward us, and our incredible ingratitude toward him.
Morally, Christ is Emmanuel, that is, God with us. First, really and bodily in the venerable Sacrament: there, therefore, the same mystery is in fact performed and daily renewed which Isaias here foretells, and which in the incarnation of the Word was accomplished: for through the words of consecration, as bread is truly and really transubstantiated, so Christ is produced and as it were generated on the altar, so powerfully and effectively that, if Christ were not yet incarnate, by these words, “This is my body,” he would be incarnated, and take a human body, as grave Theologians teach. The priest, therefore, is as it were the Virgin Mother of God, the altar is the manger, the little Emmanuel whom he brings forth is Christ produced under the small host by the power of the Most High, and by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. When you approach the altar, therefore, think of that saying, as true as it is pious, of Thomas à Kempis, book 4 of the Imitation of Christ, chap. 2: “It ought to seem as great, as new and as joyful to you when you celebrate or hear Mass, as if on that same day Christ, first descending into the womb of the Virgin, were made man; or, hanging on the cross, were suffering and dying for the salvation of men.” For Christ willed to be born, and to be called Emmanuel, because he wished always to be with us, to remain and dwell among us in the Eucharist. For his delights are to be with the children of men.
Secondly, by providence, custody and government; for as a king is in the whole kingdom, which he rules and administers from afar, so Christ is in the whole Church, which he rules and governs from heaven. Thirdly, by his vicars the Bishops and priests, to whom he himself said: “Feed my sheep;” and: “He that heareth you, heareth me.”
Fourthly, by the holy Gospels, and other like books, figures and images, through which he constantly presents himself to our mind, and lives in our memory, that we may follow his living footsteps and the examples of his virtues.
Fifthly, by his help, grace, illumination, consolation, strengthening and constant protection: for he is present in a special way to the tempted and afflicted, and consoles and comforts them, as he promised, saying: “I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.” So he was present to St. Stephen, who therefore received the stones gladly and fearlessly, saying: “Behold I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of the power of God;” and: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” So in shipwreck and often elsewhere he was present, and appeared to St. Paul, and to St. Peter fleeing from prison, saying: “I go to be crucified again;” and so led him back to prison, and directed him to the cross and martyrdom. There stands a chapel near Rome, built in the place in memory of the thing, which I often see and visit. So visibly he was present to St. Antony and to many others: invisibly he is present to all the Martyrs suffering, labouring and contending for his glory. This is certain, this ought to be fixed in us, and sharpen our hope and spirits, that we may say with Paul: (God is he) “who always maketh us (maketh us to) triumph in Christ;” and: “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.” And with Habacuc 3:18: “But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God my Jesus. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like the feet of harts: and he, the conqueror, will lead me upon my high places, singing psalms.” If, therefore, a sharp temptation rises, if the demon, if melancholy, if anger, if cupidity, if friends, if enemies rush in, think of Emmanuel, call on him. He is El, that is, the strongest, who will strengthen your weakness, so that you easily overcome all adversities, all terrors, indeed tortures: for his power and glory are perfected in our weakness. If, therefore, Emmanuel, if God with us, who is against us?
15. HE SHALL EAT BUTTER AND HONEY, THAT HE MAY KNOW TO REFUSE THE EVIL.—First, Abulensis, seeing these words: “Behold a virgin shall conceive:” By these words, he says, Isaias signifies that Christ as man will be very prudent and intelligent, and as an indication of this is added the eating of honey and butter, which usually make men very acute and intelligent. But this is the opinion of carnal Rabbis, though Joannes Huarte the physician in the Examination of Wits tries to establish it with many physical arguments.
Secondly, and rightly, St. Jerome, Cyril, Rupert, Bernard, soon to be cited, hold that by these words Isaias only signifies that this divine child would not be a phantom, as the Manichees would have it, but would be a true man like others to be fed on the food of infants, and nourished with infantile foods, as if to say: God born of a virgin will so stoop that like an infant he will need honey and butter, and feed on them. He alludes to the foods by which infants were nourished in Judea, which so abounded in milk and honey that it is often said to flow with milk and honey. This boy, then, shall eat butter and honey, and that he may know to refuse the evil, that is, so that when he hungers for food he may be able to discern by taste, and so gradually any other things by experience, whether they are good or bad, as if to say: This boy will be fed with fitting food, will grow and come to strength and riper age, which acquired, he will know by experimental knowledge how to discern not only foods but any things, good from bad. So St. Basil, Jerome, Cyril, Chrysostom here, and St. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, and Augustine, On Genesis literally, book 8, chap. 14, and others. Isidore Clarus and Delrio, adage 695, add that it is signified that Christ as a boy would choose sweet things and reject bitter. For the Hebrews designate by honey all sweet things, as sugar, grapes, figs, dates and all sweet and honeyed fruits, as R. David and Genebrard note on Psalm 80:17, and Prado on Ezechiel 16:13. So Judea is called a land flowing with milk and honey, that is, with sweet and savoury fruits like honey. Hence of it is said, Deuteronomy 32:13: “That he might suck honey out of the rock.” And Martial, book 7, against a bad poet: “Give the infant honey-apples,” that is, sweet fruits. Wrongly, therefore, some recent writers expound it thus: that Christ, like other boys, will be liable to the diseases of boys. For boys, when they begin teething, are wont to suffer and grow weak; for which ill physicians advise honey and butter, as Galen, book 10 On Simple Medicines, chap. 10, and Pliny, book 28, chap. 19. Wrongly, I say; for Christ throughout his whole life was liable to no disease, but always had a sound and strong body, as Theologians generally teach with St. Thomas, part 3, Question 14, article 4.
Moreover, physicians and experience teach that honey is not only the food of boys, but also avails to preserve health and promote longevity. So that vigorous old man, asked by what means he had reached so great and sturdy an old age, said: “By honey within the body, and by using oil outside.”
Hence symbolically butter signifies the maternity and fruitfulness (for this is its effect and sign) of the Blessed Virgin; honey, virginity, for honey comes from bees, which are generated without union of bodies; hence of the Blessed Virgin it is said, Canticles 4:11: “Honey and milk are under thy tongue.” For although concerning the generation of bees there have been various opinions, and some have held that they are begotten from the union of male and female, and Pliny doubts about this, book 11, chap. 16; yet the almost common opinion is that bees are virgins, because they are never seen to unite, as Pliny confesses; and therefore that they lack sex, nor are some female and others male: but from themselves lay an egg, or seed, and cherish and hatch it, so that from it first is born a little worm, then a little bee, which is called a nymph. So Aristotle thinks, On the Generation of Animals, chap. 10; Virgil in the Georgics; St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, Prudentius, Albertus Magnus, Scaliger and others, whom Ulysses Aldrovandus cites and follows, book 1 On Insects, chap. On the generation of bees. Symbolically also Richard of St. Victor: “Being less than the Angels,” he says, “for men’s sake, by eating and drinking he became a partaker of the beasts: why should not man, conversely, for his sake become much more a partaker of the Angels? Butter and honey, he says, he shall eat; why does he not rather say bread and flesh? what are honey and butter but the delicacies of flies? and certainly this of unclean ones, that of poisonous ones. For bees bear a sting, and have venom. And see how for honey they labour and fight, so that they often lay down their lives in the wound. And flies thrust and plunge themselves into milk, and so lose their lives. Our Emmanuel therefore eats butter and honey, and for us descended to participation with flies. Was it too little for God to share with beasts for the sake of men, unless he shared for us even with flies?”