Today, brethren, we must return the discourse of yesterday; today we must renew the joy of the Lord's nativity: when a virgin conceives, a virgin bears, and remains a virgin, it is not custom but a sign; it is not reason but power; there is an author, not nature; it is not common but unique; it is divine, not human. Let the labour of vain philosophy therefore cease: for Christ to be born was not necessity but power; it was honour, not injury; it was the sacrament of His mercy, not the detriment of His deity; it was the restoration of human salvation, not the diminishing of the divine substance. He who, without being born, made man from untouched clay, was Himself born, making man from an untouched body;
the hand which deigned to take up clay for the moulding of us, for our restoration deigned to take up flesh also. Therefore that the Creator is found in His creature, that God is found in flesh, is the honour of the creature, not the injury of the Creator. But he judges this a reproach who believes clay more precious than flesh. Does it perhaps repent it of the injury done to clay, that it has been changed into the honour of flesh, into the glory of man? O man, why are you so cheap to yourself, who are so precious to God? Why do you thus dishonour yourself, who are so honoured by God? Why do you ask whence you were made, and do not inquire for what you were made? Is not this whole house of the world which you behold made for you? For you the poured-in light removes the surrounding darkness; for you the night is tempered, for you the day is measured out:
for you the heaven is made to shine with the varied radiance of sun, moon, and stars; for you the earth is painted with flowers, groves, and fruits; for you there is created in the air, in the fields, in the water a fair and wondrous multitude of living things, lest a mournful solitude should mar the joy of the new age. Hence it is that He made you to be of earth, that you might be lord of earthly things, and be shared in common with them in the fellowship of the same substance: yet He did not so equate you as earthly with earthly things that He did not also, made living from heaven, equate you with heavenly things: and that you might have a common reason with God, and a body common with the beasts, He gave you a soul from heaven, He gave you a body from earth, that in you the bound concord of heaven and earth might be preserved.
Yet still your Creator devises what He may add to your honour: in you He places His own image (Genesis I), that a visible image might set forth the invisible Creator as present to the earth, and among earthly things He gave you His own place, that so ample a possession of the world might not be defrauded of the Lord's vicar. And if these things are so, why now is it thought an injury, when God has clemently received into Himself in you that which He made through Himself, and has willed truly to be seen in the man in whom before He willed to be seen in an image; and has granted that He Himself should be a property, who before had received to be a likeness? A virgin conceived, a virgin bore: let not the conception disturb you, let not the birth confound your hearing, since virginity excuses whatever there is of human shame.
Or what wounding of modesty is there, where the Deity enters into fellowship with an integrity ever dear and friendly to Himself; where an angel is the interpreter, faith the bridesmaid, chastity the betrothal, virtue the endowment, conscience the judge, God the cause, integrity the conception, childbirth the virginity, and the Virgin the mother? Let no one therefore judge in a human manner what is wrought by a divine mystery, let no one discuss a heavenly mystery by earthly reason, let no one handle the secret of this newness by common custom, let no one measure by example what is singular, let no one compose a reproach out of mercy, let no one incur peril concerning salvation. Surely he who desires to know loftier things, let him have recourse to the law, let him seek through the law the knowledge of the law, let him recognize the Author's deed by the Author's authority. The law relates (Genesis)
that God created man for a life proper to himself, that He commanded the earth to bring forth fruits for man by a spontaneous service; that He commanded beasts, cattle, and herds to lie subject to human power, not to human craft, so that man, knowing no toil, ignorant of pain, blessed, might possess delights. But lest man should have all these things, the angel who was reckoned among the first envied him, and preferred to be turned into a devil rather than see man thus full of glory. In fine, kindled by this malice, he assails the woman with wiles, and induces the virgin to taste the forbidden fruit:
the seduced virgin soon seduces her virgin husband, and casts down life's estate, the food of death, the fodder of sin, while she ministers it, and she herself becomes the material of the whole ruin—she who had been made for a singular solace. Hence the first sin, hence the origin of death, hence toil, hence sorrow, hence groaning, hence the bitter condition of our servitude was propagated. For man, once lord of all, was cast down into the servitude of all, and he who was feared by all fears all; and he who reigned by power scarcely prevails by craft. Hence it is, brethren, hence it is, that such is the order of Christ's birth: the devil had come to a virgin, an angel came to Mary; that what the evil angel had cast down, the good angel might raise up. He persuaded by treachery, this one by faith:
she believed the persuader, this one believes the Author. Christ is born, that by being born He might restore corrupted nature; He took up infancy, He endures the stages of nurture, He runs through the ages, that He might renew the one perfect, abiding age which He Himself had made: He bears man, that man might no longer be able to fall; whom He had made earthly, He made to be heavenly; the one made alive by a human spirit, He quickens in spirit into the divine: and so He lifts him wholly into God, that in him He might leave nothing of sin, of death, of toil, of sorrow, of earth—our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing it, who with the Father lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, now and always, and through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.
At the coming of our Lord and Saviour, and in the presence of His body, the angels, leading the heavenly choirs, brought good tidings to the shepherds, saying: I announce to you a great joy, which shall be to all the people (Luke II). Having therefore borrowed our voice from these very holy angels, we too announce to you a great joy. For today the Church is at peace, and the heretics in wrath; today the Church's ship is in the harbour, and the fury of the heretics is tossed upon the waves; today, brethren, the shepherds of the Church are in safety, and the heretics in disturbance; today the sheep of the Lord are secure, and the wolves rage; today the vineyard of the Lord is in abundance, and the workers of iniquity in want;
today the people of Christ, dearly beloved, are exalted, and the enemies of truth are humbled; today, most beloved, Christ is in gladness, and the devil in mourning; today the angels are in exultation, and the demons in confusion. And what more shall I say? Today Christ, who is the King of peace, going forth with His peace, has put to flight all discord, has driven away dissensions, has thrown discord into disarray, and, as the splendour of the sun illumines heaven, so with the radiance of peace He illumines the Church. For there is born to you today, He says, the Saviour of the world. O how desirable is the name of peace, how firm a foundation of the Christian religion, and the heavenly adornment of the Lord's altar! And what worthy thing can we utter concerning peace? Peace is the name of Christ Himself, as the Apostle also says:
For Christ is our peace, who has made both one (Ephesians II): things which were at odds not through judgments, nor through faith, but through the envy of the devil. But just as, when the king goes forth, the streets too are cleansed and the whole city is crowned with diverse flowers and adornments, so that nothing may appear less worthy of the king's countenance; so also now, as Christ the King of peace goes forth, let everything that is mournful be taken away from the midst; and as truth shines forth, let falsehood be put to flight, let discord flee, let concord shine again.
And just as we often see done, where the portraits of kings or of brothers are painted, that between the two the emblems of unanimity may be displayed, the artist-painter sets behind the backs of both, in a woman's garb, Concord, who, embracing both with her arms, may show that these who seem separated in body agree in judgment and in will; so now the peace of the Lord, standing in the midst, and joining each of us with her caressing bosom, teaches our sundered bodies to come together into one mind with her joining arms, in whom without doubt is fulfilled the prophetic word which says: And there shall be a counsel of peace between the two (Zechariah VI).
And yesterday indeed our common father prefaced with the Gospel's word of peace, but today it is we who bring forth the word of peace; he himself yesterday received us who were prostrate with upturned hands in the word of peace, and today we run to meet him with the gifts of peace, with widened breast and open arms. Now wars are destroyed. In every place the beauty of peace has prevailed; now the devil is in mourning, and the whole throng of demons in lamentation; now in the heavenly places there is gladness, and among the angels exultation, to whom peace is especially familiar: for even the heavenly Powers marvel at it, among whom its perennial fount is held: from which even earthly beings are bedewed, certain drops distilling down therefrom.
And therefore even if peace is praised on earth by the saints, the splendour of its praise redounds unto heaven: the heavenly angels praise it, and say: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. You see, brethren, how all the heavenly and the earthly beings send one another the gifts of peace in turn: the heavenly angels announce peace to the earth, the saints on earth praise together Christ, who is our peace, set on high in the heavens, and with mystic choirs cry aloud: Hosanna in the highest. Let us therefore also say with the angels: Glory to God in the highest, who has humbled the devil and exalted His own Christ; glory to God in the highest, who has put discord to flight and established peace. Behold, brethren, the angelic voice exulting.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. For I tell you of the craft of the devil, whose cunning you yourselves are not ignorant of. Satan saw the firmness and stability of the faith, he saw it hedged about with the piety of its doctrines, he saw it abounding with the fruits of good works; and therefore beyond all measure he came to madness, and blazed with the frenzy of fury, that he might rend concord, that he might tear away charity, that he might break peace—but may peace ever be with us.