and—what pertains to the praise of the Lord's name—she began to be both mother and virgin after childbirth. For a virgin conceived, a virgin brought forth, a virgin she remained inviolate after childbirth. When she bore Him, she feared; when she brought Him forth, she adored: whom, when she had given birth to Him, the mother was less than the Son. Christ's generation prefigured in Adam. A great mystery did the divine majesty send before us in the figure of Adam. For as our God, when He first willed to make Adam, did not from the union of man or woman effect that man should exist; but taking earth, from which He makes man, formed him by a certain divine art: so without the union of man He dispensed that God should be embodied in a virginal womb.
Therefore, if it was then permitted that man should be born without man, why was it not permitted that man should be procreated without man through the Virgin Mary? Since as Adam was formed from the virgin earth, so also Christ is acknowledged to have been born of a virgin. There, then, the breath of God made a living man to rise from the earth unto life: here, for the world, the Holy Spirit fashioned from the Virgin Mary Christ the man, in whom God might dwell for the reparation of man. For there Adam is born; here he is renewed and raised again in Christ. There was therefore a like reparation, as there had been also the creation of man. In short, as then in the womb of the earth the Saviour composed Adam's members; so also now in the Virgin's womb Christ composed His own members. O great patience of the Saviour;
He waits to be born as His own members which He made! But for this reason He willed to be born, that we might live again. God lay hidden in man: power was humbled, that loving-kindness might be increased; and—what pertains to the praise of His name—it was seen that the power willed less than it was able. He humbled Himself as man: nor did God shrink from putting on the man whom He had fashioned to His own and the Father's image; whence the Son of God willingly willed to be this which He had made. For to this end our God sent His Son to deliver man, that He to whom He had said, 'Let us make man' (Gen. 1:26), might Himself also be the deliverer, who had been also the creator. Why Christ was born of a woman. Why it was announced that He rose again through women.
But why did our God, being born through the Virgin, will thus to reform us unto life? So that, since through a woman death entered into this world, salvation might be restored through a Virgin. In short, when Christ rose on the third day from the dead, women first meet Him, adoring through the angel: to whom for this reason it is commanded to announce the resurrection to the Apostles, so that it might be shown to men, 'Behold, through her by whom you fell into death, the resurrection of the dead is announced to you.' For woman, because she had first tasted, is shown also first to have seen the resurrection, so that she might not bear a reproach of perpetual guilt among men; and she who had transfused guilt upon us, transfused also grace. The necessity of chastity for one desiring to be a Christian.
In short, our Lord for this reason came to the earth through the members of a chaste virgin, that He might show God to be the author of chastity. Therefore, just as our God took us up into Himself, let us also take up God in ourselves. Let us therefore bear God in a chaste body, whom the chaste members of the Virgin bore. For Christ is the master of chastity: and therefore he who has not chastity cannot bear Christ. But let us also, most beloved, who believe in God, that we may always bear Christ in our heart, present ourselves chaste and pure from all sin; that Christ may be able to dwell in us. For he who does not have Christ in himself cannot be called a Christian.
For no one ought so to exalt himself as to call himself a Christian in name only, and by his deeds show himself an enemy. How is he a Christian who strives to live contrary to the precepts of Christ? But you who serve God, and keep His precepts, He is able to grant you life eternal, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 126. On the Nativity of the Lord, X. Both generations of Christ are compared with each other. The Mother of Christ ever a virgin, who is ever a spouse. Each generation incomparable. The venerable Nativity of the Saviour, who was born in the flesh, is an instrument of humility, a mystery of loving-kindness, and a manifest remedy of eternal hope.
On this day He was born of a virgin mother, who before the ages was eternally begotten of God the Father. In that nativity He is born of an impassible Begetter; in this He was born of an incorrupt virgin. That nativity only the Father knew, He who begot Him; this the Virgin and undefiled Mother alone knew in herself, who in conceiving suffered no man. In the Father is impassibility, in the mother incorruptibility; in the Father perpetual divinity, in the mother eternal virginity. For thus the Lord speaks to her through the prophet: 'And I will betroth thee to Me forever' (Hosea 2:19). Therefore she is ever a virgin, who is ever a spouse: and she who did not lack the appellation of spouse, remained a virgin forever. 'And I will betroth thee,' He says, 'to Me forever';
because she who is called an eternal spouse is proved an eternal virgin. From the Father invisibly, from the mother visibly; but incomparably from the Father, and incomparably from the mother: because incorruptibly in that nativity He has God the Father without a mother of manhood; in this He has a virgin mother, but has not a man for father. In that He is coeternal with the Father, and coeternal with His Author: in this He is the son of a virgin, and the author of His mother. For He Himself formed the womb who descended into the womb; He came forth from the womb, and did not corrupt the womb: that He who has God the Father in the heavens, might have a virgin mother on earth. In that begotten without time, in this born at the end of times.
In that He is born without end, in this He is conceived without seed. In that without beginning of generation, in this under the condition of the Law and of the flesh. In that the invisible God, in this the visible man through a body: because 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (John 1:14). In that impassible, in this mortal. In that most high, in this made subject: subject indeed to the injuries of passion and of death; and that the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). But through all these things He is glorious in the heavens, who is found victor in all things on earth. The prerogative of Christ's Natal Day. The day of Christ's Resurrection the same as that of His conception.
He chose for Himself the day on which He should be born, who made every day, and not without the grace of preference is this day to be held above the rest, on which God is said to have been promoted into man. In short, on this day light received its increase, and the course of its running takes its growth, which is known to have been chosen for the glory of God. For He was conceived at the vernal equinox, and born at the winter solstice. And on the day on which He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin, on that same day He rose again from the dead with the glory of His passion. And yet both in His conception and in His nativity the day received an increase: and, the true Light being born, the office of light and of day is augmented. Meanwhile take heed, brethren, take heed to the Lord's sacrament.
In His nativity the day increases, in His passion it decreases, because 'from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour' (Matt. 27:45). And what was diminished in the passion, was enlarged in the resurrection. Behold that word: 'Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge' (Ps. 19:2): the day of the nativity announces the word to the day of the passion, and the day of the passion to the day of the resurrection; the night of the nativity to the night of the passion; and the night of the passion to the night of the resurrection: there He was born, here He suffered; in that the joy of Angels, in this the mourning of the whole world, but yet in the resurrection the triumph of all: because 'in the evening weeping shall abound, and in the morning gladness' (Ps. 30:5);
the evening of the passion, when a multitude of the people followed Him, and the women lamented and mourned; the morning of the resurrection, when the women ran with joy from the tomb, and the disciples hastened with joy to the tomb. The mystery of the growing day at Christ's Nativity. He chose therefore this day for Himself unto His nativity, for us unto felicity; for Himself unto service, for us unto joy. For thus the Angel proclaimed to the shepherds: 'Behold,' he says, 'I announce to you a joy, which shall be to the whole earth. Why? Because there is born to you today a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord' (Luke 2:10-11); so that deservedly it must be sung by us today: 'This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it' (Ps.
117:24). Behold, the day grows with the rising of Him who is born, and with the profitable increase or the successive advances of moments: and, the course of the night being diminished, the works of darkness feel their defect. For the eternal Day being born, the temporal day ought to receive increase: not that the day should confer anything on Him that is born, but that from Him that is born the day should acquire the prerogative of increase or of felicity, and become festal to the whole world, in which the true God was born man, perfect in the flesh. Christ's power shines forth in His self-emptying. Every school of this nativity therefore is a workshop of humility, a mass of patience, an arena of virtue.
First, because the immense and omnipotent Son of God, whose uncontainable power and incomprehensible greatness contains, encompasses, embraces, and exceeds heaven together with the world, willed to contract Himself into such narrowness and subtlety, that, enclosed within the Virgin's womb, He might both compress what He had in majesty, and conceal what He was in power: and lower Himself with such humility, that He might will to be the son of man, who never ceased to be the Son of God. But this none save God could do. For to have hidden Himself within His own greatness, since He is powerful, is not of human infirmity, but of divine power. For no one of men can hide himself or conceal that he is born:
for although he is by nature mortal in all respects, yet no one can deny of himself that he is born. But our God opened the power of His majesty in this, that He hid Himself within the bounds of human infirmity: that He might show Himself omnipotent most of all in this sacrament, whereby He subjected to His own power that which, by the power of the heavenly nature, would remain free from all subjection. For God, born of God the Father, willed to be man: but that which He was before, as God, He did not lose. For thus He willed to be man; and therefore that which was of man, He did not continue in the condition in which He was born. For He took upon Himself from the Virgin Mary a true man, whom by the glory of the resurrection He raised into heaven.
The humility of Christ, therefore, is the exaltation of our body: for when the Lord is humbled, man is exalted; and the servant is so exalted that in the Lord he became the very One who is Lord. This the most blessed Paul proves, saying: 'Who transfigured the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able to subject all things unto Himself' (Phil. III, 21). And again, 'Who, though He was established in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant; being made in the likeness of man, and found in fashion as a man: He humbled Himself even unto death, and death upon a cross.'
Wherefore God also exalted Him, and gave Him a name which is above every name (ibid. II, 6, etc.). SERMON CXXVII. On the Nativity of the Lord, XI. The Lord's two nativities. Pride is not greatness but swelling. The necessity of humility. Christ the only-begotten and the first-born. The yearly Incarnation of the Lord, and so frequent a gathering of your Brotherhood, requires of us the due office of a sermon. And so, brethren, with devout affection and a devoted heart let us knock at the door of the Lord: that He may grant to us confidence to speak what is profitable, and to your Charity the fruit of hearing.
May then our Saviour and the Master of humility, our Lord Jesus Christ, help us His most lowly ones—the Son of the Virgin, the Bridegroom of virgins, bodily born from a virginal womb, spiritually wedded in a virginal marriage. Today, therefore, He deigned to be born, He through whom all things were made: remaining what He is, and showing you what you are; abiding with the Father in divinity, He took upon Himself our infirmity in humanity. For we acknowledge two nativities of the Lord: one divine, the other human, yet both marvellous; the one without a mother, the other without a father; the one eternal, that He might create beings in time; the other in time, that He might bestow beings that are eternal.
For He of whom John the evangelist says that 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' and that 'all things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made'—that great One, He who in the form of God is equal to the Father, He who without time is the fashioner of times, He who is from no age, before all ages, the Judge of the world, was made so small that He should be born of a woman; yet He remained so great that He was not separated from the Father. Rendering Him homage and testimony, like lamps for the coming day, all the prophets foretelling Him came before Him by being born, and clung to Him afterward by believing. For it was fitting that He who was to come should be foretold as about to work miracles;
by which miracles it might appear, to those who understand well, that He was a man small to the small, but lowly to the proud: by His smallness teaching man to acknowledge himself small, lest by not growing great he should believe himself great. For pride is not greatness but swelling. What swells seems great, but is not sound. But that the Creator of the human race might heal this swelling, He Himself the physician, He Himself the medicine, not merely applying a remedy, appeared among men as man, offering a man to those who saw, keeping God for those who believed. For the sight of His humility healed the weak;
the contemplation of His divinity seeks out the strong. And while there were men who saw God in a man, yet would not place their hope in a man (who ought not to be followed): God was to be followed, who could not be seen. That therefore there might be exhibited to man both One whom man might see and One whom man might follow, God was made man. You ought to believe yourself to be something great. But because 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (John I, 1–3, 14), that same Wisdom which was begotten of God deigned also to be created among men; and to this pertains that saying, 'The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways' (Prov.
VIII, 22)—for His beginning is the Head of the Church, which is Christ—that is, a man through whom an example of living might be given us, namely a sure way by which we might come to God. For we could not return except by humility, we who fell through pride; as it was said to our first creature, 'Taste, and you shall be as gods' (Gen. III, 5). An example of this humility, that is, of the way, had therefore to be sought. Our very Restorer deigned to demonstrate it in Himself, He 'who thought it not robbery to be equal to God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant' (Phil. II, 6, 7); that man should be created in the beginning of His ways—the Word through whom all things were created.
Wherefore our Lord is proclaimed by the authority of the divine Scriptures as only-begotten and first-born: only-begotten of the Father, first-born from the dead. Wherefore, in respect of that whereby He is only-begotten, He has no brethren; but in respect of that whereby He is first-born, He deigned to call brethren all of us who, after His and through His primacy, are born in grace through the adoption of sons, as the apostolic teaching commends. The natural Son, therefore, in respect of that whereby He is the first-born Brother, was born the only One of the very substance of the Father, being that same thing which the Father is: God of God, light of light. But we are not light by nature;
but we are enlightened by that Light, that we may shine with wisdom, through Him who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON CXXVIII. On the Nativity of the Lord, XII. 1. The remedy of our restoration. Christ alone born without sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ, dearest brethren, who from eternity is the Creator of all, today by being born of a mother became our Saviour. He was born for us today in time by His will, that He might lead us to the Father's eternity. God was made man, that man might be made God. That man might eat the Bread of Angels, the Lord of Angels today was made man. Today is fulfilled that prophecy which says, 'Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above; and let the clouds rain the Just One:
let the earth open, and bring forth the Saviour' (Isa. XLV, 8). He therefore who had made was made, that He who had perished might be found. For thus in the Psalms man confesses, 'Before I was humbled, I sinned'; and again, 'I have gone astray like a sheep that was lost' (Ps. CXVIII, 67, 176). Man sinned and became guilty; God was born a man, that the guilty might be set free. Man therefore fell, but God came down: man fell miserably, God came down mercifully; man fell through pride, God came down with grace. For thus the Mother of the Lord heard from the angel: 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee' (Luke I, 28). He who was born first without a mother in heaven, is today born without a father on earth. O miracles!
O wonders, dearest brethren! The laws of nature are changed in man: God is born, a virgin without a man is made to conceive. Straightway the Word of God weds her who knew no man: at once she is made both mother and virgin; made mother, yet uncorrupted; a virgin having a son, yet knowing no man; ever sealed, yet not unfruitful. For He alone is born without sin, whom, apart from any manly embrace, not the concupiscence of the flesh but the obedience of the mind brought forth. The Virgin conceived; she alone could bring forth a medicine for our wound, who from no wound of sin sent forth the shoot of holy offspring. 2. Christ yesterday and today. O wondrous and exquisite joining! O new and unheard-of union! God who is and who was, becomes; the Creator, a creature. He who is immeasurable is contained;
making others rich, He is made poor; the incorporeal is clothed with flesh; the Word grows thick; the invisible is seen, the impalpable is handled, the incomprehensible is grasped, the immortal is slain. He whom heaven and earth bless is laid in a narrow manger. He who is before the ages is numbered in time. 'Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the same, and for ever' (Heb. XIII, 8). 'Yesterday' He said on account of mortality; 'today,' on account of eternity. Rightly today the heavens spoke, the angels rejoiced, the shepherds were made glad, the Magi were summoned, kings were troubled, martyrs were crowned, demons were put to flight. Therefore with joy let us say to holy Mary the Virgin, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ; let us say, and let us not be confounded:
Give suck, Mother, to Christ, both our Lord and our food. Give suck to the Bread that comes from heaven and is laid in a manger as the fodder of devout beasts. For there 'the ox knew his owner, and the ass his master's crib' (Isa. I, 3)—namely, the circumcision and the uncircumcision, cleaving to the corner-stone, of which the first-fruits were the shepherds and the Magi. Give suck to Him who so made you that He Himself might be made in you—He who both brought you the gift of fruitfulness when conceived, and did not take away the gift of virginity when born; who, before He was born, chose for Himself both the womb from which He would be born, and the city in which He would be born, and the day on which He would be born, and Himself established what He chose. For thus it was of old foretold:
'Of Zion it shall be said: A man, and a man is made in her, and the Most High Himself has founded her' (Ps. LXXXVI, 5). 3. The longing of Simeon. O the omnipotence of the newborn! O the magnificence of Him who descends from heaven to earth! He was still carried in the womb, and from His mother's womb He was greeted by John the Baptist. He was presented in the temple, and was recognized by the aged Simeon—famed, full of years, tried, crowned. Then he knew, then he adored, then he said: 'Now, Lord, dost Thou dismiss Thy servant in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation' (Luke II, 29, 30). He was deferring his departure from the world, that he might see the One born through whom the world was founded. The old man recognized the Infant, and the child was made glad in the child.
He who was full of piety was renewed in age. The aged Simeon bore the infant Christ; Christ upheld the old age of Simeon. It had been said to him by the Lord that he should not taste death unless he saw the Christ of the Lord born. Christ was born, and the old man's longing was fulfilled in the very old age of the world. He came to an aged man, He who found the world grown old. In this world indeed he was unwilling to remain long, and he desired to see Christ in this world, singing with the prophet and saying, 'Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy, and grant us Thy salvation' (Ps. LXXXIV, 8). Finally, that you may know that his gladness was truly such, he concluded, saying: 'Now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant in peace;
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' 4. Testimonies of the nativity of Christ. The prophets sang that the Maker of heaven and earth would be on earth among men; an angel announced that the Creator of flesh and spirit would come in the flesh; John from the womb greeted the Saviour in the womb; the aged Simeon acknowledged God as an infant; Anna the widow saw the virgin mother. These are the testimonies of Thy nativity, O Lord Jesus—before the waves of the sea were spread beneath Thee as Thou didst tread upon them and yielded to Thee as Thou didst command; before the wind fell silent at Thy bidding, the dead rose at Thy call, the sun grew pale at Thy dying, the earth trembled at Thy rising, heaven opened at Thy ascending. For Thou wast still carried in Thy mother's arms;
and already Thou wast acknowledged as Lord of the world. 5. Christ everywhere beautiful. For everywhere Christ the Lord appeared beautiful: beautiful in the heavens, beautiful on the earth; beautiful as the Word in the Father, beautiful as flesh and Word in the mother; beautiful in the womb of the Virgin, where He did not lose His divinity when He assumed humanity: for when He was here, when He was carried in arms, the heavens spoke, the angels rejoiced, a star guided the Magi. He was adored in the manger, the fodder of the meek; He, the child Christ, was adored in the temple by the aged Simeon, and was carried in the arms of one whom He Himself was upholding. Beautiful therefore is Christ in His miracles; beautiful in His scourgings, in His discourses, beautiful under the blows; heedless of death, and raising the dead;
beautiful on the wood, beautiful in heaven, beautiful even in the sepulchre. Who then, dearest brethren, would not adore 'the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega' (Rev. XXII, 13)? Who, I say, would not adore Him through whom the day breathed forth and the shadows were put to flight? 6. What Christ purchased from us, and what He gave in return. An emperor was born, that a sinner might be acquitted. For thus it is written: 'God chose the weak things of the world, that He might confound the strong' (1 Cor. I, 27). For the Lord Jesus Christ, through the flesh which He assumed, bestowed on us a great hope, a great consolation, a great grace. He was born—which we had not known; He was suckled by His mother—He drew what we had known. He purchased from us what abounds here, to be born and to die.
To rise again and to live for ever was not here. He found here cheap and earthly wares, and brought to earthly things that which is foreign and heavenly. If, O hearer, whoever you are, you shudder at the death of Christ, love the resurrection of Christ. Many indeed despised the lowly Christ, and did not attain to the height of Christ. But those who adored the lowly One found the exalted One. 7. The figure of the Law, the staff of Elisha. The foundation of the Christian faith. The Jews hear, and say, 'Christ is ours.' O blind Jews, if you recognized Him as yours, why did you kill Him? The Lord indeed accepted circumcision, being about to take away that same circumcision; He accepted the shadow, being about to give the light; He accepted the figure, being about to fulfil the truth.
He indeed gave you the Law; but the Law was given under that figure in which Elisha was, when he raised up the dead son of a certain devout woman. This is what happened. A dead child was announced to Elisha; he gave his servant a staff, and said to him: 'Go,' he said, 'and lay the staff upon the boy, and he shall live again' (4 Kings IV, 29). The servant took the staff, laid it upon the boy, and he did not rise. Therefore the Jews were able to receive the Law, but were not able to live in it. O you, Jew, hear the Law changed, if you wish to be changed; if you do not wish to be changed, in your oldness you are to be condemned: do not love the old tunic. Your father crucified Christ; you hate Him: he with his hand, you with your heart; both of you have accomplished the crime. Let it displease you what your father did;
hear what your Lord says: 'The Father,' He said, 'abiding in Me, He gave Me commandment what I should say and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life eternal' (John XII, 49, 50). If the Father's commandment is life eternal, if the Father's Word is life eternal, then He who was speaking was life eternal. He did not therefore do anything of Himself, because He is not from Himself. But from whom is He? From the Father. For the Father is God, but not from God; the Son, however, is God, but from God: therefore Son, because He was begotten of God, and always Son, begotten without beginning, and yet begotten. And how this may be understood, you await to hear from me: hear the prophet through me, 'Who shall declare His generation?' (Isa. LIII, 8).