Sermon 188
SERMO 188
ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE LORD
The word of God cannot be explained by man.
The Son of God, as He is with the Father, equal to Him and co-eternal, in whom all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, were created, the Word of God and God, the life and light of men, if we attempt to praise Him; it is not surprising that no human thought, no speech is sufficient. For how can our tongue be able to praise Him worthily, whom our heart is yet unable to see, where He has placed the eye by which He can be seen, if iniquity is cleansed, if infirmity is healed, and those with pure hearts become blessed, for they shall see God? It is not surprising, I say, that we do not find with what words we may speak of the one Word, in whom it was said that we should exist, who would say something about Him. For these words thought and uttered, our mind forms, but by that Word itself is formed. Nor does man make words in the manner by which he himself was made through the Word: because neither did the Father generate the only Word in the manner in which He made all things through the Word. Indeed, God begot God; but the begetter and the begotten simultaneously are one God. However, God made the world; the world passes, and God remains. And just as those things which were made, obviously did not make themselves: so by no one was He made, by whom all things could have been made. It is not surprising, therefore, if man made among all things does not explain in words the Word, by which all things were made.
The eternal Word born for us in time.
Therefore, let us briefly turn our ears and minds to this, so that perhaps we may be able to say something fitting and worthy, not from what was in the beginning—the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God—but from the Word made flesh: if indeed we can speak in a way through which He dwelled among us; if perhaps He can be spoken of where He chose to be seen. For this reason, we celebrate this day, on which He deigned to be born of a virgin: a birth that He allowed to be narrated by men. But in that eternity, where God is born of God, who will declare His generation? There, there is no such day to be solemnly celebrated. For it does not pass by an annual cycle to return; but remains without decline, because it did not begin to rise. Therefore, that unique Word of God, that life, that light of men, is indeed an eternal day: but this day, in which He was united to human flesh, is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, today is present, tomorrow becomes past. However, the act of being born of a virgin today commends the eternal one, because the eternal born of a virgin consecrates today. What praises, therefore, shall we declare to the love of God, what thanks shall we render? He loved us so much that for our sake He became in time, He through whom times were made; and was younger in age than many of His servants in the world, though older than the world itself in eternity; He became man who made man, was created from a mother whom He created, was carried by hands which He formed, sucked breasts which He filled, in a manger the mute infancy of the Word cried, without whom human eloquence is mute.
The word an infant, the teacher of humility.
See, O man, what God has become for you: recognize the teaching of such great humility, even in a teacher not yet speaking. You once in paradise were so eloquent that you gave names to every living soul: but for you, your Creator lay as an infant, and did not call His mother by name. You in the broad expanse of fruitful groves were lost, neglecting obedience: He, obedient, came into the most narrow lodging of mortality, to seek the dead by dying. You, though a man, wanted to be God, so that you might perish; He, though God, wanted to be man, so that what was lost might be found. Human pride has so burdened you that only divine humility could lift you.
Mary, the virgin, the Church, the virgin.
Therefore, let us celebrate with joy the day on which Mary, the mother of the Savior, gave birth. She, married to the Creator of marriage, the virgin leader of virgins; given to a husband, yet a mother not by her husband; a virgin before marriage, a virgin in marriage; a pregnant virgin, a nursing virgin. The almighty Son in no way took away the virginity of His holy Mother, which He chose before being born. For fecundity in marriage is good; but integrity in chastity is better. Therefore, the man Christ who could offer both as God (He being the same man and the same God), never gave to His Mother the good that spouses love so as to take away the better reason for which virgins scorned to be mothers. Thus, the holy Virgin Church today celebrates the birth of the Virgin. For to this the Apostle says: I have betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Hence a chaste virgin is found among so many people of both sexes, not just in boys and virgins but also in wedded fathers and mothers? Where, I say, a chaste virgin, if not in the integrity of faith, hope, and charity? Therefore, intending to make the Church a virgin in heart, Christ first preserved virginity in Mary's body. A woman, being given in human matrimony, is delivered to a husband so that she is no longer a virgin; but the Church could not be a virgin unless it had found a bridegroom to whom it was delivered, the son of a virgin.