More power in Nazareth than in Calvary

If I may compare what is not comparable, it seems to me that I find and adore a greater power in the birth of Jesus than in his suffering; in the manger than in the Cross; in Nazareth than at Calvary.

For the power of Calvary and the Cross produces adopted children of God, but the work and power of Nazareth and the stable of Bethlehem gives a Mother of God to the world.

And if the Son of God had wished to be and to suffer in the world without being born of a woman, there would be children of God, but there would be no Mother of God either on Earth or in Heaven.

Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629)

Greatness of Jesus, Discourse XI