Sermons 253

Although the beginning of this sermon has been excerpted from Maximus's fifth homily on the Lord's Nativity, yet we attribute the same to some uncertain author, because the style of the remaining part seems to us dissimilar. It is attributed to St. Maximus only in the Cassinensian codex 106, page 12; but in codex 106 of the archive of St. Peter, letter C, page 4, to St. Augustine; in the others which we have seen, to no one. Today, most dear brethren, Christ is born, we reborn. Today the Saviour of the world received through his mother the time of being born, who from the Father has no time of nativity. He who is eternally the Creator of all things, today, by being born of his mother, was made our Saviour. He was born for us today in the mutability of time, that he might lead us to the eternity of the Father.

God was made man, that man might be borne up as God. That man might eat the bread of angels, the Lord of angels today was made man. Today was fulfilled that prophecy which says: Drop down dew, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the just one; let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour (Isaiah 45). He therefore who had made all things was made, that he who had perished might be found. Thus in the psalms man confesses: Before I was humbled I sinned; and again: I have gone astray like a sheep that was lost (Psalm 118). Man sinned and was made guilty; God was born a man that the guilty might be freed. Man therefore fell, but God descended. Man fell miserably, God descended mercifully. Man fell through pride, God descended with grace.

For thus the Mother of the Lord heard from the angel: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you (Luke 1). He who was born first without a mother in the heavens, today was born without a father on earth. Christ was born God of the Father, man of the mother; of the Father's immortality, of the mother's virginity; of the Father without a mother, of the mother without a father; of the Father without time, of the mother without seed; of the Father the beginning of life, of the mother the end of death; of the Father ordaining every day, of the mother consecrating this day. For he sent before him the man John, who was born then when the days begin to diminish; and he himself was born when the days begin to increase, and by this is prefigured what John said: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3).

For human life ought to fail in itself and to profit in Christ, so that he who lives may live not for himself, but for him who died and rose again for all; and let each one of us say what the Apostle says: I live, yet now not I, but Christ conquers in me. He must increase, but I must decrease (Galatians 2). Let all his angels worthily praise him, because he is the eternal, incorruptible food, fattening them with life; because he is the Word of God, by whose life they live, by whose goodness they always live well. For they worthily praise God before God, and give glory to God in the highest. But we, his people and the sheep of his pasture, according to the small measure of our weakness, being reconciled through good will, merit peace.

For it is the true and today's voice of the very angels, which they poured forth exulting when the Saviour was born for us: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2). They praise fittingly; let us also praise obediently. They are his messengers; we too are his flock. He has filled their table in heaven; he has filled our manger on earth: the fullness of their table is that in the beginning was the Word (John 1); the fullness of our manger is that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Let us therefore celebrate the Lord's nativity, most dear brethren; let us celebrate the coming of God and man, that we may return to God. Let us therefore celebrate the festal day, not of human devotion, but of divine condescension;

not of infirmity, but of eternity; not of the forming, but of the re-forming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.