Sermons & Tracts 2 part 6/18

For thus what seemed infinitely diffused through many things was concluded in this brevity: so that hence it may be understood that the prophet said, 'For the Lord will make a consummating and abbreviating Word upon the earth' (Isa. 10:23); He therefore consummated in two precepts the Word, whose coming the star foretold in two years. In these two years can also be understood the two Testaments, old and new. For there is not one author of the Law by which we are terrified, and another of the grace by which we are helped: since He Himself said, 'If you believed Moses, you would believe me also; for he wrote of me' (John 5:46); and He Himself is the Wisdom of God, of whom it is said, 'She carries the law and mercy on her tongue' (Prov. 31:26).

But since through the two years two seasons rather can be understood as signified, we can also understand two comings of Christ: one of humility, the other of glory; and our two births, since He through whom all things were made is surely the author of both: one by which we are born in the flesh, the other by which we are reborn in the faith. 5. The union of Jews and Gentiles. Let us therefore exult and rejoice in Him whom the swaddling-clothes had wrapped, and the Angels announced: who lay in the manger, and shone amid the stars; whom, as the everlasting King to be adored by the Gentiles, not the gem of a diadem but the star of heaven pointed out; who sucked the breasts, and made the suckling babes into martyrs.

Let us acknowledge the cornerstone, in which two walls coming from different sides—one from the circumcision of the Jews, the other from the uncircumcision of the nations—are joined by a faithful kiss: for He is our peace, who made both one. He, coming, as you have heard through the Apostle, preached peace to those who were far off, and peace to those who were near (Eph. 2:14, 17). Near were the shepherds; far off were the Magi: both acknowledged Him, both came; and according to Isaiah the prophet, both found in the manger their fodder, like the ox and the ass (Isa. 1:3). For these peoples from the Jews and Gentiles Christ, being glorified, took up; being born, He received as firstfruits.

To us therefore especially belongs the rejoicing of this day, who have come from among the Gentiles. 6. The mystical gifts of the Magi. The Magi, when they adored Christ, offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11): gold, because they saw a king; frankincense, because they understood a God. They also knew that His flesh would suffer; for they offered myrrh also for His burial. These things they offered according to their own consideration. But from us He receives gold, if we give alms; frankincense, if we pour forth prayers; myrrh, if we die for Him.

Accordingly, since 'Epiphany' indicates by a Greek word a manifestation (for the Lord's infancy, hidden from the Magi who desired to adore, is made manifest by the pointing of the star), let us follow the way of the shining Gospel, and holily adore Him to whom we are made manifest; that when God shall come manifestly, and shall no longer be an infant, because He will not keep silence (Ps. 49:5), we may deserve to appear at His right hand. SERMON 132. On the Epiphany of the Lord, II. 1. Today the Jews are joined with the Gentiles. The coming in the flesh of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ began to be made manifest to the Gentiles in that very tender rising of His from the Virgin, when the Magi came from the East to adore Him.

This most solemn day has been made with due sanctity for the Church, especially that which grew from the Gentiles and, by the cornerstone, joined the other wall together in a richer structure: so that He, our peace, might make both one, founding the Church out of the circumcision and the uncircumcision (Eph. 2:14). Whence He is called the cornerstone, as coupling in Himself those coming from diversity, that He might change both into one body for God, as the prophetic and evangelic and apostolic doctrine testifies. So when the Lord had been born of the Virgin—which day we very recently celebrated—the shepherds, admonished by the Angels according to Luke the Evangelist, came to the manger of the infant Word (Luke 2:9); and those shepherds were Israelites:

behold, one wall was foreshadowed, running toward the cornerstone from the circumcision. A few days having passed thence, today the Magi are believed to have come from the East, and to have recognized the greatness of that little one, whom Matthew the Evangelist commemorates (Matt. 2:1-12). Behold another wall, converging from the despair of the uncircumcision, which prefigured us, and doubled for us the festal day with familiar gladness. 2. The star appeared two years before. What led the Magi to adore. For seeing in heaven a most unknown star—not a few days, but almost two years before, as they disclosed to the inquiring Herod (whence he slew the infants from two years old and under, according to the time, as it is written, which he had inquired of the Magi);

having marveled at this star, as is understood, they deserved by a consequent revelation to know also whose it was, namely, of the king of the Jews: and since, He being born, they had come to know this by His grace, they were able today to hasten to adore Him. Certainly these far-off foreigners, and utterly strangers to that kingdom, did not think that so great an honor was owed by them to a king of the Jews, such as others were wont to be; but they had learned that such a One was born, in adoring whom they might in no way doubt that they would obtain the salvation which is according to God. For there was not even an age to which human flattery might be servile; no royal throne shone beneath His knee, no purple upon His limbs, no diadem upon His head:

no pomp of attendants, no terror of an army, no fame of glorious battles had drawn these men from far-off lands to Him with so great a vow of supplication. There lay in the manger a child newly born, small in body, contemptible in poverty: but something great lay hidden in the little one, which those men, the firstfruits of the Gentiles, had learned not from the earth carrying Him, but from heaven telling of Him; toward which, from so far away and so suppliant, they came; which by gazing they did not see, and which by adoring they desired to merit. The Queen of the South indeed had come from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: nor was she moved by the loftiness of his kingdom, but by the light of his mind (1 Kings 10:1; Matt. 12:42).

Nevertheless, there was in Solomon a doctrine which, spread abroad most widely and far by his words, was able to excite zealous minds to learn: therefore she had come not to adore a hidden God, but to hear a speaking man; not to adore, but to hear. But this One, who had given that wisdom to Solomon, and was the power and wisdom of God, clothed with the weakness of the flesh, was as yet keeping silence upon the earth through His tiny age, while He already shone in the heavens through His most ample majesty. 3. The cruelty of Herod is to be detested, but more to be marveled at is the folly of the Jews. Why do you fear, Herod? Why are you troubled with a malignant mind? He is born through whom you may see the kingdom of God, not one whom you should envy the kingdom of men. Why do you rage?

Why do you slay the infants? Why, being guilty, do you pursue an innocent age with a guilty sword? By the sword of this King no one shall be secure through cruelty, but through mercy. To be detested, therefore, is the madness of Herod's raging: but more to be marveled at is the folly of the Jews, on account of whom, to be judged by the divine disposition, that star withdrew itself for a little while from the sight of the Magi seeking Christ. For it appeared in order to point out the place where the child had been. It could indeed have shown even the city; but that Christ should be born in Bethlehem of Judah, the Jews, questioned from the holy Books, had to declare—ready to read, blind to understand, hard to believe.

These men, therefore, let us also dismiss in the oldness of the letter, and, aided by their books, let us acknowledge, together with these foreigners, that Christ is to be adored. SERMON 133. On the Epiphany of the Lord, III. 1. The cause and reason of the solemnity. The cause, most beloved, and reason of today's solemnity, both the evangelic narrative and the custom of observance have often disclosed to you: nor is it now necessary that the things which were done amid the human beginnings of our Savior be so recounted, that we should discourse of the splendor of the new star, of the Magi and the Magi's gifts, of the savagery of Herod, and of the slaughter of the infants;

since, as you know, in the brightness of the star the grace of God, in the three men the calling of the Gentiles, in the impious king the cruelty of the pagans, and in the killing of the infants the pattern of all the martyrs went before. But because on this most sacred day the office of a priestly sermon is to be rendered to your expectation, let us strive, as we can, with the help of the Spirit of God, to arrive also by the paths of understanding, that we may recognize the mystery of the present feast to pertain to the times of all the faithful; and let it in no way be held as unusual, that in the order of dispensations something ancient is adored. 2. The necessity of the Incarnation.

Although, therefore, every Christian soul ought to feel nothing unworthy concerning the majesty of the Son of God, and, having passed beyond the rudiments of beginning faith, each one ought to advance to loftier things; yet it is necessary that the weakness of the human mind, while it receives Christ as true man, should tremble at the very fellowship of our nature, and should with difficulty come, through the corporeal beginnings or increments, to the recognition of the one deity with the Father. But when, amid darkening thoughts, a ray of the supernal light shall have shone forth, let the splendor of the truth break off the delays of a hesitating faith: so that the heart, free and loosed from visible things, may follow the light of understanding as a leading star;

because, as the Apostle says, 'the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father' (Phil. 2:11): so that Him whom it venerated lying humbly in the cradle, it may adore without difference as reigning with the Father. But this manifestation, most beloved, which dissolves the clouds of hesitating souls, and so makes known the Son of God that they suffer no obstacle from the fact that He is also the same Son of man, pertains to the dignity of the present feast: and the very infancy of the Savior is a declaration of His deity, when the sense of the flesh is transferred from human things to divine; so that those whom the experiences of infirmities depress, the signs of virtues may raise up:

because both our nature and our cause needed such an aid, so that to restore the human race, humility could not do it without majesty, nor majesty without humility. 3. Here let no one be secure. But now, along with the advances of individual believers, the keeping of the divine commandments shines forth, and that is fulfilled which was said, 'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5:16); who there would not understand the deity to be present, where he sees true virtue appear? which is surely nothing without God, nor obtains the property of deity, unless it be quickened by the Spirit of its Author. For the Lord saying to His disciples, 'Without me you can do nothing' (John

15:5), there is no doubt that a man doing good things has from God both the effect of the work and the beginning of the will. Whence also the Apostle, that most abundant exhorter of the faithful, says, 'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will' (Phil. 2:12, 13). And this is a cause to the saints of trembling and fearing, lest, elated by the very works of piety, they be forsaken by the help of grace, and remain in the weakness of nature. 4. Signs of God's indwelling in us. Charity, the mother of all virtues. But whoever desires to prove whether God dwells in himself—of whom it is said, 'God is wonderful in His saints' (Ps. 67:36)—

let him examine the inner parts of his heart with sincere scrutiny, and shrewdly inquire with what humility he resists pride, with what benevolence he struggles against envy, how he is not captured by the tongues of flatterers, and how much he delights in the goods of others; whether for evil he does not desire to render evil, and would rather forget injuries unavenged than lose the image and likeness of his Creator, who, inciting all to the knowledge of Himself by general gifts, rains upon the just and the unjust, and makes His sun to rise upon the good and the evil (Matt. 5:45). And lest the inspection of solicitous discernment labor in many things, let him inquire in the secret places of his mind for that very mother of all virtues, charity:

and if he shall have found it with his whole heart intent upon the love of God and neighbor, so that he wishes to be granted even to his enemies the very things which he desires to be bestowed upon himself; whoever is of this manner, let him not doubt that God is both his ruler and his indweller: whom he receives so much the more magnificently, the more he glories not in himself, but in the Lord; since to those to whom it is said, 'The kingdom of God is within you' (Luke 17:21), they are governed by none other than the Spirit of Him by whose command they are ruled. Knowing therefore, most beloved, that charity is God, who works all things in all; follow after charity, so that into one affection of chaste love the hearts of all the faithful may concur.

Let vain things pass from us, and, lest they occupy us, let us, with constant desire, tend toward those things which always abide. For the mystery of the present feast ought to be perpetual in us: which surely will be celebrated without end, if in all our acts the Lord Christ appears, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 134. On the Epiphany of the Lord, IV. 1. Concerning the celebration of the Epiphany there is diverse tradition. Although, most beloved brethren, concerning the solemnity of this day there is a diverse tradition of the ancients, yet the faith of holy devotion is one. And although some today reckon that our Lord Jesus Christ was adored by the Magi coming from the East with a star as guide;

while others assert that He changed water into wine; and certain ones affirm that He was baptized by John: in all of these the Son of God is believed, in all of these is our festivity. For that it is granted to the Magi, surely gentiles, both to adore the Lord and to offer gifts, is the prefigured calling of the Gentiles: that water is transformed into wine, the mystery of our religion is signified: but that Jesus is baptized in the flowing of the Jordan, the waters are consecrated to our Baptism. It behooves us therefore, dearly beloved, to bring forth now something concerning that Baptism itself to your Sanctity, as the Lord shall grant; that you may know at once both the humility of our Savior and the glory of the mysteries. 2. John's baptism did not blot out sins.

The humility of Christ. John was preaching in the wilderness a baptism of repentance to a sinful people, not that it might blot out crimes already committed, but that it might correct those who erred; for the remission of sins was reserved to the grace of Christ. There flowed together, therefore, to the Jordan, out of longing for that washing, a most abundant multitude of every kind, whose deeds were so wicked and whose life so utterly lost that the venerable Baptist compared them to a brood of vipers. Among men of this sort, that Lord of the heavenly powers, He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble (Ps. 104:32), Christ Jesus, does not disdain, humble and quiet, to hasten to the baptism of His own little servant.

But what wonder is it concerning the gentleness of the Saviour, if He bowed Himself to the hands of the Prophet, who suffered Himself to be crucified by His enemies? 3. John's testimony concerning Christ. As He hastened to the river, John broke out before the surrounding crowds into such a cry: Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29): that is to say, Cease now, cease from my baptism by which penance is undertaken. Behold the Baptist through whom crimes are forgiven: stop wishing to be baptized any longer by your fellow servant. Present is the Lord of us all, who baptizes unto life; follow Him, believe in Him, of Him with your whole mind entreat as suppliants the washing of salvation, by whom I too, your very baptist, desire to be baptized.

Jesus indeed did not refuse the testimony of this voice; but He who would fulfil all things in due order, nonetheless requires to be baptized by John. And the devout Baptist, trembling at the power of the One he was to baptize, said: I ought to be baptized by Thee, and dost Thou come to me? that is: because I am a creature, Thou the Creator; I a servant, Thou the Lord; I the figure, Thou the Truth. But Jesus said: Suffer it now; for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness: that is, Why dost thou now recall these things? The purpose of the humility I have undertaken must be fulfilled. Then he who had feared to presume, swiftly obeys at the command of Him who orders it. 4. The manifestation of the Trinity, the power of Christ. Jesus therefore is baptized not for Himself, but for us:

He is baptized, not that He might be purified by the waters, but that He Himself might sanctify the waters: the new man is baptized, that He might establish the sacrament of the new Baptism. The heavens, it says, were opened to Him: I judge that there was in the heavenly places a marvelling over the things that were being done on earth, as Scripture says, Into whom the Angels desire to look (1 Pet. 1:12). For how could the Powers of the heavens and the Dominions, the Cherubim and Seraphim, not marvel, when they saw the Lord of hosts baptized in a river by a man? And that the attestation of John might be confirmed also by heavenly testimony, he sees the Holy Spirit in bodily form, as a dove, descending and remaining upon Jesus:

and he hears also the Father saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:14-17). Consider, most beloved brethren, how great a grace has been laid open to us in the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, by how subtle a Sacrament the Trinity has this day revealed itself to man. For the Father is heard in the voice, the Son is manifested in the man, the Holy Spirit is discerned in the dove. And by how wondrous a mystery does our Lord Jesus Christ, whether by the touch of His body or by the passage of His glory, at that moment sanctify, quicken, and illumine every creature? For He consecrates the waters when He is baptized; He sanctifies the earth when He is buried; He raises the dead when He rises again; He glorifies the heavenly things,

when He ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. SERMON 135. On the Epiphany of the Lord, V. 1. The water enriched more than Mary. We can understand, most dear brethren, how great a grace we owe to Christ the Lord, who heaps vows upon vows, who multiplies joys upon joys. For behold, we still rejoice that Christ the Lord was born; and already we are glad that for the salvation of the human race He was baptized. Not yet is the feast of His birth completed; and already the solemnity of His baptism must be celebrated. Scarcely was He born to men; and already He is reborn in the sacraments. For today, though after the course of many years, He was consecrated in the Jordan.

Thus therefore the Lord ordained that He should join vow to vow, that is, that at one and the same season He should both be brought forth through the Virgin, and be begotten through the mystery; and that there should be a continuous festivity of the nativity of the flesh and of the baptism: so that as we then marvel that He was born of an uncorrupted mother, so now we may receive Him plunged in the pure water: and may glory in both deeds, because a mother bore a son, and is chaste; and because the water washed Christ, and is holy. For as after childbirth Mary's chastity was glorified, so after baptism the purification of the water was proved: except that the water was almost enriched with a greater gift than Mary. For she merited chastity only for herself; this conferred sanctification upon us.

She merited not to sin; it, to cleanse away sins. She rejects her own faults from herself; it, through God's grace, forgives in itself the faults of others. To her was granted virginity; to it, fruitfulness was given. She brought forth one, and is a virgin; it begets many, and is pure. She knows no son besides Christ; it, together with Christ, is the mother of peoples. 2. The second nativity of Christ. Today therefore is in a certain manner another birth of the Saviour. For by the same signs, by the same miracles we recognize Him begotten, but now baptized with a greater mystery. For lastly the Holy Spirit, who then was present to Him in the womb (Luke 1:35), now shone about Him in the flood: He who then hallowed Mary, now sanctifies the streams.

The Father who then overshadowed in power, now cries out in a voice: and as by a more mature counsel, He who then furnished a shadow for the nativity, now bears testimony to the truth. For God says: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:17). This second nativity is more illustrious. Plainly the second nativity is more illustrious than the first. For the former begot Christ without a witness, in silence; the latter baptized the Lord with the profession of His divinity. From the former Joseph, who was thought to be His father, excuses himself; in the latter the Father, who was not believed, makes Himself known. There the mother labors under suspicions, because a father was lacking to the confession; here the mother is honored, because divinity attests the Son. More honorable, I say, is the second than the first nativity:

seeing that here the Father is registered as the God of majesty; there Joseph is reckoned a craftsman. And although in both the Lord was born and baptized through the Holy Spirit, nevertheless more honorable is He who cries out from the heavens than he who labors on earth. 3. God the Father, a craftsman. Joseph therefore, a craftsman on earth, was thought to be the father of the Lord and Saviour (Matt. 13:55), nor from this work is God excluded who is truly the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: for He too is a craftsman. For He is the Artificer who fashioned the fabric of this world not only by a marvelous but even by an unspeakable power; who like a wise architect suspended heaven by its fineness, founded the earth upon its mass, bound the seas with their pebbles.

He is the Artificer who, according to a certain measure, casts down the heights of pride and exalts the lowest things of humility. He is the Artificer who in our conduct prunes away superfluous works and preserves whatever is useful. He is the Artificer whose axe, laid to our root, John the Baptist threatens: that every tree which has exceeded the standard of just discernment, cut down from the root, may be delivered to the fire (Matt. 3:10); but that which has the measure of truth may be appointed to the heavenly building. 4. Christ, while He is baptized, cleanses the waters. Today therefore the Lord is baptized in the Jordan.

What kind of baptism is this, where He who is immersed is purer than the fountain, where, while the water washes the One received into it, it is not defiled by any filth, but is honored with blessings? What kind, I say, is the baptism of the Saviour, in which the streams are rather purged than purge? For by a new kind of sanctification the water did not so much wash Christ as it was itself washed. For from the moment the Saviour immersed Himself in the water, from that moment He consecrated by the mystery of baptism the courses of all floods and the veins of all fountains: so that wherever anyone shall wish to be baptized in the name of the Lord, the water of the world does not so much wash him as the wave of Christ purifies him. But the Saviour willed to be baptized for this reason, not that He might acquire cleanness for Himself, but that He might cleanse the streams for us. 5. The mystical gifts.

Meanwhile the blessed embassy of the Magi, led to the sacred cradle, marvels at the ray running down from above. Ethiopia goes before Judaea, its sin-blackness to be washed away, and to be clothed with the whiteness of faith. What an astonishing condescension! He who embraces heaven and earth is enclosed in His mother's embrace: He who exceeds the kingdom of the Father lies hidden in His mother's bosom. Through a simple service, a spiritual secret is revealed: humanity is beheld, and divinity is adored. They present gold, frankincense, and myrrh, offering more in mysteries than in their own understanding. In the gift of gold is shown royal dignity, in the vapor of the frankincense the divine majesty, in the appearance of the myrrh a humanity to be buried:

and thus the number of the offerings speaks the Trinity, while the single devotion attests the unity. Through this, therefore, let us always strive with watchful intention of heart to look upon heaven, if we desire to come to Christ. Let the perfect star of righteousness direct for us the paths of life, He who said, Thou shalt not appear in My sight empty (Exod. 23:15). Let us offer Him the gold of faith, the spices of piety, the holocausts of chastity. Let us also have spiritual myrrh within us, which so seasons our souls that it keeps them unharmed from the corruption of sin: which may He Himself deign to grant, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. SERMON 136. On the Epiphany of the Lord, VI. 1. A fourfold manifestation of Christ on this day.

In each of them the mysteries of our salvation are contained. Recently, most dear brethren, we celebrated the sacrament of that redemption of ours, whereby God clothed man with his infirmities. But today we honor that whereby God declared Himself in man by virtues, in that on this day, whether the star in heaven furnished the announcement of His rising (Matt. 2), or whether in Cana of Galilee at a wedding feast He turned water into wine (John 2), or whether in the waters of the Jordan by His baptism He consecrated the waters for the restoration of the human race (Matt. 3:13), or whether from five loaves He satisfied five thousand men (Matt. 14:19): in each of these the mysteries and joys of our salvation are contained.

For unto us He was born of the Virgin, which the star showed forth; unto us the washing of baptism was granted, which He consecrated in the bed of the Jordan; He also foreshowed by the miracle of His work that we too are to be changed for the better, when He turned the water into wine. And therefore, most dear brethren, in our every act let us prepare the star of faith; and in the keeping of purity, let us celebrate the baptism of Christ: for this regeneration of Christ is the confirmation of our faith. For He instilled in us the benefit of His gift by the example of the second nativity, and what He willed us to do, He first did Himself. We read that the Jews had various baptisms under the Law; but none of these could confer a general medicine against the evil of transgression.