By St. John Chrysostom
And so having beforehand prepared the hearer to look
for some ordinary piece of information, and by this laying hold of him, after
all he amazes him by adding the marvelous fact, saying, "Before they came
together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit..." (Matt. 1:18).
Proceed therefore no further, neither require anything more than what has been
said. Neither say, "But how was it that the Spirit wrought this of a
virgin?" For if, when nature is at work, it is impossible to explain the
manner of the formation; how, when the Spirit is working miracles, shall we be
able to express these? And lest you should weary the evangelist, or disturb him
by continually asking these things, he has said who it was that wrought the
miracle, and so withdrawn himself. "For I know," says he,
"nothing more, but that what was done was the work of the Holy
Spirit."
Shame on them who busy themselves touching the
generation on high. For if this birth, which has witnesses without number, and
had been proclaimed so long a time before, and was manifested and handled with
hands, can by no man be explained; of what excess of madness do they come short
who make themselves busy and curious touching that unutterable generation? For
neither Gabriel nor Matthew was able to say anything more, but only that it was
of the Spirit; but how, of the Spirit, or in what manner, neither of them has
explained; for neither was it possible. Nor think that you have learned all, by
hearing "of the Spirit." Nay, for we are ignorant of many things,
even when we have learned this; as, for instance, how the Infinite is in a
womb, how He that contains all things is carried, as unborn, by a woman; how
the Virgin bears, and continues a virgin.
From Homily on Matthew, 4:6.
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