re the Temple
of God, so that Jerusalem was at the same time a royal and a priestly
city. Now, Christ's priesthood and kingdom were "consummated"
principally in His Passion. Therefore it was becoming that He should
choose Bethlehem for His Birthplace and Jerusalem for the scene of
His Passion.

At the same time, too, He put to silence the vain boasting of men who
take pride in being born in great cities, where also they desire
especially to receive honor. Christ, on the contrary, willed to be
born in a mean city, and to suffer reproach in a great city.

Reply Obj. 2: Christ wished "to flower" by His holy life, not in His
carnal birth. Therefore He wished to be fostered and brought up at
Nazareth. But He wished to be born at Bethlehem away from home;
because, as Gregory says (Hom. viii in Evang.), through the human
nature which He had taken, He was born, as it were, in a foreign
place--foreign not to His power, but to His Nature. And, again, as
Bede says on Luke 2:7: "In order that He who found no room at the inn
might prepare many mansions for us in His Father's house."

Reply Obj. 3: According to a sermon in the Council of Ephesus [*P.
iii, cap. ix]: "If He had chosen the great city of Rome, the change
in the world would be ascribed to the influence of her citizens. If
He had been the son of the Emperor, His benefits would have been
attributed to the latter's power. But that we might acknowledge the
work of God in the transformation of the whole earth, He chose a poor
mother and a birthplace poorer still."

"But the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may
confound the strong" (1 Cor. 1:27). And therefore, in order the more
to show His power, He set up the head of His Church in Rome itself,
which was the head of the world, in sign of His complete victory,
in order that from that city the faith might spread throughout the
world; according to Isa. 26:5, 6: "The high city He shall lay
low . . . the feet of the poor," i.e. of Christ, "shall tread it
down; the steps of the needy," i.e. of the apostles Peter and Paul.
_______________________

EIGHTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 35, Art. 8]

Whether Christ Was Born at a Fitting Time?

Objection 1: It would seem that Christ was not born at a fitting
time. Because Christ came in order to restore liberty to His own. But
He was born at a time of subjection--namely, when the whole world, as
it were, tributary to Augustus, was being enrolled, at his command as
Luke relat