Homilies on Luke — Homily 13 (Luke 2:13–16)
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: "and there came a multitude of the heavenly host", up to the place where he says: "they found Mary and Jesus laid in a manger".
Our Lord and Savior is born in Bethlehem, and "a multitude of the heavenly host" praises God and says: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will". Now the "multitude of the heavenly host" speaks these words because it had already failed to furnish men with help, and it saw that it could not fulfill the work that had been entrusted to it apart from him who was truly able to save and even to assist the presiding powers themselves, so that men might be saved. Therefore, just as it is written in the Gospel that certain men, plowing the sea with their oars against contrary winds, were already exhausted and, laboring for twenty-five or thirty stadia, could not reach the harbor, and afterward the Lord came upon them and made the swelling waves grow calm, and freed the ship, whose sides were being flooded on this side and that, from the impending danger — so understand that the angels too indeed wished to furnish men with help and to grant them health from their sicknesses, because "they are all attendant spirits, sent into ministry for the sake of those who shall obtain salvation", and, as far as lay within their powers, they helped men; yet they saw that their medicine was far inferior to what the cure of those men demanded. Furthermore, that you may understand from an example what we are saying, consider for me a city in which very many are sick and a busy troop of physicians is brought in; let there be diverse wounds, and daily let a creeping rottenness penetrate into the dead flesh, and yet let the physicians who have been brought in to heal be unable to find any further remedies or, by the knowledge of their art, to overcome the greatness of the evil. When things are in such a state, let there come some chief physician who has the highest expertise in the art; and let those who before had been unable to heal, when they behold the rottenness of the wounds cease at the master's hand, not be envious, not be tortured by spite, but burst forth into praises of the chief physician and proclaim God, who has sent both to themselves and to the sick a man of such great knowledge. In this likeness, then, the "multitude of the host" of angels was heard, saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will". For after the Lord came to the earth, "he made peace through the blood of his cross, whether for the things that were on earth, or for the things that were in heaven".
Indeed, since the angels wished that men should remember their Creator, when they had done all that lay within their powers that men might be healed, and those men had refused to receive health, they behold him who was able to heal, and glorifying him they say: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace".
Let the diligent reader of Scripture inquire how the Savior can say: "I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword", while now the angels at his nativity sing: "on earth peace". For in another place too it is said in his own person: "My peace I give to you, peace I leave to you: not as this world gives peace, do I give peace". Let him then see whether what we bring forward can resolve the question. If it had been written: "on earth peace", and the sentence had ended at that point, the question would rightly arise. But now that which is added — that is, what is said after "peace": "among men of good will" — resolves the question. The peace too which the Lord does not give "upon the earth" is not the "peace of good will". For he does not say simply: "I came not to send peace", but with an addition: "upon the earth"; nor did he, on the contrary, say: "I came not to send peace upon the earth of good will". These things the angels spoke to the shepherds, who were speaking not only at that time; but even to this day, unless they have spoken to the shepherds and joined their own works to them, it is said to them: "unless the Lord build the house, they have labored in vain who build it; unless the Lord guard the city, in vain does he watch who guards it". If it is expedient to speak boldly, following the meaning of the Scriptures, throughout the individual churches there are two bishops: one visible, the other invisible; the former open to the sight of the flesh, the latter to the perception of the mind. And just as a man, if he has administered well the dispensation entrusted to him, is praised by the Lord, but if badly, lies subject to blame and fault, so also the angel. For it is written in the Apocalypse of John: "but you have there a few names which have not been defiled", or this again: "you have there those who teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans", and then: "you have those" or "those committing sins", and the angels are accused to whom the churches have been entrusted. But if the angels have such concern how the churches are governed, what need is there to speak of men, how much fear they should have, that they may be able, laboring together with the laboring angels, to obtain salvation? I think that both an angel and a man can be found together as good bishops of a church, and that in a certain way they are sharers of one work. Since this is so, let us beseech Almighty God that the angels and the men who are bishops of the churches may be a help to us, and let us know that both are judged by the Lord on our behalf. But if they have been judged, and the fault and sin has been found not in their carelessness but in our negligence, we shall be reproved and punished. For while they do everything and strive for our salvation, we nonetheless will be at leisure for sins. Moreover it frequently happens that, while we are laboring, they do not fulfill their office and are at fault.
"And it came to pass", he says, "when the angels had departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over as far as Bethlehem, and let us see this word that has come to pass, which the Lord has shown to us. And they came in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the child". Because they had come in haste, and not step by step nor with weary tread, therefore they found Joseph the steward of the Lord's birth, and Mary who brought forth Jesus in childbirth, and the Savior himself "lying in a manger". That was the manger of which the prophet prophesied, saying: "the ox knew its owner, and the ass the manger of its lord". The ox is a clean animal, the ass an unclean animal. "The ass knew the manger of its lord". It was not the people of Israel who knew the manger of their lord, but an unclean animal from among the Gentiles: "but Israel", he says, "has not known me, and my people has not understood me". Understanding this manger, let us strive to know the Lord and to become worthy of the knowledge of him, and to take up not only the nativity and resurrection of his flesh, but also the renowned coming of his second majesty: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.