that thou mayest worthily sing the canticle of David thy father: 'As we have heard, so also have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God' (Psalm 48:8). Receive therefore Mary thy wife, ever secure concerning her, and in nothing be anxious; for that which is conceived in her womb is not of sin, but of the Holy Spirit; and He who shall be born of her womb shall not be called the son of a Jew, but shall be called the Son of God. Have therefore, Joseph, together with Mary thy wife, a common virginity of your members; for from virgin members is born the Power of the Angels. Let Mary be the bride of Christ, preserved in the virginity of her flesh; and be thou also the father of Christ by the care of chastity and the honor of virginity:
that from virgin members ye may beget for the Christian ages a bridegroom of virginity and a spouse of chastity, shared alike by every single virgin and by married folk, in whom there is no jealousy; for virginity was made fruitful by a greeting in Mary. Great is the merit of virginity, brethren. Mary's virginity was made fruitful by the angel's greeting, was saluted by John from the womb, and Mary's childbearing virginity is today praised together by the angels, and her nursing virginity was proclaimed by a star from heaven, and honored by the Magi with gifts. Rejoice therefore, Joseph, and greatly rejoice with Mary's virginity, for thou alone hast deserved to possess a virginal marriage:
for by the merit of virginity thou art so separated from the marriage-bed of thy wife, that thou art called the father of the Savior, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 196. On the Nativity of John the Baptist, I. 1. The singular character of this feast. John is a figure of the Law. After that most holy birthday of the Lord, we read that the nativity of no man is celebrated, save only that of blessed John the Baptist. In other saints and elect of God we know that day is honored on which, after the completion of their labors and the world conquered and triumphed over, this present life brought them forth into perpetual eternities; in others the merits accomplished at the last day are celebrated:
but in this one, the first day and the very beginnings of the man himself are also consecrated; and this, without doubt, for the reason that through him the Lord willed His own advent to be attested, lest men should suddenly fail to recognize it as unexpected. Now John was a figure of the Old Testament, and bore in himself the form of the Law; and therefore John foreannounced the Savior, just as the Law ran before grace. And that, though not yet born, he prophesied from the secret of his mother's womb, and, still without light, is already a witness of the truth: this is to be understood thus — that lying hidden beneath the veil and the flesh of the letter, he both proclaimed the Redeemer to the world in spirit, and announced to us our Lord from a kind of womb of the Law.
Therefore, because the Jews went astray from the womb — that is, from the Law which was pregnant with Christ; 'They went astray from the womb, they have spoken false things' (Psalm 58:4) — for this reason he came for a testimony, that he might bear witness of the light (John 1:8). And that John, set in prison, directs his disciples to Christ (Matthew 11:2), signifies that the Law hands over to the Gospels. This Law, according to the type of John, lay as it were shut up in the prison of ignorance, in darkness and in concealment, and the perception of the Jews' blindness was held enclosed within the letter. 2. A burning lamp. Of this the blessed Evangelist speaks: 'He was a burning lamp' (John 5:35);
that is, kindled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, so that to a world possessed by the night of ignorance he might show the light of salvation, and, as it were amid the densest darkness of sins, might display the most splendid sun of righteousness by a ray of his light, saying of himself, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness' (Matthew 3:3). Let us see in what wilderness — that is, in the people of the Gentiles. For hearts empty of the fear of God and lacking the Holy Spirit are compared to the desert of a squalid wasteland. For this world was deserted, empty of all cultivation of faith and of the fear of God, and, overgrown with the thorns of sins, lay squalid like an untilled field, and had brought forth no fruitfulness of good works at all, had received no rain of spiritual grace.
Blessed John is sent, that by prophetic and apostolic preaching, proclaiming repentance, he might, as it were, break up the rough field, make it fruitful and cultivate it, fill it with the seeds of the divine word, and prepare it for the ripe harvest — that is, for the grace of regeneration. 3. What his very birth reveals. Now how great a glory is this, that to the aged priest Zechariah and to the barren Elizabeth a promise is made by Gabriel — that is, by that same angel by whom the nativity of the Lord is announced to Mary — and, as one somewhat like the Lord, a barren woman's son is sent ahead before the Virgin's son, declaring by his very birth some greater miracle, I know not what. Their posterity is endowed with unhoped-for offspring;
for virginity was to be endowed and enriched by a new kind of childbearing. John is sent ahead before Jesus Christ, like the Old Testament before the New, so that day may pour forth speech to day, and the obscure depth of the sacraments may be revealed by the clearer mysteries of the new doctrine. There is sent ahead therefore the lamp before the sun, the servant before the Lord, the friend before the bridegroom, the herald before the judge, the voice before the Word. And therefore he says of himself, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.' What is it that blessed John said he was a voice? It is, because he was the announcer and preacher of the Word. 4. What the Word is, what the voice. Here now let us carefully inquire what difference there is between a word and a voice.
The holy Scriptures define a word to be that which we conceive in the mind within the silence of the soul; they define the word to be the very thought which is still retained within the secret places of the conscience; but the voice to be that through which the word is brought forth into the open. The voice is a sound, the index of the thought; but the word is the thought itself. For just as, when we conceive a word in the heart, a voice is necessary as a kind of vehicle of the word — and although we transmit that very word to another through the sound of the mouth, yet it is transferred whole even within us, that is, closed off from the speaker, so that it is nonetheless held in its own place — so also the almighty Father, willing to make Himself known to us, took up blessed John as it were a voice through which He might bring forth to us His Wisdom and that Word which in the beginning was God, with God (John
1:1), as He Himself testifies, 'My heart hath uttered a good word' (Psalm 45:1). This Word indeed so descended to us from that seat that it remained in the bosom — that is, in the depth of the Father's breast — visiting earthly things and not forsaking the heavenly. 5. John's glory above the other Prophets. He is the mediator of the New and Old Testament. This glory, therefore, blessed John the Baptist went before not from afar, like the remaining Prophets, but as a near and close forerunner. Those others foretold the coming of the King many ages beforehand; some said, 'One day He shall come'; others, 'Behold, He comes quickly':
but this one showed that He whom he foretold as coming had already come, and fulfilled his own prophecy with Him whom he was announcing standing present. Thus, while still in his mother's womb, he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and by prophesying anticipated his own nativity; sanctified in the likeness of the Lord before he was born, leaping within his mother's inward parts, and testifying to the Savior's advent by his mother's mouth. Truly a burning lamp, in whom so singular a grace of divine favor shone forth, that he related by his holy mother's voice that the Redeemer was even now at hand; and through her, as through a certain lamp of truth, he pointed Him out though not yet brought forth into the light. This is that fitting mediator of the New and Old Testament, and the worthy pointer-out of the glorious Lamb:
who at one and the same time deserved both to announce and to see his Lord, in one and the same age of his own nativity both beginning the new and concluding the old. 6. Force must be used for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Concerning this person the Evangelist testifies, saying, 'From the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence' (Matthew 11:12). We know that the human mind, familiarly overcome by the diverse enticements and lusts of this world, flees labor, seeks pleasure, and is scarcely brought to shut out from itself the habit of its former life:
but when it begins to ponder the necessity of the last day and the weight of the future judgment, roused and goaded either by hope of reward or by fear of punishment, it declares a voluntary war upon the passions, does violence to its former desires, and violently strives to conquer itself. For it cannot come to pass without violence that one should pass from abundance and delights to hunger and thirst, to abstinence and the cross; that one should first wear down the flesh, once dear, with contrition and vigils, formerly given to sleep and ease. It cannot come to pass, I say, without violence that each one should exchange wrath for patience, pride for humility; should overcome by love of poverty the affluence of riches and self-sufficiency; should condemn drunkenness by sobriety, luxury by chastity;
and that a man should suddenly be transformed into a perfect man, and in a certain manner become another out of his former self; and thus by such deeds the heavenly kingdom is seized by violence. 7. Two kinds of abstinence. Now there are two kinds of abstinence and the cross: one bodily, the other spiritual. The one is to refrain from drink and feasting, to restrain the appetite of the gullet from delights and from the softest sweetnesses, manfully to recall the senses from those things which deceive through touch and taste and sight, and violently to draw them away.
The other kind of abstinence and the cross is more precious and more sublime: to rule the movements of the soul, and to calm its perturbations by the tranquillity of moderation, to bridle the assaults of wrath and pride like a wild beast, to strive daily against one's own vices, to rebuke oneself with a certain censorial austerity of virtue, and in a certain manner to join battle with the inner man. A precious light in the sight of God and a glorious cross it is to bring evil thoughts under one's power, to deny one's own wishes, to sift them by inward examination, and to subject them to the command of the ruling mind; to abstain, as from noxious foods, from speech and deed by which the soul is harmed, and to keep the senses sober by a spiritual temperance from those things which are contrary to it.
He who does these things, having broken through the wall of passion, ascends by violence to the kingdoms of heaven. The soul must therefore do violence to itself, that it may strive with all its strength to snatch away the palm of its labors, which it perceives being withdrawn from it by many opposing enemies. It is necessary, therefore, with the utmost labor to seize from this world the palm of salvation, and, as men besieged with enemies posted round about keeping watch, to pluck the fruits with unsleeping attention, and to carry off the spoil, snatched as it were from the midst of the fire of this present age, from the treasury of life. 8. The Church seizes the kingdom of the Synagogue. Christ is our kingdom. Men also seize it from the apostate angels. There is yet another kind of seizure, when we snatch away things promised and offered to others.
The Savior had come down, having taken upon Himself the incarnation, chiefly for this purpose: that He might justify the people of the Jews, as He Himself says in the Gospel, 'I am not sent,' He says, 'but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel' (Matthew 15:24). But the disciples also thus reproached the unbelieving people of the Synagogue: 'To you,' they say, 'it was necessary first to speak the word of God; but because you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles' (Acts 13:46). Therefore, when the Jews refused the gifts prepared for them, publicans and sinners from among the Gentiles believed; and thus the Church seizes the kingdom of the Synagogue. For our kingdom is Christ. We therefore seize Him, since He is slain by the Jews and buried by us.
But we seize Him while they sleep, as they themselves confess in the Gospel: 'Say ye,' they say, 'that his disciples came by night and stole him away while you were sleeping' (Matthew 28:13). Let him therefore who sleeps arise, lest perchance, made slack through negligence, he lose Christ, while his mind sleeps in unbelief and torpor. The kingdom of heaven is therefore seized, while it is denied by kinsfolk and adored by the Gentiles. It is seized, when it is sent to some for salvation, and found by others; when His own refuse Him, strangers receive Him; His own persecute Him, enemies embrace Him: when the citizen rejects the inheritance, the foreigner invades it; the son repudiates it, the servant acknowledges it.
In yet another order the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, when men acquire that which the angels lost, when the adopted and humble ascend thither, whence the proud inhabitants fell. Therefore, since we live among so many envious ones, among so many robbers and invisible plotters, by what strength at last shall we lay hold of the kingdoms of heaven? By what, I say, save by obeying our teachers, and by resisting the vices and injustices born of covetousness, by bewailing our sins, and by redeeming them with fastings and alms? SERMON 197. On the Nativity of John the Baptist. 1. The Nativity of the Lord alone and of John is celebrated. He who is born of woman is inferior to John.
The birthday of Saint John, dearest brethren, we celebrate today — a thing which we read was granted to none of the saints ever. For the birthday only of the Lord and of blessed John is celebrated and honored in the whole world. The one a barren woman bore; the other a virgin conceived. In Elizabeth barrenness is overcome; in blessed Mary the customary manner of conceiving is changed. Elizabeth conceived a son by knowing a man; Mary believed the angel and conceived. Elizabeth conceived a man, and Mary a man; but Elizabeth only a man, Mary both God and man. What then does John mean? Whence is he set between? Whence is he sent ahead? Great therefore is John, to whose greatness even the Savior bears witness, saying:
'Among those born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist' (Matthew 11:11). He excels all, stands out above all; he surpasses the Prophets, he goes beyond the Patriarchs; and whoever is born of woman is inferior to John. Perhaps someone says: If among those born of women John is greater, he is greater than the Savior. God forbid. For John was born of a woman, but Christ was born of a virgin; the one was poured forth from the folds of a corruptible womb, the other was brought forth from the flower of an undefiled womb. But the generation of the Lord is reckoned together with the nativity of John, lest the Lord should seem to be outside the truth of the human condition: if John be compared with men, he is sent ahead before God.
So great was the excellence in him, so great the grace, that he himself was thought to be the Christ. What then did he say of Christ? 'Of his fullness we all have received' (John 1:16). What is it, 'We all'? Therefore Prophets, Patriarchs, Apostles, all the saints, whether sent ahead before the incarnation or sent by Him incarnate — all we have received of his fullness: we are vessels, He is the fountain. 2. That the nativity both of Christ and of John is full of mystery. Likewise also the passion of each. If therefore we have understood the mystery, my brethren, John is a man, Christ is God: let the man be humbled, and let God be exalted, according to that which John himself said of the Lord: 'He must increase, but I must decrease' (John 3:30).
That the man might be humbled, John was born on the day when the days begin to decrease; that God might be exalted, Christ was born on the day when the days begin to increase. A great sacrament, dearest brethren. Therefore we celebrate the Nativity of John, as also of Christ, because his very nativity is full of mystery. Of what mystery, if not of our humility, just as the nativity of Christ is full of the mystery of our exaltation? Therefore let us be diminished in the man, that we may increase in God; let us be humbled in ourselves, that we may be exalted in Him; let human presumption be humbled, that divine mercy may increase. For the sacrament of this thing was fulfilled also in the passions of both. That the man might be diminished, the head of John is cut off:
that God might be exalted, Christ is hung upon the wood. 3. Why John is called a lamp, and sent ahead before Christ. Why he is called a voice. He bore the type of the Law. But why our Lord and Savior called blessed John a lamp, and why He willed him to be sent ahead before Himself, we desire briefly, if you bid, to convey to the ears of your Charity. For he was sent ahead as it were a voice before the Word, a lamp before the sun, a herald before the judge, a servant before the lord, a friend before the bridegroom.
And because the darkness of sins and the night of unbelief had oppressed the whole world, and it was not able to gaze upon the sun of righteousness, blessed John is sent ahead as it were a lamp, so that the eyes of the heart — which, oppressed by the bleariness of iniquity, could not see the great and true light — might first grow accustomed to see the light of the lamp as it were a faint splendor; and gradually, when the cloud of sins was removed and the moisture of unbelief dispersed, upon Christ's coming they might be able to be gladdened rather than tormented by that heavenly light. For just as thou dost provoke bleary eyes to see, if thou showest a small splendor of a lamp, and thou dost torment them the more if thou bring in a great light:
so our Lord and Savior, who is the true light, unless He first sent blessed John ahead as it were a lamp, the whole world could not endure His brightness. Let John speak, and say, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness' (John 1:23). He was a voice; because he was filled with the Spirit of the Word of God. Just as the discourse of the voice is in a certain manner transmitted from the speaker to the hearer by the ministry and vehicle of the voice; so he, sounding forth Christ, was the minister and bearer of the Word. Holy John, I say, showed in himself the type of the Law, which pointed out Christ from afar by signs and tokens; and therefore he sent to Christ two of his disciples. These two disciples sent from John to Christ are perhaps two peoples, of whom the one
believed out of the Jews, the other out of the Gentiles. John directs them to Christ; the Law sends them to grace, and through the faith of the Gospel it longs to have the ancient truth established. 4. An exhortation. But let us, dearest brethren, that we may be able to celebrate so holy a festival with joy not only bodily but also spiritual, prepare our minds according to our strength to give alms and to keep peace with all:
and let us labor with all our might to restrain from every scurrility or filthy speech not only ourselves, but also all our household and all who belong to us, for the love of God and out of zeal for holy discipline; and let us not permit any of the pleasure-loving to pollute the holy solemnity by uttering songs of wantonness. For then will holy John be able to obtain for us whatever we ask, if he shall have known us to celebrate his festival peaceable, sober, chaste, without any filthy speech. These things therefore, dearest brethren, out of fatherly solicitude I suggest to you:
for by God's favor I so trust in your devotion, that you will preserve not only yourselves, but also all who belong to you, chaste and sober with all honesty. Wherefore I entreat, giving thanks to God, that He who gave you faithfully to begin those things which are holy, may grant you to guard a happy perseverance — He who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 198. On the Nativity of John the Baptist, III. 1. John is honored with singular celebration. He exceeds human merits. Today, most beloved brethren, we honor the birthday of John, who ran before the Lord's advent — a thing which we remember was assigned to none of the saints:
today, I say, we venerate his birthday with a unique and singular celebration. Wherefore, since we are not able rightly to extol it by the office of the human voice, let us proclaim it by the oracle of the Lord's own attestation, Christ declaring that 'among those born of women there is not a greater than John the Baptist' (Matthew 11:11). He Himself says this; and therefore recognize the magnificence of the praise from the dignity of the One who praises; and thus, while no one is asserted to be greater than he among those born of women, it is given to understand that John exceeds the measure of human merits. 2. He is a voice; as Christ increases, he is diminished. He signified Christ by his birth and manner of life. — 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness' (Isaiah 40:3):
that is to say, I am not the Word which was in the beginning God with God; but rather a voice, that is, I am the minister of the Word, that through me it may reach the hearing and understanding of men. Wherefore the blessed Baptist with like humility declares, 'He must increase, but I must decrease' (John 3:30). He, he says, must increase; because through all the world the Gospel of Christ is spread abroad: but I must decrease, because the prophecy of John is finished. [He must increase, who is to be exalted upon the cross: but I must decrease, who am to be beheaded.] For the prophecy of John received its end, because He who was being prophesied has come. John therefore signified the form of the coming Lord by his nativity and manner of life.
John is born of an aged father; Christ of a virgin mother, in the age of a growing-old world — that age, I say, which was barren in faith and works. John came by a generation despaired of, through a barren woman; and Christ, by nature standing astonished, through a Virgin. The one preached salvation; this One bestowed it. The one baptized unto repentance; the Other regenerated in grace. 3. His freedom in reproving. When the correction of the depraved may be omitted without fault. A godly device for correcting the depraved. For this is John who, condemning by public authority the impiety of King Herod, who had invaded the wife of his living brother, for the sake of justice lost his life, but gained glory.
And we, meanwhile, for the favor of men or out of fear of giving offense, prefer flattery and sell the truth, not fearing that which is terribly written: 'If thou dost not announce to the wicked man his iniquity, I will require his blood at thy hand' (Ezekiel 3:18). Yet the teachers of the Church sometimes cease from rebuke, not out of negligence toward those who sin, but because they fear that these, from the very chastisement, may break forth into worse evils. When for this reason the priests do not preach, they cannot incur guilt from their silence; because just as good men are sometimes corrected by harsh rebuke, so on the contrary all the proud are provoked by the gentlest admonition to worse precipices.
For to such a degree do the preachers of the Church sometimes reprove sinners not from choice but from necessity, that they sometimes, by a spiritual remedy and by the device of charity, accompany the proud even with unworthy praises: so that, while they blush that the things said of them are false, they may be provoked to the amendment of their life and to good works; according to that which is written: 'For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul; and he who does iniquity is blessed' (Psalm 10:3, according to the Hebrews). And because that saying of the wise man is true — 'As true praise adorns, so false praise chastises':
yet it is not impossible with God that even those who, invited by human praises, have begun to perform good works, God may turn this into a love and habit for them; according to that which a certain man said of the wise: 'To grow accustomed to the good, it will shame one to become unaccustomed'; and again, 'Let us speak good things, the discourse will pass over into affection.' Yet blessed John, with full and perfect freedom, chose to endure unjust things rather than not to speak just ones. Wherefore the blessed John himself with an evangelical address strikes our hearts with a saving oracle, saying: 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.' If we hold within us the flourishing word, the love of righteousness;
there is created in us that way by which Christ enters the human heart. And therefore he says, 'I am the voice of one crying.' The voice of the herald announces the judge; the cry threatens judgment. The condition of misery or of happiness must one day be changed. And consequently he proclaims, 'Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low' (Luke 3:4-5). This, then, is what the Evangelist recalls in other words, 'He who exalts himself shall be humbled' (cf. Luke 14:11). The time will come, most beloved brethren, when he will grieve without any remedy that he was proud, who now neglects to humble himself for his salvation. The time will come when the humble shall be raised into the heavens, and the proud shall be plunged into the depths of hell.
The time will come when all the greedy shall grieve that they were once rich, they by whom Christ's poor are now mocked. Not always shall this present order of human custom be preserved: not always shall Lazarus be tormented with hunger, nor shall the greedy rich man forever enjoy an abundance of delights; but soon the one shall be lifted up by the angels from the dunghill into paradise, and the other who refused to give alms, if repentance does not come to his aid, shall be snatched from his luxurious banquet into Tartarus; so that he who in this world would not give a crumb to the poor man, may not in hell deserve to receive a drop.
And he who would not feed the poor man from his delights, shall feed the flames from his own marrow. But let us, brethren, labor as much as we can, so that what pride had made swollen and lifted up may be smoothed by humility and gentleness; that what iniquity had corrupted may be corrected by the straightness of justice; that what malice had embittered may be tempered by the grace of goodness. Amid these pursuits may Christ the Lord find us; for he himself has deigned to furnish the way by which he may lead us to our fatherland: so that he may deign to say of us, 'And I will walk among them and dwell in them, and I will be their God' (Lev. 26:12). If in this present age he shall have walked in us, there he shall dwell in us, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.