Advent Weekday

THE COMING OF CHRIST
From a treatise by St John Chrysostom 3
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The prophets foretold not only that God would become man but also they predicted the manner of his coming. He was not going to come in the midst of thunder, lightning, earthquake, or tumult from the heavens. He was not going to stir up any consternation. His birth struck no man with fear, for he was born with no one to witness it, without tumult or confusion, in the house of a carpenter, in an ordinary and undistinguished home…

For Micah said: “And you, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, are by no means the least among the princes of Judah. For out of you will come the leader who will shepherd my people, Israel: and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.” Micah was pointing out both the divinity and the humanity of Christ. When he said: “His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity,” he revealed his existence before all ages. When he said: “There will come the leader who will shepherd my people, Israel,” he revealed Christ’s birth in the flesh.

And notice here that he makes clear another prophecy. Micah not only said where Christ would be born but also that the place would become well known even if it was a little town and little known. For he said: “You are by no means the least among the princes of Judah.” So it is that now the whole world rushes to see Bethlehem, where he was born and laid in a manger. The place became famous, and there is no other reason than this why people go there.

Again, another prophet made clear the time of his coming, when he said,… “A chief shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from his loins till he come for whom it is reserved,” meaning Christ. For the first registration was held just at the same time that he was born, and this was after the Romans had conquered the Jewish nation and had brought them under the yoke of their empire. Something further is meant by the words: “Even he is the expectation of the nations.” For after he had come, he did draw all the nations to himself.

And Isaiah when on to tell of other marvels and showed how Christ cured the lame, how he made the blind to see, and the mute to speak: “Then will the lame man leap like a stag, and the tongue of those with impediments of speech will be clear and distinct.” And this did not happen until his coming.

3
Demonstration Against the Pagans That Christ is God. Trans. Paul W. Harkins, Fathers of the Church Series, vol. 73. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1985. pp. 197ff.