Now for the first time we bring forward a second homily on the Epiphany of the Lord, drawn from the same codex of St. Dalmatius; but one much marred by the age of the codex and the corrosion of its letters. Yet where it was possible, we have supplemented it from the text of the Turin codex; in which codex this homily of ours is number 17, and is entitled: Likewise concerning the Epiphany of the Lord. In it, from number 14 to 17, it is plainly evident that two homilies, 15 and 16, have been lost by the injury of the times... (the ineffable) coming of the Lord and of our Savior Jesus Christ into this world, brethren, then first began to be made known to the Gentiles, when the Magi, following the guidance of a new star, came from the East to adore him.
For when he himself, clothed in human flesh, had come to deliver the whole world from the deadly captivity of the devil............ And indeed today's festival declares to us the beginnings of this our calling to the heavenly kingdoms, wherein he chose rather to manifest himself in a star. For in those men who came from Chaldea to adore the newborn king in the stable, the whole of the Gentile world is comprehended, just as in the gifts which they then offered to the newborn king are contained those precious offerings which the Savior himself, reigning in heaven with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, has obtained from the Gentiles. Therefore in the Christian faith the Magi were the firstfruits of the Gentiles. The faith of the Gentiles in Christ took...
...from them took its beginning. For although Christ our Lord willed that his Church, and its most glorious princes, should be the Jews; yet the Church, though indeed born from them, gained its full strength among the Gentiles: whence, while the Jews still persist in their grievous blindness, it was so manifested among the Gentiles that it seems to have grown together out of these alone; and even now the Hebrews are certainly not unlike their forebears.
For when the Magi inquired, and Herod himself was searching out whether, and where, he whom they were then seeking, the Redeemer of the ages, ought to be born, they, out of the sacred volumes of the Scriptures which they themselves read, said not only that he was to be born in Bethlehem (here some things are missing, by which the discourse was connected and joined together). Concerning this matter they pointed to the prophecies of their prophets, and asserted that the time of that very nativity had now come; yet they do not seek out the newborn king. Pitiable indeed is the blindness of the Jews! They were not ignorant that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. They hold the oracles by which it is shown that Christ has already been born.
They hear the Chaldeans inquiring about the place of his nativity, and they see them, yet they do not seek out Christ. And thus was that prophetic saying truly then fulfilled: They to whom it was not told concerning him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand (Isa. 52; Rom. 15). Nothing had been announced to the Chaldean, yet he saw the star, and believed, and understood that Christ was signified in the star. To the Hebrew it had been said that the Redeemer of the world would come. He held the oracles of the prophets concerning him. He knew that Christ had been born in Bethlehem. And although this had been foretold to him concerning him, he neither understood, nor was willing to see him born, that he might one day be able to crucify him. These, then, being left in their blindness, do thou rejoice and be glad on this holy...
...day rejoice, and cease not to venerate the beginnings of thy faith in those three Magi, who came from the East to Bethlehem to worship Christ. And with exulting soul conceive the hope of one day obtaining those eternal dwellings, provided that thou follow, by works which Christ commanded, the faith thou holdest. And although even now the Jews think our Redeemer, wailing in his cradle and lying in the manger, to be despised, let us nevertheless believe that Christ himself is to be adored by all. The end.