Sermons to the People 194.1–197.6

Hear, children of light, adopted into the kingdom of God; dearest brothers, hear; hear and exult in the Lord, you righteous, so that praise may befit you as upright. Hear what you know, recall what you have heard, love what you believe, preach what you love. As we celebrate this day as an anniversary, so expect the sermon due to this day. Christ was born: God from the Father, man from the mother; from the Father's immortality, from the mother's virginity; from the Father without a mother, from the mother without a father; from the Father without time, from the mother without seed; from the Father the beginning of life, from the mother the end of death; from the Father ordering every day, from the mother consecrating this day. For he sent ahead of himself the man John, who would be born when the days begin to shorten; and he himself was born when the days begin to lengthen, so that in this might be prefigured what the same John says: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” For human life must fail in itself and advance in Christ, so that those who live may no longer live for themselves but for him who died for all and rose again; and so that each of us may say what the Apostle says: “Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” For “he must increase, but I must decrease.”

All his angels praise him worthily; he is their eternal food, giving them life with incorruptible nourishment; for he is the Word of God, by whose life they live, by whose eternity they always live, by whose goodness they always live blessedly. They praise him worthily, God with God, and give glory to God in the highest. But we, his people and the sheep of his hands, reconciled according to the measure of our weakness, earn peace through good will. For it is truly the angels' own voice that we hear today, which they poured out in exultation when the Savior was born for us: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” Let them, then, praise him fittingly; let us too praise him obediently. They are his messengers; we too are his flock. He filled their table in heaven; he filled our manger on earth. For the fullness of their table is that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The fullness of our manger is that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” For so that man might eat the bread of angels, the creator of angels became man. They praise by living, we by believing; they by enjoying, we by asking; they by receiving, we by seeking; they by entering, we by knocking.

For who among men could know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ, and concealed in the poverty of his flesh? For “for our sake he became poor, though he was rich, so that by his poverty we might be made rich.” For when he took on mortality and consumed death, he showed himself in poverty; but he promised riches deferred, he did not lose riches taken away. “How great is the abundance of his sweetness, which he has hidden for those who fear him,” but perfects for those who hope in him! For “we know in part, until what is perfect comes.” To make us fit to receive it, he who is equal to the Father in the form of God, made like us in the form of a slave, reshapes us to the likeness of God; and the only Son of God, become son of man, makes many sons of men sons of God; and the slaves he has nourished through the visible form of a slave he perfects as free to see the form of God. For “we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. And we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” For what are those treasures of wisdom and knowledge, what are those divine riches, except that they suffice us? And what is that abundance of sweetness, except that it satisfies us? “Show us, then, the Father, and it suffices us.” And in a certain psalm one of us, or in us, or for us, says to him: “I shall be satisfied when your glory is made manifest.” But he and the Father are one; and whoever sees him sees the Father also. Therefore “the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory.” “Turning us, he will show us his face, and we shall be saved,” and we shall be satisfied, and it will suffice us.

Let our heart, then, say to him: “I have sought your face; your face, Lord, will I seek; do not turn your face away from me.” And let him answer our heart: “Whoever loves me keeps my commandments; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and show myself to him.” Those to whom he said this certainly saw him with their eyes, heard the sound of his voice with their ears, and thought of him as a man with a human heart; but what “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man,” that very self he promised to show to those who love him. Until this happens, until he shows us what suffices us, until we drink him as the fountain of life and are satisfied; meanwhile, while walking by faith we are exiles from him, while we hunger and thirst for righteousness and long with unspeakable ardor for the beauty of the form of God, let us celebrate with devout service the birthday of the form of a slave. We cannot yet contemplate that he was begotten of the Father before the daystar; let us throng to celebrate that he was born of a virgin in the hours of night. We do not yet grasp that his name endures before the sun; let us recognize his tabernacle placed in the sun. We do not yet behold the Only-begotten abiding in his Father; let us remember the bridegroom coming forth from his chamber. We are not yet fit for the banquet of our Father; let us recognize the manger of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and likewise the son of man, born of the Father without a mother, created every day; born of a mother without a father, he consecrated this day; invisible in his divine birth, visible in his human birth, wonderful in both. Accordingly, it is hard to judge which birth the prophet's prediction about him, “Who shall declare his generation?”, refers to: that one in which, never not born, he has a coeternal Father, or this one in which, born at a certain time, he had already made the mother in whom he would be made; that one in which he who always was is always born. For who shall declare how light was born of light and both are one light? how God was born of God and the number of gods did not grow? how it is said of that birth, as of something completed, that he was born, when in that birth time neither passed so that it would be past, nor went before so that it would be future, nor was present as though it were still happening and not complete? Who then shall declare this generation, when what is to be declared remains above times, while the speech of the one declaring passes in time? And who shall declare this generation from the virgin, whose conception in the flesh did not come about in a fleshly way, whose birth from the flesh brought abundance to the one nursing and did not take away integrity from the one giving birth? Whichever of these, then, or both: who shall declare his generation?

This is the Lord our God; this is the mediator between God and men, the man, our Savior; who, born of the Father, created even his mother; created of his mother, he glorified even the Father: the only Son of the Father without a woman's childbearing, the only son of his mother without a man's embrace. This is he who is “beautiful in form beyond the sons of men,” the son of holy Mary, the bridegroom of holy Church, whom he has made like his own mother: for he both made her a mother for us and keeps her a virgin for himself. For to her the Apostle says: “I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Of her again he says that our mother is not the slave woman but the free, whose children are many, those of the desolate more than of her who has a husband. The Church, then, like Mary, has perpetual integrity and uncorrupted fruitfulness. For what Mary merited in the flesh, the Church has preserved in the mind; except that Mary bore one, while the Church bears many, to be gathered into one through the One.

This, then, is the day on which he came into the world through whom the world was made; on which he became present in the flesh, though in power he was never absent; for he was in this world and came to his own. He was in the world, but was hidden from the world, for the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. So he came in the flesh to cleanse the vices of the flesh. He came in healing earth, with which to cure our inner eyes, which our outer earth had blinded; so that when they are healed, we who were once darkness may become light in the Lord, and the light may no longer shine in darkness, present to those who are absent, but may appear clearly to those who see. For this the bridegroom came forth from his chamber and rejoiced like a giant to run his course. Beautiful as a bridegroom, strong as a giant, lovable and terrible, severe and serene, fair to the good, harsh to the evil, remaining in the bosom of the Father he filled the womb of his mother. In that chamber, that is, the Virgin's womb, the divine nature joined the human to itself; there the Word became flesh for us, so that, coming forth from his mother, he might dwell among us, and, going ahead to the Father, might prepare for us a place to dwell. Let us, then, celebrate this day joyfully and solemnly, and through him who, eternal, was born for us in time, let us faithfully long for the eternal day.

Today, the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, has dawned for us as a feast. The birthday, on which the Day was born. And that is why it is today, because from today the day grows. The births of our Lord Jesus Christ are two: one divine, the other human; both wonderful: that one without a woman as mother, this one without a man as father. What the holy prophet Isaiah says, “Who shall declare his generation?”, can be referred to both generations. Who could worthily declare God begetting? Who could worthily declare the virgin's childbearing? That one without a day, this one on a fixed day; both beyond human reckoning and calling for great wonder. Look at that first generation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Whose Word? The Father's own. What Word? The Son himself. Never was the Father without the Son. And yet he who was never without the Son begot the Son. He both begot and did not begin. For one begotten without beginning there is no beginning. And yet he is Son, and yet begotten. Someone will say: How is he begotten, and yet has no beginning? If begotten, he has a beginning; if he has no beginning, how is he begotten? How, I do not know. Do you ask a man how God was begotten? Your question weighs on me; but I appeal to the prophet: “Who shall declare his generation?” Come with me to this human generation, come with me to this one, in which he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, in case we may be able to grasp even this, in case we may be able to say something even about it. For who could grasp “Who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God”? Who could grasp this? Who could think of it worthily? Whose mind would dare examine it? Whose tongue would dare pronounce it? Whose thought could grasp it? Let us leave this aside for the moment: it is too much for us. But so that it might not be too much for us, “he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men.” Where? In the Virgin Mary. Let us say something, then, about that, if we can. The angel announces, the virgin hears, believes, and conceives. Faith in the mind, Christ in the womb. A virgin conceived: marvel. A virgin gave birth: marvel more. After giving birth she remained a virgin. Who then shall declare this generation?

I am saying something that will delight you, dearly beloved. There are three ways of life in the Church among the members of Christ: married, widowed, and virgin. Because these very ways of life, these forms of chastity, were to be found among the holy members of Christ, all three of these ways of life bore witness to Christ. First, the married: when the Virgin Mary conceived, Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah, had also herself conceived; she was carrying in her womb the herald of this Judge. Holy Mary came to her, as if to greet her kinswoman. The infant leapt in Elizabeth's womb. He leapt; she prophesied. There you have married chastity bearing witness. Where is the widowed? In Anna. You heard just now, when the Gospel was read, that she was a holy prophetess, a widow of eighty-four years, who had lived seven years with her husband, frequenting the temple of the Lord, serving with prayers night and day. And this widow too recognized Christ. She saw him little; she recognized him great. She too bore witness. There you have in her the widowed life. In Mary, the virgin life. Let each choose for himself whichever of these three he will. Whoever wants to be outside these does not intend to be among the members of Christ. Let married women not say: We do not belong to Christ. Holy women had husbands. Let virgins not exalt themselves: the greater they are, the more let them humble themselves in all things. All the examples of salvation have been set before our eyes. Let no one stray from the track. Let no one go beyond his wife; it is better to be without a wife. If you seek married chastity, you have Susanna; if widowed, you have Anna; if virginal, you have Mary.

Let mercy not seem cheap: Wisdom lies on the ground. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” O food and bread of angels: from you the angels are filled, from you they are satisfied and do not grow weary of you; from you they live, from you they are wise, from you they are blessed. Where are you for my sake? In a cramped lodging, in swaddling cloths, in a manger. For whose sake? He who rules the stars sucks at the breasts; he fills the angels, he speaks in the bosom of the Father, he is silent in the bosom of his mother. But he will speak at the fitting age, to fulfill the Gospel for us. For us he will suffer, for us he will die, as an example of our reward he will rise, before the eyes of his disciples he will ascend into heaven, he will come from heaven to judgment. See, he who lay in the manger was made small but did not lose himself; he took what he was not, but remained what he was. See, we have the infant Christ; let us grow with him.

Let this be enough for Your Love. Because I see many here on account of the feast, I must say this. The Kalends of January are coming. You are all Christians; by God's favor the city is Christian. There are two kinds of people here, Christians and Jews. Let those things not be done which God hates: wickedness by way of play, depravity by way of a joke. Let people not make themselves judges, lest they come into the hands of the true Judge. Listen: you are Christians, you are members of Christ. Think what you are; think at how great a price you were bought. Finally, if you want to know what you are doing (I am speaking to those who do it; let those who dislike these things not take it as an insult to themselves; I am speaking to those who do them and to those whom they please), do you want to know what you are doing, and what sorrow you bring on us? Do the Jews do that? At least let that make you blush, so that it is not done. On John's birthday, that is, six months ago (for that is how many months lie between the herald and the Judge), Christians came to the sea from a superstitious pagan festival and bathed themselves there. I was away; but, as I learned, the presbyters, moved by the discipline proper to Christians, gave some of them a fitting ecclesiastical discipline. People grumbled about it, and some said: What would it have cost to tell us? If we had been warned beforehand, we would not have done it. If the presbyters themselves had warned us beforehand, we would not have done it. See, the bishop warns you beforehand: I warn, I preach, I proclaim. Let the bishop be heard commanding, let the bishop be heard warning, let the bishop be heard pleading, let the bishop be heard adjuring. I adjure you by him who was born today: I adjure you, I bind you, let no one do it. I free myself of responsibility. Better that I be heard warning than felt grieving.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.” Of whom, if not of both Jews and Gentiles? But lest it be said: Why against the ungodliness of the Gentiles? For the Gentiles never received the Law, and so never became transgressors. The wrath of God is rightly revealed against the Jews, to whom the Law was given and who would not keep it; but to the Gentiles it was not given. Look, brothers, and understand how he shows all to be guilty, and all to need salvation and the mercy of God. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness.” See how he did not say, “They do not have the truth,” but, he says, “They hold down the truth in unrighteousness.” And as if you asked, How can those have the truth who did not receive the Law? it follows: “Because what is known of God,” he says, “is manifest among them.” And how could what is known of God be manifest among those who did not receive the Law? He goes on and says: “For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made; his eternal power also and divinity.” We understand, of course, “is clearly seen, being understood.” For why should anyone look at the works and not seek the maker? You look at the earth bearing fruit, you look at the sea full of its creatures, you look at the air full of birds, you look at the sky shining with stars, and so on; and do you not seek the maker of so great a work? But you say to me: These things I see; him I do not see. To see these he gave the eyes of the body; to see himself he gave the mind. For you do not see a man's soul either. Just as, then, from the movements and management of the body you understand the soul, which you do not see, so from the management of the whole world and the governing of souls themselves understand the Creator. But to understand is not enough. For they did understand; and see what the Apostle says: “Because, knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened.” For what desert, if not pride? For see what follows: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” For they ought not to have claimed for themselves what he had given, nor boasted of what they had not from themselves but from him. This was to be given back to him, so that, to hold fast to what they could see, they might be healed by him who had granted them to see. For if they had done this, they would have kept humility, and could have been purified and would have clung to that most blessed contemplation. But because pride was in them, a false, deceitful, and proud one interposed himself, promising them that their souls would be purified by I know not what arts of pride; and he made them worshippers of demons: hence all the rites that are celebrated by pagans, which they say avail for the purification of their souls. And hear the Apostle saying next that they received these things as the wages of pride, because they did not honor God as God is to be honored: “And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man.” Now these are idols. And these indeed belong to all the Greeks and other nations, and have the likeness of men. But since there is no greater or more superstitious idolatry than that of the Egyptians (for Egypt flooded the world with such figments as the Apostle names next), after saying “into the likeness of an image of corruptible man,” he added, “and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents.” For have you not, brothers, seen in other temples an idol with a dog's or a bull's head, and figments of other irrational animals? For these are the idols of the Egyptians. Embracing both kinds, the Apostle says: “Into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. Therefore God gave them up in the desires of their heart to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.” These evils of theirs come from the ungodliness of pride. And these sins, because they come from pride, are not only sins but also punishments. For when he says, “God gave them up,” it is already a matter of punishment for a certain sin that they do these things. “Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” What is “exchanged the truth of God for a lie”? Into the likeness, that is, “of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents.” And lest any of them say, I do not worship the idol but what the idols signify, he at once added: “And they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Understand this wisely. For they worship either the idol or the creature. Whoever worships an idol turns the truth of God into a lie. For the sea is truth, but Neptune is a lie made by man, the truth of God turned into a lie: because God made the sea, but man made the idol of Neptune. So God made the sun; but man, by making an idol of the sun, turned the truth of God into a lie. But lest they say, I do not worship an idol, I worship the sun, he therefore said, “They worshipped the creature rather than the Creator.”

But perhaps someone will say: Even if he himself was born humbly, he wanted to make a show of the nobility of his disciples. He did not choose kings or senators or philosophers or orators; no, he chose common people, the poor, the unlearned, fishermen. Peter was a fisherman, Cyprian an orator. Unless the fisherman had faithfully gone ahead, the orator would not have humbly followed. Let no lowly person despair of himself: let him hold fast to Christ, and his hope will not be false, and so on.

What did Simon want, but to be praised for miracles, to be lifted up by pride? For it was pride that drove him to think that the gift of the Holy Spirit could be bought with money. Opposed to that pride, the Apostle, remaining in humility, fervent in spirit at midday, shining with prudence, says: “Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth.” For he had said: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” And again: “Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” See how he refuses to be worshipped in place of Christ, and will not display himself as bridegroom to an unfaithful soul. Does it not seem great to plant and to water? But “neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters.” How he feared! He does not call himself anything for the salvation of those whom he desired to build up in Christ.

Nor did the Apostle himself want hope to be placed in him, but in the truth that he proclaimed. What was spoken through him was better than he himself through whom it was proclaimed. “Even if we,” he says. That is not enough; hear what follows: “or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you anything other than what you have received, let him be anathema.” He saw that a false mediator could transform himself into an angel of light and proclaim something false. Just as proud men want to be worshipped in place of God, to claim for themselves whatever they can, to be named, and, if possible, to surpass Christ himself in glory, so do the devil and his angels. The Donatists hold Donatus in place of Christ. If they hear some pagan disparaging Christ, they may bear it more patiently than if they hear someone disparaging Donatus.

For Christ himself speaks in his saints, as the Apostle says: “Do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?” And although he says, “Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth,” not because he wanted himself to be loved but Christ in himself, yet he bears witness to some, saying, “You received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” In all his saints, then, he is to be loved who says, “I was hungry, and you gave me to eat.” For he does not say, “You gave to them,” but, “You gave to me.” So great is the love of the head for his body!

What is Juno? Juno, they say, is the air. A while ago he was inviting us to worship the sea in the image of the earth; now he invites us to worship the air. These are the elements of which this world consists. So the apostle Paul, setting this out in his letter, says: “Beware lest anyone deceive you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the elements of this world.” For he was touching those who explain idols to people as if to the wise. That is why, when he said “philosophy,” he said in the same place “according to the elements of this world”: warning that they are to be guarded against, not as ordinary worshippers of idols, but as more learned interpreters of signs.