“In the entire and perfect nature of very man was born the very God; whole, in what was His; whole, in what was ours. By ours we mean what the Creator formed in us at the beginning, and what He assumed in order to restore. For of that which the demon brought, which man, by him deceived, admitted, there was not a trace in the Saviour; and the fact that He took on Himself our infirmities did not make Him partaker of our transgressions. He took on Him the form of a servant, of a slave” (at these words Ethne gently touched her brother’s arm), “without the defilement of sin, enlarging the human and not diminishing the Divine; for that emptying of Himself whereby the Invisible made Himself visible, and the Creator of all things willed to be one among mortals, was the stooping of compassion, not the failure of power.
“The infancy of the Babe is exhibited by the swaddling clothes; the greatness of the Highest is declared by the voices of angels. To hunger, to thirst, to be weary, is evidently human; but to supply five thousand men with five loaves, and to give to the Samaritan woman that living water of which to drink is never to thirst again,—to walk on the back of the sea with feet that sink not, and to allay the liftings up of the waves tossed by the storm, is unquestionably Divine. To weep over a dead friend is human; by a voice of command to raise him to life again is Divine. It belongs to our nature to hang on the wood of the Cross; and to another to make all the elements tremble when day had been darkened into night. It belongs to humanity to be transfixed with nails; it belongs to Deity to open the gates of Paradise to the faith of the robber.[5]
“Our Lord, the true Shepherd, Who laid down His life for the sheep, and Who came not to destroy men’s lives but to save them, wills us to imitate His own loving-kindness.”
Such words as these made that season indeed a festival to the captives, rich with the joy the world could not give nor take away, a joy in which they and Damaris and Lucia, and every slave among the hundreds in that great patrician household, could rejoice alike.
Then came the great Festival of the Epiphany, which these children from the Isles of the Gentiles felt to be especially their own. And again the clear, strong words of Leo rang through the crowded basilica.
“The last holy day which we celebrated was that on which a pure Virgin brought forth the Saviour of mankind. And now, beloved, the venerable Festival of the Epiphany gives us a continuation of joys.
“For the salvation of all men is interested in the fact, that the infancy of the Mediator between God and man was clearly manifested to the whole world whilst it was still detained in an insignificant little town.
“For although He had chosen out the Israelitish nation, and one family of that nation, from which to take on Him the nature of universal humanity, yet it was not His will that the beginnings of His life should be concealed within the narrow limits of his mother’s abode; but as He was pleased to be born for all, He willed to be speedily recognized by all, and accordingly the star appeared to the Magi.
“Lift up, dearly beloved, your faithful minds to the faithful grace of the everlasting light. Follow after that humility, clothe yourself with the strength of patience, that in it you may be able to make your souls your own; for He Who is the redemption of all is Himself the courage of all.”
“Brother,” said Ethne that evening, as they sat alone together, while Fabricius held a great banquet for his kinsmen, “I think I understand about Leo and the slaves. It is only because he has never had the gift of being himself a slave. Thank God, our Patrick had been a captive, and so learnt the heart of a captive and a slave. And you see even the All-Merciful had to become one of us, that He might be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”