Homilies on Luke — Homily 11 (Luke 1:80–2:2)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Luke, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 391), from the reading text of M. Rauer (ed.), Origenes Werke IX (GCS 35, Leipzig, 1930). This English translation is released into the public domain.Concerning what is written: "But the child grew and was strengthened in spirit" up to the place where it says: "This is the first census, which was made under Quirinius, governor of Syria".
In the holy Scriptures "to grow" is spoken of in two ways: one bodily, where the human will avails nothing, the other spiritually, where the cause of growing rests upon human effort. It is of this, then — the second we set down, that is, the spiritual — that the evangelist now speaks: "but the child grew and was strengthened in spirit". What he says means this: "he grew in spirit", and did not remain in the same measure in which he had begun, but the spirit always grew in him, and, as the spirit increased through each hour and moment, his soul too received its increases. And not only the soul, but the senses and the mind as well followed the growth of the spirit. That which God commands: "increase and multiply" — those who take it simply and according to the letter, I do not know how they can explain it. For granted that "multiply" refers to number, so that, while they become more than they were before, the multiplication has its place: yet what follows, "increase", is not in our power. For what person would not wish "to add to his stature", so as to become taller? If therefore something is commanded for this purpose, that it may come to pass — since it is foolish to command what he to whom you give the command cannot do — and it is commanded us that we should increase, then surely that is commanded which we are able to do. Do you wish to know how "increase" is to be understood? Hear what Isaac did, of whom it is said: "Isaac went forward and became greater, until he became great, or exceedingly great indeed". For his will, ever stretching itself toward better things, had its advances, his mind contemplated something more divine, and he exercised himself in memory, so as to store up more things in his treasury and retain them more firmly. And in this manner it comes about that whoever has cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul fulfills the commandment enjoining: "increase". Wherefore John too, while still a little one, grew and was multiplied; but it is most difficult, and among mortals most rare, for a little one to grow in spirit. "But the child grew and was strengthened in spirit." "He grew" is one thing, "he was strengthened" another. Human nature is weak and, in order that it may become stronger, needs divine help. We read: "the flesh is weak". By what help, then, is it to be strengthened? By the spirit, surely; "for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". He who wishes to become stronger ought to be strengthened by nothing but the spirit. Many are strengthened by the flesh, are made robust in body; but the athlete of God must be made robust by the spirit, and, when he has been thus strengthened, he will strike down the wisdom of the flesh and, made spiritual, will subject the body to the rule of the mind. Let us not think, then, that a plain narrative has been written about John, and one that has nothing to do with us, in what is said: "he grew and was strengthened in spirit", but rather for our imitation, so that, multiplied spiritually according to the sense we have mentioned, we too may receive increases. "And he was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel." I said recently that John's very conception had something astounding about it, when "the infant leaped in the womb" and, not yet born, recognized his Lord, and his birth was a miracle no less remarkable, when the word of Zechariah prophesying turns toward him as though he were listening, saying: "and you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High". Worthily, then, he who had been thus conceived and born did not wait to be nourished by his father and mother "until the day of his manifestation to Israel", but withdrew, fleeing the tumult of cities, the throng of the people, the vices of the towns, and went off into the deserts, where the air is purer and the sky more open and God more intimate, so that — since neither the sacrament of baptism nor the time of preaching had yet come — he might be free for prayers and might converse with angels, might call upon the Lord and hear him answering and saying: "behold, I am here". For just as "Moses spoke and God answered him", so I think that John spoke in the desert and the Lord answered him. And this I judge, moved by a sure reasoning from the Scriptures. For if "among those born of women there was none greater than John the Baptist", and God answered Moses, then consequently he answered John as well, who was greater than Moses, who was nourished in the wilderness, whose birth the same Archangel announced as he did the Lord's, whose father, because he did not believe that he would be born, was struck dumb. "John was" therefore "in the desert" and was nourished in a new manner beyond human custom, Matthew himself recording the very thing: "and his food was locusts and wild honey". For because he was the minister of the first coming of the Savior and spoke only of the dispensation of the Lord's flesh, and his prophecy foretold him who had been born of a virgin, he did not have domestic honey refined by human care, but "wild honey" and winged — which was his food — winged, not great, not lifting itself on high, but a small winged thing, scarcely rising from the earth and leaping rather than flying. Why say more? It is said most plainly that "locusts" were his food, a small and clean animal. Consider therefore, dearest brethren, that he who had been born in a new way was in a new way also nourished. After which the Scripture adds: "It came to pass in those days, there went out an edict from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first census, under Quirinius, governor of Syria". Someone may say: evangelist, how does this narrative help me — that the "first census" of the whole world took place under Caesar Augustus, and that among all the rest "Joseph too, with Mary who was betrothed to him and with child", entered his name in the register, and that, before the census was completed, Jesus was born? To one who looks more carefully a certain mystery seems to be signified: that in the enrollment of the whole world Christ too had to be registered, so that, written down with all, he might sanctify all, and, entered in the census with the world, he might offer the world communion with himself, so that after this census he might also enroll from the world, together with himself, "in the book of the living", so that whoever had believed in him might afterward be "written in heaven" with his saints: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.