The Lord's festivals proclaim their own occasions by their very names: for as by being born Christ gave us the day of His nativity, and by rising again He gave the day of resurrection, so by the light of His signs He shows the day of His manifestation. He who in being born first veiled Himself in a human body, afterward by His working revealed Himself as a heavenly mystery: after being a man, God Himself appeared in a threefold manner, He who as man was made manifest in a singular birth. Rightly, then, is the present solemnity called by the name of Epiphany, in which shone forth the Godhead that had been hidden from us in our flesh. This, brethren, this is the festival which, conceived at diverse times, brought forth three tokens of the Godhead.
Through the Epiphany the Magi confess Christ the Lord with mystical gifts, and worshippers of the stars, dwellers in the night, find the Author of light amid dense darkness: so that this may be the grace of the Author, not the achievement of him who thus sought; that it may not be the star's doing but God's; that it may be the gift of the Creator, not the benefit of the creature; not of human art, but of a divine gift. 'Behold,' it says, 'Magi came from the East, saying: Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East, and are come to adore Him' (Matt. 2). 'We have seen His star.' And what is not His? The star is His; He is not the star's. 'His star.' A star that received its being, but did not give it; a star whose rising its Author held, not a star that held its Author's rising. 'His star.'
A star coming not from a horoscope but from a Begetter; by command, not by fate; not from a caster of nativities, but from an Author; not one that gives a rising, but one that awaits its setting; a star not law-bearing but sign-bearing; bringing not the order of days but the light of nights. This star is the servant of the way, not of life; the companion of the Magi, not the kinswoman of Christ; not the mistress of the Ruler, but the little handmaid of His servants. But someone says: Why the Magi? Why by a star? If there is no cause with the stars, if there is no reason with the origin, no rationale with nature? Why the Magi? Why the star? So that through Christ the very matter of error might thus become the occasion of salvation: just as through Christ the cause of death was made the cause of life. To confound the enemy with his own sword is a singular mark of valour.
Among the Magi the fault lay in ignorance, not in the will; and the offence was not in eagerness but in error. To seek God, and not to know how to seek Him, is more a necessity than a guilt. It was therefore fitting that God should both grant Himself to be found by those who sought Him, and impute their fault to error. So too Paul, by such a judgement, was made from a persecutor into a preacher, because through zeal for the Law he assailed the Law, and sinned against God out of love for God. Hence it is that faith runs to Paul, and unbelief recurs to ignorance. But still the hearer says: Grant that the star, not by its own inclination but by God's command, showed the way to the seeking Magi: whence such great knowledge of mystical gifts, whence such great sacraments of the offerings?
Not by Chaldean art, but from the ancient tradition of the holy forefathers: these men were of the race of Noah, of the sons of Abraham, who had learned that Christ was to be born through God, not through art; and by a deep mystery they had come to know Him as man, God, King, and one who would die. Hence it is that they carried gifts fitted to the faith of the fathers, so that they might knowingly offer gold to a King, incense to God, and myrrh to one who would die, and by such a gift satisfy both piety and honour. But let this suffice concerning the Magi. Through the Epiphany Christ at the wedding gave the waters the savour of wine (John 2), so that Christ's presence at the wedding was of power, not of pleasure; not of His humanity, but of His authority; for the sake of a sign, not of the belly;
it was not an apparatus of drunkenness, but a showing forth of the Godhead. In short, when the water changed its nature, it forthwith disclosed its Author, and the Creator of the elements was revealed to the creature by the change of the elements. Happy the wedding, happy indeed those weddings at which Christ is present, which are consecrated not by luxury but by virtues. What there did not pass over into grace, where water passed over into wine? Through the Epiphany Christ, being consecrated, entered the channel of the Jordan for our baptism (Matt. 3), so that those whom by being born He had taken up on earth, He might by being reborn raise up to heaven; that He might have as children within Himself those whom He had seen to be captives apart from Him; that He Himself might make alive those whom guilt had made dead;
that He might render everlasting those whom death had made temporal; and those whom the devil had made exiles from earthly things, He Himself might make partners with Himself in heavenly things. Hence it is, brethren, that the Holy Spirit then came down in full descent, when the Father cries out from the heavens: 'This is My beloved Son' (Matt. 3); so that they whose operation in creating us had been one with the Son, might have one shared favour in our restoration; and thus Christ, at diverse moments yet on one and the same day, by the gift of the Magi, by the changing of the water, and by the voice of the Father, was made known as God by a threefold testimony, and from the threefold showing of Christ there came about the one hallowed solemnity of the Epiphany.
We often ask why Christ enters the world in such a way that He experiences the confines of the womb, suffers the injury of birth, endures the bonds of swaddling-clothes, tolerates a feeble cradle, seeks the nourishment of the breasts with tears, and feels the stages and necessities of the ages of life. And how ought He to have come, who willed to bring grace, to drive out fear, to seek charity?
Nature teaches all men what infancy is worth, what it deserves. What barbarity does infancy not overcome, what savagery does it not soften, what cruelty does it not check, what fury does it not restrain, what power does it not lay down, what harshness does it not thaw, what hardness does it not dissolve, what love does it not call forth, what affection does it not draw out, what favour does it not impose, what charity does it not win? Fathers know that this is so, mothers feel it, all men prove it, human bowels bear witness to it. Thus, then, He willed to be born who willed to be loved, not feared: and yet, against human malice, so winning, so tender, so dear. Hear what infancy accomplishes.
'When Herod the king had heard,' it says, 'he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born' (Matt. 2). If Jerusalem, if the king, if the scribes, if the chief priests are so troubled at Christ's infancy, what would these men have done, had Christ come at once as a grown man, if propped up by riches and by a multitude, if with a suspect following, if with strangers? Men who give nothing to time, nothing to age, nothing to the poor, nothing to a parent;
but as soon as they hear that He is born, they prepare death for the newborn, snares for the innocent, crime against the holy, swords against the naked, soldiers against the solitary, slaughter against the wailing babe, punishment against the parent: and that force may be mingled with blood, bitter cruelty declares war upon the cradle, presses weapons upon the breasts, dashes shields against the bosom, so as to make the human and divine offspring enter the tomb before He enters the world. Grant that Herod the king, for love of his kingdom and fear of a successor, was compelled to attempt such things; why Jerusalem, why the chief priests, why the scribes? Because the profane man does not wish God to be born, nor the slave his master, nor the guilty their judge, nor the rebel his prince, nor the faithless One who knows him through and through.
Jerusalem had drenched itself in manifold defilement; the priests had profaned holy things, and by selling sins had turned pardon and piety into gain. The scribes had changed heavenly doctrine, saving knowledge, life-giving teaching, into savage understanding, into a lapse of treachery, into deadly empty talk. Hence it is that they do not wish Christ to be born, they fear that He should live, because they knew that they would soon be given over to shame, dragged into reproach, cast out of the temple, deprived of the priesthood, emptied of the revenue of the offerings. For once inflamed by greed, captured by pomp, wounded by vices, drunk with vanity, sodden with luxury, since they could think nothing of correction, they hoped nothing of pardon.
The good steward, when by continual labour he has gathered abundant fruit, longs for his master to come to his own profit, and desires it for his own joy: the diligent workman, when he has completed the task of the labour he undertook, desires the householder to arrive, that he may receive his wage: the devoted soldier, after the battle, after the victory, wishes for the presence of the king, that by reward he may recompense his sweat and wounds: so does Christ long to come to His own palm of victory, He who by tireless power lays low the wars of the world;
so does he not wish Christ to come, who, overcome by the allurements of the world, trembles at punishment and presumes nothing of pardon. Brethren, let us do good, let us turn away from evils: let us flee vices, let us follow virtues, let us make light of present things, let us think on things to come, let us seek our kingdom, let us come to our palm of victory, let us long for glory, let us strain with all our prayers toward the crown. But let our discourse now return to those things that follow. 'Then Herod,' it says, 'having secretly called the Magi, learned diligently from them the time of the star which appeared to them; and sending them into Bethlehem, he said: Go and inquire diligently concerning the child, and when you have found Him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore Him.' He calls the Magi secretly, because a feigning mind, a deceitful conscience, dares nothing openly.
He calls the Magi secretly, because the thief loves the night, the robber sets his ambush in hiding. He diligently inquires the time of the star: but though he fears the kingdom, he does not fear the sign of heaven, he is not afraid of the Author of the season. Why are you troubled, Herod? Why are you so anxious about a successor? He for whom the stars do soldier's service is not held by an earthly empire. 'Go, and inquire diligently concerning the child, and when you have found Him, bring me word again.' Herod, you err: the Magus was bidden to adore, not to betray; that man comes to bear witness, not to disclose; to him it is given to see, to you it is not given to find. 'Go, and inquire.'
As though to question the Magi once were not enough! To those who inquired in piety a pious answer was given; but the messenger of salvation was turned into ruin for those who heard him amiss. The stubborn servant hears that the Lord is born, but prepares for the Lord at His birth snares, not honour; he prepares death, that he may be rid of servitude. But because neither could God be brought to an end, nor salvation perish, nor life die out, the Lord abides in honour, the servant remained in his crime; and he is dragged to punishment who scorned to come to obedience; he is seized for sentence who would not attain to grace.
'Go, and inquire diligently concerning the child, and when you have found Him, bring me word again.' Fittingly did he say, 'bring me word again' (renuntiate mihi), because he always renounces the devil (renuntiat diabolo) who hastens to come to Christ; when one about to become a Christian hears from the priest, 'Do you renounce the devil?' he answers, 'I renounce him.' Properly, then, Herod says that the Magi ought to bring him word again, he who knew that he held the devil's place, who knew that he filled Satan's person. 'That I also may come and adore Him.' He wishes to lie, but cannot: he will come, but to be bent to torments, to be cast to punishments, to be laid low unto penalty, he who had feigned to adore, that he might rage.
But the Magi, when they had passed through the clouds of Jewish treachery and again beheld the word of Christian faith, by that same star as guide and leader which they had seen, came to the most sacred place of the Lord's birth. 'And opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.' Gold to the King, frankincense to God, myrrh to the one who would die, they offer in devotion to the Lord, offering the greatest treasures of knowledge to those who would afterward believe; thus by the way of innocence they return to their own land, they who had trodden the path of Herod's fraud unto his ruin.