Therefore, when the theologians who write about Him say that He ate, drank, and was born, understand that the body, as a body, was born and was nourished with food appropriate to it. But God the Word Himself, united with the body, continued to order all things and, through the works He performed in the body, made Himself known not as a mere human being but as God the Word. These things are said of Him because the body that ate, was born, and suffered belonged to no one else but the Lord. And since He had become human, it was fitting for these things to be said of Him as a human being, so that He might be shown to possess a body in truth and not merely in appearance.
Just as these ordinary bodily experiences made His presence in a body known, so the works He performed through the body made Him known as the Son of God. Therefore He cried out to the unbelieving Jews: "If I do not perform the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I perform them, even if you do not believe Me, believe My works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father."
Just as, though invisible, He is known from the works of creation, so also, after becoming human, though He could not be seen for what He was in the body, He could be known from His works: the one doing these things was not merely human, but the Power and Word of God.
To command demons and drive them out is not a human work but a divine one. And who, seeing Him heal the diseases to which the human race is subject, would still think Him merely human and not God? He cleansed lepers, made the lame walk, opened the ears of the deaf, gave sight to the blind, and simply drove away every disease and weakness from people. From these works even an ordinary observer could see His divinity. Who, seeing Him restore what people had lacked from birth and open the eyes of the man born blind, would not understand that human birth itself was subject to Him and that He was its Creator and Maker? For the one who restored what the man had lacked from birth must surely be Lord also of human birth.
For this reason, when He first came down to us, He formed a body for Himself from the Virgin, giving everyone no small sign of His divinity: the one who formed this body is also the Maker of all others. Who, seeing a body come forth from the Virgin alone without a man, would not conclude that the one appearing in it is also the Maker and Lord of other bodies?
Who, seeing the nature of water changed and transformed into wine, would not understand that the one who did this is Lord and Creator of the nature of all waters? For this reason, as Master, He also stepped onto the sea and walked on it as on land, giving those who saw Him a sign of His lordship over all things. And when He fed so great a crowd from so little, providing abundance where there was none, so that five thousand were satisfied from five loaves and as much again was left over, He showed Himself to be none other than the Lord whose providence is over all.