Sermons & Letters 17

Chapter I. — Let us exult in the Lord, dearly beloved, and let us be glad with spiritual joy, because there has dawned for us the day of new redemption, of ancient preparation, of eternal felicity. For there is renewed for us in the yearly revolution the sacrament of our salvation, promised from the beginning, rendered at the end, destined to abide without end. In which it is worthy that we, with hearts most uplifted on high, should adore the divine mystery, so that what is wrought by God's great gift may be celebrated with the great joys of the Church.

For God, almighty and clement, whose nature is goodness, whose will is power, whose work is mercy, as soon as the devil's malice slew us with the poison of its envy, at the very beginnings of the world foreshadowed the remedies of His piety prepared for the renewing of mortals; denouncing to the serpent the future seed of the woman, which by its own power should crush the lifting up of the harmful head (Gen. 3:15); signifying, that is, Christ to come in the flesh, God and man, who, born of the Virgin, should by His incorrupt nativity condemn the violator of the human race.

[For because the devil boasted that man, deceived by his fraud, had been deprived of the divine gifts, and, stripped of the endowment of immortality, had undergone the harsh sentence of death, and that he had found in his own evils a certain solace from having a fellow-partner in transgression; and that God too, as the reckoning of just severity demanded, had changed His former sentence toward man, whom He had created in such great honour: there was need, dearly beloved, of the dispensation of a secret counsel, so that the unchangeable God, whose will cannot be deprived of its own benignity, might complete the first disposition of His piety by a more hidden sacrament, and that man, driven into guilt by the cunning of diabolical iniquity, should not perish contrary to God's purpose.] Chapter II.

— When therefore the times had come, dearly beloved, which had been appointed for the redemption of men, [there enters into these lowest parts of the world Jesus Christ the Son of God, descending from the heavenly seat, yet not withdrawing from the paternal glory, begotten in a new order, by a new nativity. In a new order, because invisible in His own, He was made visible in ours; incomprehensible, He willed to be comprehended; abiding before the ages, He began to be in time; the Lord of the universe took up the form of a servant, the dignity of His majesty being overshadowed; the impassible God did not disdain to be a passible man, and the immortal to be subject to the laws of death.]

But by a new nativity He was begotten, conceived of a Virgin, born of a Virgin, without the paternal concupiscence of the flesh, without injury to the maternal integrity: because such a birth befitted the future Saviour of men, who should both have in Himself the nature of human substance, and not know the defilements of human flesh. For the Author to God being born in the flesh is God, as the archangel attests to the blessed Virgin Mary: Because the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; and therefore that which shall be born of you holy shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

The origin is dissimilar, but the nature akin; it is without human use and custom, but supported by divine power, that a virgin conceived, that a virgin gave birth, and remained a virgin. Let not here be considered the condition of one giving birth, but the will of the one being born, who was so born a man as He willed and was able. If you seek the truth of the nature, recognize the human material; if you scrutinize the reason of the origin, confess the divine power. For the Lord Jesus Christ came to take away our contagions, not to suffer them; not to succumb to our vices, but to heal them. He came to cure every languor of corruption and all the ulcers of foul souls:

for which reason it was fitting that He should be born in a new order, who was bringing to human bodies the new grace of undefiled sincerity. For it was fitting that the incorruption of Him being born should guard the primal virginity of His parent, and that the infused power of the divine Spirit should preserve the enclosure of modesty pleasing to Himself and the lodging of sanctity, He who had determined to raise up the cast down, to make firm the broken, and, over the enticements of the flesh to be overcome, to grant a multiplied power of chastity: so that virginity, which in others could not be preserved by generating, might be made imitable also in others by being reborn. Chapter III. — But this very thing, dearly beloved, that Christ chose to be born of a Virgin, does it not appear to have been of the highest reason?

namely, that the devil should be ignorant of the salvation born to the human race, and, the conception being spiritually hidden, seeing Him no other than others, should believe Him to have been born no otherwise than the rest. For when he perceived His nature like that of all men, he judged Him to have a cause common with all; nor did he understand Him free from the bonds of transgression, whom he found not a stranger to the infirmity of mortality. For the truthful mercy of God, when for the repairing of the human race means unspeakably manifold were at hand, chose especially this way of taking counsel, whereby, for the destroying of the work of the devil, He should use not the power of might, but the reason of justice.

For the pride of the ancient enemy not without cause claimed for itself a certain tyrannical right over all men, and pressed with no undue dominion those whom, from the commandment of God, he had allured of their own will into obedience to his will. Therefore he would not justly lose the original servitude of the human race, unless he were conquered by that which he had subdued. And that this might be done, Christ was conceived without virile seed of the Virgin, whom no human intercourse, but the Holy Spirit made fruitful. And whereas in all other mothers conception does not occur without the stain of sin, this one drew thence its purification, whence it conceived. For where the infusion of paternal seed did not reach, there the origin of sin did not mingle itself.

Inviolate virginity knew no concupiscence, yet ministered the substance. [There was assumed from the Mother of the Lord nature, not fault.] The form of a servant was created without the servile condition, because the new man was so tempered to the old, that He both took up the truth of the race, and excluded the vice of the old estate. Chapter IV. — Since therefore the merciful and almighty Saviour so ordered the beginnings of the taking up of humanity, that He hid the power of the Godhead inseparable from His manhood beneath the veil of our infirmity, the craft of the confident enemy was deluded, who thought the nativity of the child, born for the salvation of the human race, no otherwise liable to himself than that of all men. For he saw Him wailing and weeping, he saw Him wrapped in swaddling-clothes (Luke

2:12), made subject to circumcision, and having discharged the offering of the legal sacrifice. He recognized thereafter the wonted increments of childhood, and up to the years of manhood he did not doubt the natural augmentations. Meanwhile he brought in insults, multiplied injuries, applied curses, reproaches, blasphemies, revilings, and finally poured out all the force of his fury against Him, ran through every kind of temptation; but, knowing with what poison he had infected human nature, he in no way believed Him exempt from the first transgression, whom he had learned by so many proofs to be mortal.

The wicked plunderer and greedy exactor therefore persisted in rising up against Him who had nothing of his own; and while he pursues the general prejudice of the corrupted origin, he oversteps the bond on which he relied, demanding the penalty of iniquity in Him in whom he found no fault. And so the ill-conceived writing of the death-bearing pact is dissolved, and by the injustice of demanding too much, the whole sum of the debt is voided. That strong one is bound with his own chains, and every device of the malignant one is turned back upon his own head. The prince of the world being bound, the vessels of captivity are seized. Nature, purged from the ancient contagions, returns to her honour, death is destroyed by death, nativity is repaired by nativity:

since redemption at once takes away servitude, and regeneration changes the origin, and faith justifies the sinner. Chapter V. — Whosoever therefore you are that gloriest piously and faithfully in the Christian name, weigh with just judgment the grace of this reconciliation. For to you once cast off, to you thrust out from the seats of paradise, to you dying in long exiles, to you dissolved into dust and ashes, for whom there was now no hope of living, through the incarnation of the Word power has been given, that from afar you may return to your Author, may recognize your Parent, may be made free out of a servant, may be advanced from a stranger into a son; that you who were born of corruptible flesh may be reborn of the Spirit of God, and obtain through grace what you had not through nature;

and that, if you acknowledge yourself the Son of God through the spirit of adoption, you may dare to call God your Father. Absolved from the guilt of an evil conscience, may you sigh after the heavenly realms, may you do the will of God supported by divine aid, may you imitate the angels upon earth, may you be fed by the power of an immortal substance, may you fight securely against hostile temptations for the sake of piety, and, if you keep the sacraments of the heavenly warfare, doubt not that you will be crowned in the triumphant camps of the eternal King for your victory, when the resurrection prepared for the pious shall have received you to be advanced into the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom. Chapter VI. — Having therefore the confidence of so great a hope, dearly beloved, stand firm in the faith in which you have been founded;

lest that same tempter, whose domination Christ has now shut out from you, should seduce you again by any snares, and corrupt these very joys of the present day by the art of his deceit, deluding simpler souls by the pestilent persuasion of certain persons, to whom this day of our solemnity seems honourable not so much on account of the nativity of Christ, as on account of the rising, as they say, of the new sun. Whose hearts, enveloped in vast darkness, are strangers to every increase of the true light; for they are still dragged by the most foolish errors of heathenism, and because they cannot lift the edge of the mind above that which they behold with fleshly gaze, they venerate with divine honour the luminaries that minister to the world.

Let impious superstition and monstrous falsehood be far from Christian minds. Beyond every degree the temporal is distant from the eternal, the corporeal from the incorporeal, the subject from the ruler: because, although they have an admirable beauty, yet they have not an adorable Godhead. That power therefore, that wisdom, that majesty is to be worshipped, which created the whole universe out of nothing, and by omnipotent reason produced the earthly and heavenly substance into whatever forms and measures it willed. Let sun, moon, and stars be a convenience to those who use them, let them be beautiful to those who behold them;

but in such a way that thanks be rendered from them to their Author, and God be adored, who created them, not the creature which serves. Praise God therefore, dearly beloved, in all His works and judgments. Let there be in you an undoubting belief in the Virgin's integrity and childbearing. Honour with holy and sincere service the sacred and divine mystery of the human reformation. Embrace Christ born in our flesh, that you may deserve to see the same God of glory reigning in His majesty, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit abides in the unity of the Godhead unto the ages of ages. Amen. Chapter I. — Known indeed to you, dearly beloved, and frequently heard, are the things which pertain to the sacrament of today's solemnity;

but as this visible light brings pleasure to unharmed eyes, so the birth of the Saviour gives eternal joy to sound hearts, which is never to be kept silent by us, though it cannot, as is worthy, be fully expounded. For we believe that what was said, Who shall declare His generation? (Isa. 53:8), pertains not only to that mystery whereby the Son of God is co-eternal with the Father, but also to this birth whereby the Word was made flesh (John 1:14).

God therefore the Son of God, of the same and equal nature from the Father and with the Father, the Creator and Lord of the universe, wholly present everywhere and wholly exceeding all things, in the order of times, which run their course by His disposition, chose for Himself this day on which He should be born of the blessed Virgin Mary for the salvation of the world, with the modesty of her who bore Him whole in all respects. Whose virginity, as it was not violated by the birth, so had not been sullied by the conception. That it might be fulfilled, as the evangelist says, which was spoken by the Lord through Isaiah the prophet: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us (Matt.

1:23). For here the wondrous childbearing of the sacred Virgin brought forth one person truly human and truly divine, because neither did each substance so hold its own properties that there should thereafter be a distinction of persons in them; nor was the creature so taken into the fellowship of its Creator that the one should be indweller and the other dwelling-place, but so that one nature should be mingled with the other. And although one is that which is assumed, and another indeed that which assumes, yet the diversity of both comes together into so great a unity, that there is one and the same Son, who, both according to that whereby He is true man, says Himself less than the Father (John 14:28), and, according to that whereby He is true God, professes Himself equal to the Father (John 10:30). Chapter

II. — This unity, dearly beloved, whereby the creature is joined to the Creator, the Arian blindness could not discern with understanding eyes, which, not believing the Only-begotten of God to be of the same glory and substance with the Father, called the Godhead of the Son less, taking its arguments from those things which are to be referred to the servile form; which same Son of God, to show that in Himself they are not of an undistinguished nor of another person, thus says together with the same: The Father is greater than I (John 14:28); just as He says together with the same: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). For in the form of a servant, which He took up for the cause of our reparation at the end of the ages, He is less than the Father;

but in the form of God, in which He was before the ages, He is equal to the Father. In human lowliness He was made of a woman, made under the law (Gal. 4:4); in divine majesty He remains the Word of God, through whom all things were made (John 1:3). Accordingly, He who in the form of God made man, in the form of a servant was made man; being both God by the power of the one taking up, and both man by the lowliness of the one taken up. For each nature holds its own property without defect; and as the form of God does not take away the form of a servant, so the form of a servant does not diminish the form of God (Phil. 2:6). The sacrament therefore of the power united with infirmity, on account of that same human nature, allows the Son to be called less than the Father; but the Godhead, which is one in the Trinity

of Father, and of Son, and of Holy Spirit, excludes every notion of inequality. For there nothing has eternity that is temporal, nothing has nature that is dissimilar: there is not there a differing will, but the same substance, equal power, and there are not three gods, but there is one God; because true and inseparable is the unity where there can be no diversity. In the whole then and perfect nature of true man was born true God, whole in His own, whole in ours. But we call ours those things which the Creator founded in us from the beginning, and which He took up to be repaired. For those things which that deceiver brought in, and man deceived admitted, had no trace in the Saviour: nor because He underwent the fellowship of human infirmities, was He therefore a partaker of our sins.

He assumed the form of a servant without the stain of sin, exalting the human, not diminishing the divine: for that emptying whereby the invisible offered Himself visible was an inclination of compassion, not a defect of power. Chapter

III. — In order therefore that we might be called from the original bonds and from worldly errors to eternal blessedness, He Himself descended to us, to whom we could not ascend; because, although in many there was the love of truth, yet the variety of uncertain opinions was deceived by the cunning of the deluding demons, and human ignorance was dragged by the knowledge of a false name into diverse and conflicting sentences. But to take away this mockery, whereby captive minds served the proud devil, the teaching of the law did not suffice, nor could our nature be repaired by the exhortations of the prophets alone:

but there was to be added the truth of redemption to the moral institutions, and the origin corrupted from the beginning was to be reborn by new beginnings. A victim was to be offered for our reconciling, which should be both partner of our race and alien to our contamination, so that this purpose of God, whereby it pleased Him that the sin of the world should be blotted out in the nativity and passion of Jesus Christ, might pertain to the ages of all generations; and that the mysteries, varied according to the reckoning of the times, should not disturb us, but rather confirm us, since the faith by which we live has been diverse in no age. Chapter IV.

— Let then cease the complaints of those who, with impious murmuring speaking against the divine dispensations, allege the tardiness of the Lord's Nativity, as though what was accomplished in the last age of the world had not been bestowed in past times. For the incarnation of the Word conferred this being to be done, which was done: and the sacrament of human salvation ceased at no antiquity. What the apostles preached, this the prophets announced; nor was that fulfilled too late which has always been believed. But the wisdom and benignity of God, by this delay of the saving work, made us more capable of the calling; so that what had been foretold through so many ages by many signs, many voices, and many mysteries, might in these days of the Gospel not be doubtful:

and that the nativity of the Saviour, which was to exceed all miracles and every measure of human intelligence, might beget in us a faith so much the more constant, as its preaching had both preceded the more anciently and been the more frequent. Not therefore by a new counsel, nor by a late compassion, does God take thought for human affairs; but from the constitution of the world He established one and the same cause of salvation for all. For the grace of God, whereby the whole company of the saints has always been justified, was increased, not begun, at the birth of Christ: and this sacrament of great piety, wherewith the whole world is now filled, was so potent even in its foreshadowings, that they obtained no less who believed it promised, than those who received it given. Chapter V.

— Wherefore, since with manifest piety, dearly beloved, such great riches of the divine goodness have been poured out upon us, for the calling of us to eternity, whereby not only the usefulness of preceding examples has ministered, but the very truth has appeared visible and corporeal, we ought to celebrate the day of the Lord's Nativity with no sluggish nor carnal joy. Which is worthily and diligently done by each one, if each remembers of what body he is a member, and to what Head he is joined; lest the discordant framework should not cleave to the sacred building. Consider, dearly beloved, and, according to the illumination of the Holy Spirit, prudently observe who has taken us up into Himself, and whom we have taken up in ourselves:

For just as the Lord Jesus became our flesh by being born, so also we were made His body by being reborn. Therefore we are the members of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit; and for this reason the blessed Apostle says, 'Glorify and bear God in your body' (1 Cor. 6:20). He, instilling in us the pattern of His own gentleness and humility, endued us with that virtue by which He redeemed us, the Lord Himself promising, 'Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls' (Matt. 11:28-30).

Let us therefore take up the yoke of the truth that governs us, a yoke neither heavy nor harsh, and let us be like Him in humility, to whose glory we desire to be conformed—He Himself helping us and leading us on to His promises, who according to His great mercy is able to blot out our sins and to perfect His gifts in us: Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.