And therefore, for the absolution of the whole world, the waters of regeneration needed to be sanctified from heaven. And because throughout the whole world the sacrament of Baptism was needful for the human race, He gave His blessing to all waters, when with singular and unique piety He descended into the bed of the Jordan. For then the water did not so much wash Christ the Lord as it was itself made safe. To thee therefore Christ came by being born, for thee He served as a soldier by living, for thee He struggled by dying: Him whom thou seest dead for thee, understand to have been baptized for thee. 2. All waters blessed in the baptism of Christ. Such altogether was He even before baptism, and therefore His forerunner and baptist thus addresses Him when He came to him to be baptized:
Lord, I ought to be baptized by Thee, and dost Thou come to me! What could be more evident, what more forceful, concerning the purity of Christ not yet baptized? I ought to be baptized by Thee: that is, Thou who art the fountain of innocence and the fullness of righteousness, who needing nothing knowest how to give, knowest not how to receive. I, he says, ought to be baptized by Thee; because Thou displayest with Thyself and possessest in Thyself the gifts of purity and the sacraments of baptism; and what I shall give, by Thy bounty, through grace, Thou obtainest by nature (John 3, cf. Matt. 3:14). At Thy touch the members are dipped, and the streams are enriched: not the body borrows its vital grace from the river, but the river borrows from the body.
The happy water marvels that its own fountain descends into it, conceiving in a single moment eternal remedies, and bringing forth God by a new fruitfulness of regeneration; giving back what it had received, and receiving what it did not have. Amid these things it would be a wonder that the Lord submitted Himself to the blessing of a servant, had He not also submitted Himself to the cross and to death. 3. The gravity of sin to be weighed from the remedy. With how great care sin is to be avoided. And He indeed taught by the dignity of the price itself how precious man is to Him, so that from this too we may understand how great our God esteems the causes of human crimes, for the sake of which He sent to the earth not an angel, not an archangel, but God;
how grave sin is and how hard its condition, the greatness of the remedy discloses. How great will be the discussion of evils by which the ungodly shall be condemned, the solicitude by which the godly are redeemed indicates. With all diligence therefore and vigilance let us beware, lest the devil wound what God has healed: lest through the consent of the heart, through the disgrace of the body, we be proved to render rather to the enemy the service which we owe to the Lord. And indeed, if some violent and overbearing man had seized anything of our substance and property, would we not deem it worthy of the utmost hatred? would we not rightly detest him as a foe? Why then do we consent through sin to the devil, who wishes to take from us not our substance, but our life; not to defraud us of the earth, but of heaven;
not the bounds of a narrow possession, but the infinite spaces of eternity? Amid these things, O man, if thou wilt reckon the dignity of thy making, if thou wilt reckon the love of thy Lord toward thee from the price paid, thou canst not doubt concerning the kingdom. 4. The faith of the Trinity and of the Incarnation in the gifts of the Magi. How the Magi are to be imitated. Now the Magi themselves, who came by the sign of the star to that venerable cradle of the heavenly Child, what else did they express in those gifts, but our faith? For in that three are offered, the Trinity is understood: but in that they are three, and each offers his own single gift, in the Trinity the unity is declared. By the gold the King is shown; by the frankincense God is discerned;
by the myrrh, which is fit for embalming bodies, the burial of the man to be crucified is proclaimed. According to these things, most beloved, let us too imitate the person of the Magi by spiritual services. First of all, let us seek Christ so long, until we merit to find Him. Let the light of faith furnish us guidance, like the star of heaven. Let it show Him to us, no longer wailing in the manger, but reigning in the highest citadel of heaven; nor in His mother's lap, but on the throne of the Father to be adored; nor any longer to be judged in humility, but to come in majesty for judgment. Let there be, as it were, an offering of three gifts, the perfect confession of the Trinity. Let there be believed by us a unity conjoined without confusion, a Trinity distinguished without separation:
let the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit be believed one God; three persons, but not three substances. But as far as pertains to the order of the heavenly nature, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one divinity is so to be confessed that neither is a single person supposed in the Trinity, nor a threefold substance in the unity: but so let plurality be assigned to the unity, that equality be not withdrawn from the Trinity. And although a numerousness be introduced into the one deity, yet no diversity is to be received. Thus therefore must the worship of God be disposed in the hearts of the faithful, that there be admitted neither separation in the unity, nor commingling in the Trinity. 5. In Christ's baptism we are baptized, the waters are purged, the effect of Baptism is declared.
For most recently, most dear brethren, on the day of the sacred Nativity the Lord was born; now He is baptized. Then He begot us unto life; now He has regenerated us unto salvation: then He took up the lost Adam; now He washes the sinner. He came therefore to baptism, as it is written. But what should He wash away who was clean? Surely, that being clean He might wash the unclean. Him therefore the running waters then poured over; but they bore away our sins with themselves. From Him the drops of baptism flowed; but in the drops our crimes flowed away. O mercy and power of God together! Not yet were we in the world, and already we were being washed in baptism; we were cleansed in Him before we were born.
For this was the very reason of His baptism, that the waters which were to purge us might first be purged by Him. And when He had gone up, says the Scripture, out of the water, He saw the heavens opened (Matt. 3:16). Had heaven then been opened to Him, whose eyes discerned the innermost things of the heavens? But therefore heaven is opened, that the mystery of Baptism might be herein declared: that when a man comes forth from Baptism, then the door of the heavenly kingdom is opened to him. 6. Whence such great devotion of the Magi. Their mystical gifts. Gifts pleasing to God. But what kind of thing is that, that the Magi come to God born, nay, are led: they see Him placed in the manger; nor before their senses did the lowliness of the nativity diminish the reverence of the divinity:
they adore Him with their bodies, they honor Him with gifts, they venerate Him with services? With their eyes they see a man; and with their homage they confess God. For they saw in Him who had been born, that there was more than what the eyes could provide to the minds of men. The Lord who then had been bodily born, through Him all things had been born. He was indeed seen in the manger, but He ruled in heaven; He was within a little body, but within Himself He contained all things. He had indeed been born of a mother, but He Himself had created His mother. And therefore the Magi humbled themselves before Him, because they discerned the stars serving Him: for they recognized Him to be God, whom the heavenly things served. And therefore even their very gifts were full of divine mystery.
For gold, as you have heard, and frankincense, and myrrh they offered (Matt. 2:11). In the number of the threefold gifts, therefore, a threefold signification is contained. In the frankincense they mark the honor of God; in the gold, royal dignity; in the myrrh, the burial of the body. Let us therefore also offer, most beloved brethren, sincere and holy gifts to our God: chastity, faith, patience, charity, humble minds, upright morals, souls worthy of God as their indweller. For these are the gifts pleasing to God, these the acceptable offerings, which indeed are offered to Him, but profit the offerers. For He needs no thing, no gift: but this is the best gift to Him, that He have occasions for bestowing. He requires nothing more from us, He asks nothing more than our salvation.
For He reckons all things to be rendered to Him by us, if we so conduct ourselves that all things may be furnished to us by Him; by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to whom is honor with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. SERMON 137. On the Epiphany of the Lord, VII. 1. Christ first became known in His baptism. The day of the Epiphanies is so called by a Greek name. For what we call an appearing, or a showing forth, the Greeks call an epiphany. But we say this for this reason, because today our Lord and Saviour appeared according to the flesh on earth. For although He had long since been born of Mary, and had already completed the age of thirty years; yet He was unknown to the world.
At that time He was made known, when He came to John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan: and the voice of the Father thundering from heaven was heard, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:17). Him whom the Father had pointed out from the heavens by a voice, the Holy Spirit, the true Spirit, as though in a dove, and sitting upon His head, willed to show forth by touch: lest anyone else be thought the Son of God from among the people. What is more sublime than this humility, more noble than this lowliness? He is baptized by a servant; and by God is called Son. Among publicans, and harlots, and sinners He comes to the washing; and He is holier than His baptizer. He is baptized by John in the flesh; but He Himself washes John in the spirit.
The waters which had been wont to cleanse other things, when our Lord washed in them, were themselves cleansed. The river Jordan, which at that time when Joshua the son of Nun led the people of Israel and brought them into the land of promise had been dried up, now wished, if it could, to be gathered with all its waves into one place, that it might touch the body of the Lord. The Jordan, it says, was turned back (Ps. 114:3). 2. A brief exposition of the twenty-eighth Psalm. The fruitfulness of the Church, formerly deserted. See, brethren, how that which was read in the Gospel had been foretold in the twenty-eighth Psalm: The voice of the Lord upon the waters. For the Son of God spoke to John, Suffer it now; for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness.
There follows, The Lord of majesty thundered; when the Father rendered testimony to the Son, saying: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:15, 17). The voice of the Lord breaking the cedars. For Christ was baptized; and the demons, formerly erect and lofty, fell down. The Lord cut them down like the cedars of Lebanon, and broke them small like calves; scattering the fragments of the trees, and dispersing their stumps in different directions with His heels. On the contrary, what is said of the Saviour? And beloved as the son of unicorns. The beloved Lord and Saviour is the Son of God: the son of unicorns, the son of the cross, of which it is said in the canticle of Habakkuk: Horns are in His hands: there He hid His strength (Hab. 3:4).
But after this beloved One was crucified, that was fulfilled which follows in the Psalm, The voice of the Lord dividing the flame of fire. For when He was baptized, and the whole world, Christ washing it, was cleansed, the fire of gehenna was extinguished. The voice of the Lord shaking the wilderness. Deserted was the Church, which formerly had no children. At the preaching of Christ this desert was moved; and it travailed, and brought forth, and a whole nation was born in one day. At the same time she who before was called the wilderness of Cades, that is, the wilderness of holiness—since she had not had holiness—began to bring forth harts and to send out flocks of her saints, who kill serpents, who despise poisons:
and while these run to and fro, and preach the Gospel of Christ in the whole world, in His temple all shall speak of the glory of God. There follows, The Lord makes the flood to dwell. Let us consider the whole world, let us look upon the barbarous nations, let us also survey with the mind the Roman empire: everywhere they believe in Christ, everywhere they are baptized into our Lord; and so it comes to pass that there is not one water, but in a certain manner a flood of baptisms. Wherefore, most dear brethren, since the Tabernacle is consummated (for this is prefixed in the title of this Psalm); and since the Church is built of living stones: let us bring to the Lord the sons of God, let us bring to Him the sons of rams, of the Apostles and of the saints;
and let us imitate our Saviour, who is Himself called both shepherd and lamb, who is sacrificed for us in Egypt, who is held in the thicket for Isaac; and let us say, The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing: in a place of pasture there He has set me; beside the water of refreshment He has brought me up (Ps. 23:1-2); to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen. SERMON 138. On the Epiphany of the Lord, VIII. 1. He compares men to the Angels. Let every mouth be opened today, most beloved, and let every word praise together the Word of God which shone forth from heaven. Let every soul rejoice, let every tongue sing in unison, and let the whole earth make melody to the Lord. For today the son of light irradiates the grace of light, in the day of light.
Let earthly things be in accord with heavenly, let all things that are seen in the world sing a hymn with the highest Powers. For today the truth shone forth with the heavenly King. For the presence of Christ is the advent of the true light, and the full liberty of the whole world. Consider then, most beloved, the discipline of the Church worthy of God; consider the inextinguishable flame of heavenly desire; consider that this nature of the body is made equal to the ministries of the Angels. For men, from the earth, and dwelling on the earth, whom also the earth nourishes, emulate the supernal Powers. For they deny, out of the charity of Christ, the nature of the body, and take up the ministry of the Angels. For what else do the Angels do in heaven, but obey the divine biddings?
And what are the works of the saints on earth, but to lead an angelic life on earth, and to proclaim God with worthy praises? Since therefore their office is the same, it is not doubtful that their dignity may also be the same. 2. John, a lamp. Today therefore, most beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ descended into the streams of the Jordan: not that He Himself might be sanctified, but that He might Himself furnish sanctification to the waters that were to give life. John therefore was fulfilling the habit of a priest. To him drew near the Redeemer of the world, that He might be baptized in water, who was enlightening the baptizer in the Spirit. There came therefore the King to His forerunner, God to the prophet.
John therefore, most beloved, was not ignorant of the mystery of the dispensation, whereby the Lord was preparing a remedy for the human race: but neither did the habit of the body deceive him, nor did the flesh which was seen delude him. And therefore he was called by the prophet the lamp for my Christ: because he first recognized the Son of God, who lay hidden in the obscurity of the flesh, by the light of his own heart, and pointed Him out with his finger to those who did not know. This therefore is that wondrous lamp, of which is that saying, I have prepared a lamp for my Christ (Ps. 132:17). Him therefore the Father prepared for the Son, not that the Word of God, which was the true light and the Sun of righteousness, needed the light of a lamp; but because, as we said above, he first recognized the Redeemer of the human race. 3.
When John baptizes the Lord, the mystery of the Trinity is gathered. Consider then, most beloved, the miracle of the Lordly majesty. When the Lord who came to us disposed to come to the flesh; for the love of man He deigned even to become man: and it was a new miracle, God among men, the Lord among servants, the Creator among creatures, sanctifying among those to be sanctified. Then John, a man who had been redeemed, baptized the Lord Jesus and the Redeemer of all, not provoked by presumption, but subjected by command. Then the twin prophetic voices sounded: The voice of the Lord in the wilderness, the voice of the Lord upon the waters (Ps. 29:3 and 8). The herald of truth was crying out; and the God of glory was thundering:
and there was there together the whole glory of the Trinity to be adored. The Father from the heights was proclaiming the Son: the Son on earth was fulfilling the order of the most sacred dispensation: and the Holy Spirit was binding together the indissoluble mystery of the Trinity. This therefore, most beloved, is the Trinity of unity, which is the unity of the Trinity: which may it guard us through countless solemnities, and keep us both here and unto eternity, through our Lord Jesus Christ. SERMON 139. On the Epiphany of the Lord, IX. 1. On the word Epiphany. This day and festival, which you celebrate today, brethren, is called Epiphany, that is, appearing or manifestation, for this reason, because on it Christ, with a star for guide, was manifested to the Gentiles (Matt. 2),
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u), etaJoannehodiediciturbaptizatus (Id. III, 16), etaquaminvinumpotestatedinaeumconvertissenarratur (Joan. n). UtinamsicutperslellamnovamhodieChristusRedemptornosterostensusestGentibus; itapercœlestedesideriumvestrisipsesempermanifestumsefaciatcordibus : etquiaservosuohodiebaptizarivoluit, donetvobis, utquodinBaptismopromisistis, perhumilitatisvirtutemservarepossitis; etquiaquashodieconvertitinvinum, quidquidinvobisinsipidumest, inspiritualemcommutetintellectum. i. Magosqualiterimitemur.
and today is said to have been baptized by John (Matt. 3:16), and is narrated to have turned water into wine by divine power (John 2). Would that as through the new star today Christ our Redeemer was shown to the Gentiles; so through heavenly desire He may ever make Himself manifest to your hearts: and He who today willed to be baptized by His servant, may grant you to be able, through the virtue of humility, to keep what you promised in Baptism; and He who today turned the water into wine, may change whatever is insipid in you into spiritual understanding. 2. How we are to imitate the Magi.
Lift up your souls to God, brethren, and look upon your hearts and your thoughts, that you may both give thanks to God for your good deeds and cast your evil deeds far from you. Imitate those Magi, that you may come to the church with the same zeal and ardour with which they came, out of longing, from distant regions to adore Christ. They offered precious gifts; do you also offer Him your souls. If you love faith, hope, charity, penitence, humility, and chastity, offer Him rational gifts, that is, your very selves; for God loves you yourselves more than your possessions. For there are many who give alms and yet do not cease to sin.
Such men offer, as it were, their goods to God, but themselves to the devil. God has no part with the devil (2 Cor. 6:15); and therefore whether it be theft, or luxury, or hatred, or pride, or whatever evil there is, drive it from you with God's help, that your Creator may possess you wholly. Consider that Herod sought Christ; yet he did not find Him, because he sought Him wickedly. And you too seek Christ wickedly, if you do good works for the praise of men. Beware lest, by seeking in such a manner, you both fail to find Him and lose your very selves. The Magi, when they entered in to Herod, lost the star;
and you too, if you draw near to the devil by sinning, will not have the spiritual light, unless perchance by confession and penitence you withdraw from him anew. I warn you not to enter in to Herod; for it is better to avoid sin than to amend it. For if, at the devil's persuasion, you have sinned, but through penitence, with God's help, have withdrawn from him, you will receive back the grace you lost: even as the Magi, after they had withdrawn from Herod, were counted worthy to see the star which they had lost. The gifts of the Magi. Those Magi are said to have been three kings, and they offered three gifts, that is, gold, frankincense, and myrrh; because they recognized that the true God, and King, and true man had appeared in mortal flesh.
And you also, brethren, offer Him the gold of heavenly wisdom, and the frankincense of pure prayer, and the myrrh of perfect mortification. And as they returned into their own country by another way (Matt. 2:12), so you too, who departed from paradise by growing proud, by disobeying, and by eating the forbidden food, take care to return thither by humility, and obedience, and abstinence. This present life is a pilgrimage, but your fatherland is paradise. And because they are exceedingly foolish who love their exile in place of their fatherland, do you despise this wretched and uncertain life, that you may be able to attain the most sure felicity of the heavenly fatherland.
For to this end the Son of God came from heaven to earth, that you, by following His example, might be able to ascend from earth into heaven. May He Himself grant this to you, whose kingdom and dominion abide without end for ever and ever. SERMON 140. On Lent, 1. Lent is wholesome for body and soul; to whom it is harmful. Behold, most dear brethren, by God's favour the season of Lent has come; and therefore I ask, most beloved, that we may so celebrate these days, wholesome for the body and healing for the soul, holily and spiritually with God's help, that the observance of holy Lent may bring us not judgment but profit.
For if we act negligently, if we entangle ourselves in too many occupations, if we are unwilling to keep chastity, if we do not persist in fasts and vigils and prayers, if we neither read the divine Scriptures ourselves nor gladly listen to others reading them, those very medicines are turned for us into wounds; and we shall have judgment where we might have had a remedy. The pious exercises of Lent. And therefore I ask you, most dear brethren, rise earlier for the Vigils, and above all assemble for Terce, for Sext, for None. Let no one withdraw himself from the holy work, except one whom infirmity, or public duty, or perchance some sure and grave necessity keeps occupied.
Nor let it suffice you only that you hear the divine lessons in church; but in your homes also either read them yourselves, or seek out others who read, and gladly listen. Recall, brethren, the saying of our Lord, in which He says: If a man should gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul, what shall he give in exchange for his soul (Matt. 16:26)? And retain in memory before all things, and ever dread, that which is written: The entanglements of the world have made them wretched. So therefore occupy yourself in your house that you neglect not your soul. In short, if no more, labour at least as much for your soul as you consider yourself to labour for your flesh. Good works are followed by sweetness, evil works by bitterness.
And therefore, most dear brethren, do not love the world, nor the things that are in it; for the world passes away, and the concupiscence thereof (1 John 2:15,17). But what remains for a man, except that which each one has stored up in the treasury of his conscience for the salvation of his soul, whether by reading, or by praying, or by doing good works? For unhappy pleasure, and unhappier greed and luxury, through a transitory sweetness prepare an everlasting bitterness; but abstinence, vigils, prayers, and fasting, through the briefest hardships lead to the delights of paradise; because Truth does not lie, which says in the Gospel: Strait and narrow is the way that leads to life; and few there are that find it (Matt. 7:13,14).
Neither is there long rejoicing along the broad way, nor is there long toiling along the narrow and rough one: for the latter, after a brief sadness, receive eternal life, and the former, after a little joy, suffer torment without end. In Lent the provisions of the whole year must be laid up for the soul. Losses must be repaired. And therefore, most dear brethren, in these forty days we ought, by fasting, reading, and praying, to provide as it were the food of the whole year for our soul. For although throughout the whole year, by God's favour, you frequently and faithfully hear the divine lessons;
nevertheless in these days, fleeing as it were to the harbour of Lent from the deep and the waves of this world, we ought to find rest, and to receive the divine lessons into the receptacle of our heart with silence and peace: so that, by God's favour, being at leisure for the love of eternal life, we may with all diligence strive in these days to repair and to set in order whatever in the little ship of our soul has, through the whole year's many tempests, that is, the waves of sins, been either broken, or loosened, or corrupted, or lost. And because it is necessary for us, while we are still in this little body, to endure the storms and whirlwinds of this world, whenever the enemy shall wish to turn us aside by most fierce tempests,
or wish to deceive us by most enticing pleasures, let him always, with God's help, find us prepared against him. The occupations of the world should at least be tempered. The world is either laughed at by us, or itself laughs at us. Wherefore again I ask that the occupations of this world in these days of holy Lent, if you cannot cut them off, you may strive at least in some part to temper: so that, cutting off loss and gaining a most glorious fruit, fleeing this world, you may withdraw some hours from earthly occupation, in which you may be free for God. For this world either laughs at us, or is laughed at by us: either we consent to it and are despised, or we despise it that we may attain eternal rewards.
And so either you despise and scorn the world, or you consent to it and are pressed down or trodden upon by the world. But it is better that you tread upon the world, and, having trodden it down, make of it a step by which you may climb up on high. For these things, most dear brethren, which we suggest for the common salvation, presuming upon your obedience, if according to your custom you both gladly hear and strive faithfully to fulfil them; you will both celebrate Easter with joy, and happily come to eternal life. May He Himself deign to grant this, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON 141. On Lent. 1. The days of Lent signify the present life, the days of Easter the life to come.