Sermon 292

SERMO 292

On the Birth of John the Baptist

[In which it is disputed against the Donatists]

Why the birth of John is celebrated, not that of others.

The solemnity of today's feast demands a sermon of such solemn expectation. Therefore, with the help of the Lord, we will minister to you what He has given, recalling and holding in mind our duty of servitude, that we speak, not as masters, but as ministers; not to disciples, but to fellow disciples; because we are not lords, but fellow servants. However, there is one Master for us, whose school is on earth, and throne in heaven: whose precursor, John, was born, whose day of birth is given today, and is celebrated today. This we have received from the tradition of the elders, this we pass on to posterity with devout imitation. Therefore today we celebrate the Nativity of John, not the Evangelist, but the Baptist. With this primary matter set forth, a question arises that cannot be overlooked: why do we celebrate the Nativity by which John was born from the womb rather than that of any apostle or martyr or prophet or patriarch? If we are asked, what will we answer? As it seems to me, as it occurs to the modesty of my abilities, this is the reason: The disciples of the Lord were born, and having been brought to more mature years by the progress of age, were brought into discipleship; their faith adhered to the Lord later, but the nativity of none of them served the Lord. Let us remember the Prophets and recall the Patriarchs: they were born as men, filled with the Holy Spirit in the progress of age, they prophesied Christ; they were born so that they might prophesy later. However, John's very nativity prophesied the Lord Christ, whom he greeted conceived in the womb.

Why is such a great man John, not among the disciples of the Lord, but having disciples with the Lord. The proud voices of the Donatists.

Having resolved the question to the best of our ability, let us tackle another, with the strength given by the Lord. For there arises another question somewhat, as it seems to me, more obscure and more laborious to investigate, in which your attention and my humble prayer to the Lord will aid me greatly. This John, excelling in such great grace that, as it is said, he would greet the Lord even from the womb, not by speaking, but by exulting; whose grace towards God was already manifest when his flesh was still enclosed in the flesh: this John is therefore not found among the disciples of the Lord, but rather he is found to have had disciples while the Lord was present. What is this? Who is this man? A man of such greatness, who is such a man? So great a man, how great a man? Nevertheless, he was not following the Lord among the disciples, although disciples followed him: far be it from me to say against the Lord; but yet as if outside the Lord. Christ had disciples, John had disciples: Christ taught, John taught. What more can I say? John baptized, Christ baptized. I speak more about baptism, Christ was baptized by John. Where now are those who are inflated with arrogance by their ministering of Baptism with swollen mentality? Where are the voices lacking humility, elevated in pride, “I baptize, I baptize?” What would you have said, if you had been worthy to baptize Christ? It has begun to appear and stand out greatly, as your Holiness perceives, that for a reason both Christ had to be sent by the Father, and John sent ahead by Christ. John was sent first, but as the judge is preceded by heralds. Christ was created as a man later, but it was God Christ who created John. Therefore John was indeed a perfect man, and one whose grace was so commended that the Lord himself said of him: “Among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist.” Therefore, this great man recognizes the great Lord in the small: a man recognizes him who had come as a man and God. For if among those born of women, that is, among men, none has arisen greater than John the Baptist; whoever is greater than John is not merely man, but also God. Therefore, this great one had to have his own disciples and recognize Christ as the master of all with his disciples. For what greater testimony to the truth than to humble himself to recognize him whom by emulating he could have envied? John could have been thought to be Christ, and did not wish it: he could have been believed to be Christ, and did not wish it. People said, when they were mistaken in him: “Could this possibly be the Christ?” He answered what he was not, so that he might remain what he was. And indeed Adam, having claimed what he was not, lost what he was. This great man remembered that, but as the least before the small Christ: he knew it, remembered it, and held to it; because he thought of recovering what he had lost. Therefore this great man, John, to whom the Lord bore such testimony, whom the truth thus recommended, saying: “Among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist”; he could have been believed to be Christ, indeed by those deceived by the greatness of his grace he was already believed to be Christ: and in that error they would have perished, unless corrected by his confession. He responded to those who thought this way and said: “I am not the Christ.” As if to say: Surely you are gravely mistaken to my honor; surely you add high praise to me by thinking so: but I must recognize myself, that he may pardon you who err. For if what he was not was falsely believed, he who was truly so would be cut off.

Christ was baptized and incarnated to teach the way of humility.

John was sent ahead, therefore, to baptize the humble Lord. For the Lord wanted to be baptized for the sake of humility, not because of iniquity. Why was the Lord Christ baptized? Why was the Lord Christ, the only begotten Son of God, baptized? Find why He was born, and there you will find why He was baptized. For there you will find the path of humility, which you do not walk with a proud step; which, unless you tread with a humble foot, you cannot reach the height to which it leads. He was baptized for your sake, who descended for your sake. See how great He, who was so small, became: Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. For it was not robbery, but equality by nature, that the Son was equal with the Father. If John wanted to be thought of as Christ, it would have been robbery to him. Therefore, He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. For He was equal, and it was without robbery, being co-eternal, born from eternity. Yet, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant; that is, taking the form of a man. Who, being in the form of God, had not taken the form of God; therefore, being in the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. Thus, He took on what He was not, without losing what He was. Remaining God, He assumed man. He took the form of a servant, and God became man, from whom God made man.

Consider, therefore, what majesty, what power, what loftiness, what equality with the Father came for our sake to the clothing of a servant's form: and understand that path of humility from so great a master; for it is greater that he wished to become man, than that he wished to be baptized by man.

He wished to be baptized by John.

Therefore, John baptizes Christ, the servant (baptizes) the Lord, the voice (baptizes) the Word. Remember: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: and remember that the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. Therefore, John baptizes Christ, the servant (baptizes) the Lord, the voice (baptizes) the Word, the creature (baptizes) the Creator, the lamp (baptizes) the sun; but the sun who made this sun; the sun of whom it is said: The sun of righteousness has risen for me, and healing in his wings. Of whom the wicked, repenting too late, at last in the judgment of God will say: What has pride profited us? or what has the boasting of riches given us? All those things have passed away, like a shadow: and with the shadows, who followed shadows. Therefore, they say, we have wandered from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness has not shone on us, and the sun has not risen on us. To them, Christ has not risen, by whom Christ has not been recognized. That sun of righteousness, without cloud, without night; he does not rise for the wicked, does not rise for the impious, does not rise for the unfaithful. For this bodily sun from the sky he makes to rise daily over the good and the bad. Therefore, as I said, the creature (baptizes) the Creator, the lamp (baptizes) the sun: and the baptizer did not exalt himself, but humbled himself by baptizing. For to the one coming to him he said: Do you come to me to be baptized? I need to be baptized by you. A great confession, and a secure profession of humility by the lamp. If it were exalted against the sun, it would quickly be extinguished by the wind of pride. Therefore, this is what the Lord foresaw, what the Lord taught by his baptism. So great desired to be baptized by so little; to explain briefly, the savior (desired to be baptized) by the saved. For John perhaps remembered some ailment of his own, although he was so great. For hence: I need to be baptized by you? Surely the Baptism of the Lord is salvation: because salvation is of the Lord. For the salvation of men is vain. Therefore, hence: I need to be baptized by you, if he did not need to be cured? But wonderful is the healing in the humility of the Lord himself: he baptized, and he healed. For if Christ is the savior of all men, especially of the faithful: it is an apostolic and true statement, that Christ is the savior of all men: let no one say, I do not need a savior. Whoever says this does not humble himself to the healer, but perishes in his illness. If (he is) the savior of all men, therefore also of John: for neither was John not a man. A great man indeed, but nonetheless a man. That (one) is the savior of all men: therefore he recognizes his savior. For Christ was not not the savior of John. He himself does not say this, who humbly confesses, saying: I need to be baptized by you. And the Lord: Let it be so now, to fulfill all righteousness. What is all righteousness? He commended righteousness by humility: the heavenly teacher and true Lord commended righteousness to us especially by humility. For what was being baptized pertained to humility: and therefore, about to do what pertained to humility, he said: To fulfill all righteousness.

The Donatists improperly transfer the place of the Gospel about the tree and its fruit to the minister of Baptism.

Foreseeing that many would become proud concerning the ministry of Baptism and would say, "I baptize," and "As I am who baptize, so I make him whom I baptize." From where do you prove this? "I prove it," he says. By which testimonies? "Evangelical," he says. Let us hear some unknown new evangelist against the ancient Baptist. By which, then, evangelical testimonies do you prove that just as you are, you make him whom you baptize? "Because," he says, "it is written: A good tree produces good fruits." I recite what is written, I bring forth the Gospel: "A good tree produces good fruits, a bad tree produces bad fruits." I acknowledge the Gospel; but you, as I consider, do not acknowledge yourself. And to bear with you somewhat patiently, explain what you are saying, do not suppose that I have not meanwhile understood. Tell me to what these testimonies pertain, how they help in solving such a question concerning Baptism. "The good tree," he says, "is a good baptizer." "The good tree," he says, as those say: "the good tree," he says, "is a good baptizer; his fruit is good, who is baptized by him; for then the fruit will be good, if he is a good tree." What do you say about Christ and John? Awake, arise, the brightness of evident truth blinds your eyes; see what was put forward before us; read the Gospel: John baptized Christ. Will you say, John the tree, Christ the fruit? Will you call the creature the tree, and the Creator the fruit? Therefore the Lord Christ wished to be baptized by John, not that through baptism He would be free from iniquity, but that He might close the mouth of iniquity. Behold, he who baptizes is lesser; he who is baptized, shall I say, is better? This, perhaps, is too much for me to understand. Return to men, see both as men. Ananias baptized Paul. Ananias was better than Paul. Never was the fruit better than the tree. For the tree produces fruit, it is not produced by the fruit.

The Donatists are proven to boast themselves for Christ.

Do you not see what you are taking upon yourself? The Lord himself said, "Many will come in my name saying, I am Christ." Many erring and deceiving ones have come in the name of Christ; we have heard none saying, I am Christ. Countless heretics have come all in the name of Christ, that is, they have come cloaked in the name of Christ, whitening a mudded wall with a splendid name, and we have heard none saying, I am Christ. What then? Did the Lord not know what He foretold? Or rather, did He awaken us from slumber to understand these secrets themselves, to search and knock, so that what is covered may be opened to us, and with the cover removed, we are submitted to the Lord, that just as that paralytic, we deserve to be healed by the Lord? We have indeed found these saying, I am Christ: not in these words, but what is worse, in deeds. Not with the audacity of those words. For who hears them? Who, so foolish as to admit deceived, admits such into his ears or heart? If he says to him who is to baptize him, I am Christ: he turns his face away from him, abandons the man’s apparent arrogance, seeks the grace of God. Therefore, not thus with those words, I am Christ. But in another way, I am Christ; see how. Christ heals, Christ cleanses, Christ justifies: man does not justify. What is to justify? To make just. Just as to mortify is to make dead; to vivify, to make alive: so to justify, to make just. Behold from the side a certain baptizer, not entering through the door, but descending through the wall; not a pastor and guard, but a thief and robber; from the side he says: I baptize. If as a minister, I dare: do not add; whatever more is from evil is. And yet he adds, he does not doubt. What does he add? I justify, I make someone just. This is truly, I am the good tree, from me let him be born who wishes to be a good fruit. Just a little, if you accept wisely, listen; they are few words, and if I am not mistaken, they are clear. So, do you justify, you make just? Therefore, he says, let him believe in you whom you justify. Say, dare to say, Believe in me; who do not doubt to say, You are justified by me. He is troubled, he wavers, he excuses. For what need is there, he says, to tell him, Believe in me? I say, Believe in Christ. You hesitated, you doubted: to some extent you have condescended to us. You have admitted something, from which you may be healed. You said something correct, from which your other wrongs may be corrected. Now listen not to me, but to yourself. For you certainly do not dare say, Believe in me. Far be it, he says. And yet you dare to say, I justify you. Listen, and learn, since you do not dare say, Believe in me; therefore, you ought not to dare say, I justify you. The Apostle speaks, to whom you yield, whether you will or not, you are subjected. For not to the Apostle as to a man, but to Him of whom the Apostle speaks: Do you wish to receive proof of Christ who speaks in me? Therefore, listen not to the Apostle, but to Christ through the Apostle. What does the Apostle say? To him who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Attend, I beseech you; see how plain it is, how open it is: To him who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Whoever believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, who makes the ungodly pious: therefore, whoever believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, who makes just him who was ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Now say, if you dare, I justify you. See how I have responded to you from the Apostle: If you justify me, I will believe in you; because to him who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. You justify me? I will believe in you. For if you justify me, I will be one who believes in him who justifies me, that is, who justifies the ungodly: I believe securely, because my faith is reckoned as righteousness. Therefore, if you do not dare say, I justify you; rather, if you do not dare say, Believe in me: beware now lest you say, I justify you. Ruined, I have found you; lest you lose both me and yourself.

The place in the Gospel about the tree and its fruit, how it is to be understood.

For concerning what you proposed about the tree and the fruit, I propose to you something from examples, so that you may learn to understand what was said: A good tree produces good fruits, and an evil tree produces evil fruits. For I understand it thus, as the Lord Himself explains it. What is: A good tree produces good fruits? A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. He placed men as trees and actions as treasures. Just as a man is, so are his actions. If a man is good, he has good actions; if a man is evil, he has evil actions: a good man cannot have evil actions, nor can an evil man have good actions. What could be clearer? What could be more evident? What could be more manifest? Yet now you make yourself a good tree who baptizes, and the one whom you baptize is the fruit; so that just as you are, so he may be. But it is far from that, and see how perversely you understand. Among you there was, or has been at some time, an adulterer or someone hidden. But what I do not know, he says, does not contaminate me. That’s not my point; it is another question: I want to say something about Baptism; for that is what we have taken up. He is a hidden adulterer: therefore, he is false; not a false adulterer, but a true adulterer, falsely chaste. Therefore, that adulterous man, false man, and more false because he hides; for if he were an open adulterer, he would no longer be false: therefore the Holy Spirit will surely flee from that adulterer. Indeed, the clear sentence is pronounced: For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit. Since he is a hidden adulterer, he surely baptizes. Here, I see a man baptized by a hidden adulterer: a fruit is born; where is the good tree? He is baptized, he is innocent, remission of sins has taken place in him; therefore the ungodly is justified, a good fruit is born; I inquire from what tree? Tell, answer me: that tree is a hidden adulterer, it is an evil tree; if this is the fruit of this tree, it is an evil fruit. It is said by the Lord: An evil tree produces evil fruits. You will respond that to commend this fruit as good, it is not born from that tree. For because you do not know that tree is evil, it is not therefore evil: it is worse as it is more unknown. For it is more unknown as it more cunningly hides its deed. For if he were an open adulterer, he might be healable by confession. A worst tree, and yet behold a good fruit. Where born from? Or perhaps not born? Born, you say. I inquire from where: what will you say? Whence is this born? There is nothing to say but, From God: I do not know if he would say anything other than, From God. If he said this about all, and did not make himself a good tree while being evil, pretending to be good, and made himself worse, he would say of all that they are born of God; he has the evident sentence of the Gospel: He gave them power to become children of God, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of flesh, but of God. Therefore return to this one: born of God? From God. Why this one from God? Because a good fruit could not be born from an evil tree. A chaste baptizer is a good tree, he is not false; truly the chaste one baptized, a good fruit is born from a good tree. Behold, also this good fruit, from what tree was it born? Say from an evil tree, if you dare. I do not dare, he says. Therefore, also from a good tree? From a good tree. From which good tree? From God. What about that one? From a chaste man. Pay a little attention: let us understand what we are saying. This one baptized by a chaste man, from a good tree, that is, from a good man, a good fruit is born. That one baptized by a hidden adulterer, from an evil tree, what fruit is born? A good one. It cannot be. If the fruit is good: then change the tree. You acknowledge this good fruit, that man is evil because he is a hidden adulterer: a tree for this fruit must be changed. I have changed, you say: therefore, I said: From God. Now compare these two born ones: that one was baptized by a manifest chaste man; this one by a hidden adulterer: that one born of a man, this one born of God. Therefore, this one was more happily born from a hidden adulterer, than that one from a manifest chaste man.

From the words of John and the Apostle he refutes the Donatists.

It is better, therefore, to listen to John, O heretic; it is better to listen to the forerunner who came again; it is better to listen to the humble one, O proud one; it is better to listen to the burning lamp, O extinguished lamp. Hear John when they came to him: "I indeed baptize you in water." And you, if you recognize yourself, are a minister of water. "I," he says, "baptize you in water; but he who will come is greater than I." How much greater is he than you? "I am not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandal." How much would he humble himself if he said he was worthy? He did not even say he was worthy to loosen the strap of the sandal. He himself is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Why do you set yourself up for Christ? He himself baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he himself justifies. What do you say? "I baptize in the Holy Spirit, I justify." Certainly, you do not say, "I am Christ"? Surely you are not among those of whom it was said: "Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am Christ’"? You are caught; and if only you may be found as caught, not perishing without being caught. It is good to be caught in the nets of truth for the great king's feast. Therefore, do not say again, "I justify, I sanctify," lest you be found to say, "I am Christ." Rather, say that you are a friend of the bridegroom, not wanting to boast as the bridegroom: "Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the increase." Listen also to him, the friend of the bridegroom, about whom we are speaking. Certainly, he had disciples with Christ and was not a disciple of Christ: listen to him confessing himself a disciple of Christ. See him among Christ’s disciples, and the more certain as he is more humble; the more humble, the greater. See him fulfilling what is written: "The greater you are, humble yourself in all things, and you will find grace before God." He already said: "I am not worthy to loosen the strap of the sandal"; but he did not demonstrate himself as a disciple in this. "He who comes from heaven," he says, "is above all; we all have received from his fullness." Therefore, he was also among the disciples, who gathered disciples with Christ. Listen more openly to him confessing himself a disciple: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly." And he stands because he hears him. He stands and hears; for if he does not hear, he falls. Rightfully, he says: "You will give me the joy and gladness of hearing." What does "hearing him" mean? To hear him, not to want to be heard in his place. And so that we may know that in what he hears him, he commends humility: when he said: "You will give me the joy and gladness of hearing," he immediately added, "and the bones that have been humbled will exult." Therefore, he stands and hears him. The bones that have been humbled will exult because the haughty are broken. No slave can assume the power of the Lord for himself. Let him rejoice to be in the household, and if he is a overseer, let him give food to his fellow servants in due time; but from what he lives, not that they live from him. For what does it mean to give food in due time, but to offer Christ, praise Christ, commend Christ, preach Christ? This is to give food in due time. For to be Christ himself, the food of his animals, he was born and placed in a manger.