講道集 第 11 章

In which manuscript codices this homily is read I would say more copiously, if there were need. But it will be enough to mention these very few, from which the rest do not differ. The M. E. codex of Turin exhibits it, in which it is homily 22 on the Nativity of the Lord; besides, the Lucca codex 85; Vatican Palatine 433, page 103; Vatican Reginensis 125, page 71 at the front; and finally two Belgian codices, the Martinian and the Cambronese, in which it is homily 7 on the Nativity of the Lord—all of which, with constant inscription, announce Saint Maximus as its author. With these agree four other codices, namely Casinensis 106, Vercellensis 81, Vallicellianus 125, and Augiensis 16. The Benedictines themselves of the congregation of Saint Maurus, since they found it among the sermons of Saint Augustine on the season, in the appendix

placed it among the sermons; and, relying on the authority of manuscript books that were also printed, they adjudged it to our Maximus. Compare volume V of the works of Saint Augustine, Antwerp edition of the year 1700, page 155. Gymnicus in fact on page 22, Galesinius page 91, Combefis volume I page 108, Cumdius page 168, Raynaudus page 196, and Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima volume VI page 6, judged that it ought to be published. At the coming of the Lord, dearest brethren, all fear of the paternal transgression has been dissolved, which mortality, encompassed long ago by devilish deceits, incurred. For there is present to us the judge of heaven and earth, who, the bond of our sins having been torn up, in mercy absolves our guilt.

There is present that Lord who, loosing the yoke of the ancient captivity from our necks, gladdens the sorrow of the world with eternal liberty. There is present that gentle King who, walking through the expanses of the whole world with the steps of heavenly justice, has crushed the proud tyranny of the raging enemy. For today, Mary bringing forth, the Son of God has been born to us, that, brought forth by a true conception of our flesh, he might bestow upon the man created by himself both a fatherly love and a brotherly affection. And he was indeed born of an untouched woman, that human birth might attest him to be man and eternal virginity might prove him to be God.

For just as none but flesh could be born of flesh, so the flesh of God could not proceed from a female womb except without one who begets. Wherefore the angel said to the most blessed Mary: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; and that which shall be born of you, the Holy One, shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1). The Holy Spirit, he says, shall come upon you. Therefore, brother, the angelic word protected you by the power of the Holy Spirit, lest, blunted by the conjectures of carnal disputation, you should fashion for yourself the heavenly mystery by earthly argumentation. Or do you not think that he was able to form a new child in the womb of a virgin, who, when he first created man, sought neither the seed of a father nor the inner parts of a mother?

Tell me, then, whoever you are that would arbitrate and dispute over the supernal dispensation, which power seems to you the more eminent: to have given childbearing to a virgin, or to have created a perfect man from earth? For the first man, as the Apostle says, is of the earth, earthly; the second man is from heaven, heavenly (1 Corinthians 15). If you contend that it is against nature that in the mystery of our redemption a maiden is asserted to have conceived without a man, of what nature, I ask, is it that in the parent of our race flesh was formed without flesh? What sort of reasoning is this—nay, what blind contention—that God is not believed able to make a man from a woman, whom he is believed to have made from dust? If, O man, you perceive that in such a matter there is the will of the Almighty,

why do you cavil at his work? For all things, as it is read, the Lord has done whatsoever he willed, in heaven and on earth (Psalm 134). And if you should carefully search, you will find that the Trinity has worked, besides this lawful custom of human conception, three exceedingly wonderful kinds of being born. And the first indeed is that Adam was fashioned from clay; the second, that woman was formed from the male; the third, which is also heavenly, that Christ proceeded from a virgin. Which of these is not new? Which of these is not wonderful? Which of these, unless we follow faith, can human inquiry embrace? But that the Son of God deigned to visit his world by this mystical conception, the necessity of our salvation demanded;

namely, that the heavenly generation might at last restore what earthly nativity had lost. But perhaps you distrust that he who is proclaimed born of a woman is God, while he is wrapped in mean swaddling cloths, while he is content to lie in a manger, while he cries out with tearful wailings, while he is nursed at maternal breasts? Nay, through these very things, brother, perceive that he both, as man, endured weak things for the weak, and, as God, exercised heavenly power. For this one, who is wrapped in filthy swaddling cloths, is honored with royal gifts by the Chaldeans (Matthew 2; Luke 11). This one, who lies humble in a manger, gleams from heaven with the light of a new star (John 6). This one, who renders the wailings of infancy, is praised together by the voices of the angelic host.

This one, who is nourished with female milk, satisfied many thousands of men with a very little bread. What shall I add to this—that Lazarus, rising from the dead, proves him to be God and the true Son of God (John 11); the blind man, restored to light, announces it (Luke 18); the wave, trodden by his venerable footsteps, attests it (Matthew 14); and, what surpasses all these, the paternal voice, resounding from heaven, confirms it (Matthew 3)? Wherefore, most beloved, let us honor with worthy voices this so great sacrament of the Lord's nativity: let us love chastity above all things, because, that Christ might show this to be pleasing to himself, he chose the purity of a virginal womb; let us follow mercy, because it is of godliness that we are saved;

let us solicitously hold to justice, because for this reason the Only-begotten of God deigned to be made man: that, preaching the truth, he might cleanse the whole face of the world, with iniquity condemned.