Jeremiah’s prophecy: “A woman shall encompass a man”

Let us now listen to Jeremiah, who foretells a new and unheard-of wonder, while he ardently desires, and confidently promises, the coming of Him Whose presence he might not behold. "God has created a new thing on the earth, a woman shall encompass a man." Who is this woman, and who is this man? And if a man, how is He encompassed by a woman? "Can a man," said Nicodemus, "return to his mother’s womb, and be born again?"

 I turn for my answer to the Virgin’s conception and child-bearing, yet even there, among the many new and wonderful mysteries that meet the consideration of the diligent inquirer, this which the Prophet here proposes will excite admiration. There is seen length abbreviated, width straightened, height lowered, depth filled up. There we behold light withholding its rays, the Word an infant, the Living Water athirst, Him Who is the Bread of Heaven suffering hunger. Attend and see how Omnipotence is ruled, Wisdom instructed, Power sustained; the God Who rejoices the angels is become a Babe at the breast; He Who consoles the afflicted lies weeping in a manger. Attend and see how joy is made sorrowful, strength becomes weakness, life death; but what is equally wonderful that sorrow gives joy, that weakness imparts strength, that death restores life. 

Who does not now see that I have found what I sought, and that we behold "a woman encompassing a man" when we see Mary enclosing in her womb Jesus, the Man-God? For I may call Jesus a man not only when He was proclaimed " a prophet mighty in work and word," but also when His tender infant limbs lay in the womb of His Mother, or gently nestled on her bosom. which He received at His conception suffered either diminution or augmentation.

Saint Bernard, Super Missus Sermon n.2