Sermons to the People 189.1–193.2

The Day who made every day has sanctified this day for us, brothers. Of him the psalm sings: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name; bless his salvation from day to day.” Who is day from day but the Son from the Father, light from light? But that Day begot this Day who was born of the Virgin today. That Day, then, has no rising and no setting. By “Day” I mean God the Father. What is day but light? Not the light of fleshly eyes, not light shared with cattle, but light that shines for angels, light for the seeing of which hearts are purified. This night in which we now live is passing, in which the lamps of the Scriptures are lit for us; and there will come what is sung in the psalm: “In the morning I will stand before you and contemplate you.”

That Day, then, the Word of God, the day that shines for angels, the day that shines in that homeland from which we are exiles, clothed himself with flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. Born wonderfully. What is more wonderful than a virgin's childbearing? She conceives and is a virgin; she gives birth and is a virgin. He was created from her whom he created; he brought her fruitfulness, he did not corrupt her integrity. Where is Mary from? From Adam. Where is Adam from? From the earth. If Mary is from Adam, and Adam from the earth, then Mary too is earth. And if Mary is earth, let us recognize what we sing: “Truth has sprung from the earth.” What benefit has it given us? “Truth has sprung from the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven.” For the Jews, as the Apostle says, “being ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own, did not submit to God's righteousness.” How can a man be righteous? From himself? What poor man gives himself bread? What naked man is covered unless he has received clothing? Whence righteousness? What righteousness is there without faith? For “the righteous lives by faith.” Whoever calls himself righteous without faith lies. Since he in whom there is no faith lies, if he wants to speak the truth, let him turn to the Truth. For the Truth that has sprung from the earth was far away. You were asleep: he came to you; you were weighed down with heavy sleep: he woke you; he made a way for you through himself, so as not to lose you. Therefore “Truth has sprung from the earth,” because Christ was born of a virgin; “righteousness has looked down from heaven,” so that through righteousness men might come back to their senses who through unrighteousness had lost them.

We were mortal, we were weighed down by sins, we were bearing our punishments. Every man, when he is born, begins with misery. Do not look for a prophet: ask the newborn, see him crying. When there was such indignation of God on the earth, what condescension suddenly came about? “Truth has sprung from the earth.” He created all things; he was created among all things. He made the day; he came into the day. The Lord Christ, without beginning with the Father forever, has also a birthday. In the beginning was the Word; unless he had a human generation we would not come to divine regeneration: he was born so that we might be reborn. Christ has been born: let no one hesitate to be reborn. He was generated, not to be regenerated. For who needed regeneration but one whose generation had been condemned? Let his mercy, then, come to be in our hearts. His mother carried him in her womb; let us carry him in our heart. The virgin was made pregnant by the incarnation of Christ; let our breasts be made pregnant by faith in Christ. The virgin bore the Savior; let our soul bring forth salvation, and let us bring forth praise too. Let us not be barren; let our souls be fruitful for God.

Christ's generation is from the Father without a mother, and from a mother without a father: both are wonderful. The first is eternal, the second temporal. The eternal was born of the eternal. Why do you marvel? He is God. Consider his divinity, and the reason for wonder vanishes. Let wonder pass, let praise rise; let faith be present: believe what has been done. Was it a small thing that God humbled himself for you? He who was God was made [man]. The lodging was cramped; he was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger: who would not marvel? He who fills the world found no place in the lodging. Laid in a manger, he has become our food. Let the two animals come to the manger, the two peoples. “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger.” Do not be ashamed to be God's beast of burden: you will carry Christ, you will not go astray; you walk on the way, he sits on you. Let the Lord sit on us and steer us where he wills; let us be his beast of burden, let us go to Jerusalem. With him seated on us we are not weighed down but lifted up; with him leading we shall not go astray. Let us go through him to him, so that we may rejoice forever with the child born today.

Our Lord Jesus, who was with the Father before he was born of his mother, chose not only the virgin of whom he would be born but also the day on which he would be born. People in error often choose days: one for planting new vines, another for building, another for setting out on a journey, and sometimes even one for taking a wife. When someone does this, he does it so that what begins from it may grow happily. Yet no one can choose the day on which he himself is born. But he could choose both who could also create both. Nor did he choose the day as do those who vainly hang the fates of men on the arrangement of the stars. For he who was born was not made happy by the day, but he made happy the day on which he deigned to be born. For the day of his birth also holds the mystery of his light. For so the Apostle says: “The night is far gone, the day is at hand; let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us walk honorably as in the day.” Let us recognize the day, and let us be day. For we were night when we lived without faith. And since that unbelief which had covered the whole world like night had to be diminished as faith grew, therefore on the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ the night begins to suffer losses and the day to gain increases. Let us keep this day as solemn, then, brothers; not, like unbelievers, because of this sun, but because of him who made this sun. For he who was the Word became flesh, so that for our sake he could be under the sun: under the sun in the flesh, but in majesty above the whole universe, in which he founded the sun. And now even in the flesh he is above this sun, which is worshipped as god by those who, blind in mind, do not see the true Sun of righteousness.

Let us celebrate this day, then, Christians, not as the day of his divine birth but of his human birth, by which he was adapted to us, so that through the invisible made visible we might pass from visible things to invisible. For we must hold by the Catholic faith that there are two births of the Lord: one divine, the other human; that one without time, this one in time. Both are wonderful: that one without a mother, this one without a father. If we do not comprehend this one, how shall we tell of that one? Who could comprehend so new a novelty, unheard of, unique in the world, the incredible made credible and incredibly believed by the whole world: that a virgin should conceive, a virgin give birth, and in giving birth remain a virgin? What human reason did not find, faith grasps; and where human reason fails, faith advances. For who would say that the Word of God, through whom all things were made, could not make himself flesh even without a mother, as he made the first man without father and mother? But since he himself created both sexes, male and female, he willed also by being born to honor both sexes, which he had come to set free. You surely know the fall of the first man: the serpent did not dare speak to the man, but used the woman's service to throw him down. Through the weaker he got hold of the stronger; and he who entered through one triumphed over both. Therefore, so that we might not, as if moved by just grief, shrink in horror from our death in the woman and believe her condemned without repair, the Lord, coming to seek what had perished, willed to commend both by honoring them, because both had perished. So in neither sex should we do wrong to the Creator: the Lord's birth commended both to hope for salvation. The honor of the male sex is in the flesh of Christ; the honor of the female sex is in the mother of Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ has overcome the cunning of the serpent.

Let both sexes, then, be reborn in him who was born today, and let them celebrate today's day, the day on which the Lord Christ did not begin to be, but, being always with the Father, brought into this light the flesh that he received from his mother, bringing his mother fruitfulness, not taking away her integrity. He is conceived, he is born, he is an infant. Who is this infant? For he is called an infant (infans) because he cannot fari, that is, speak. So he is both an infant and the Word. Through the flesh he is silent; through the angels he teaches. The prince and shepherd of shepherds is announced to shepherds, and he lies in a manger as the fodder of faithful beasts. For it had been foretold by the prophet: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger.” That is why he sat on a young donkey when he entered Jerusalem with the praises of the crowd going before and following. Let us too recognize him, come to the manger, eat the fodder, carry our Lord and ruler, so that with him leading we may come to the heavenly Jerusalem. Christ's birth from his mother is weak, but his majesty from the Father is vast. He has a temporal day among temporal days, but he himself is the eternal Day from the eternal Day.

Rightly are we fired by his psalms as by the sound of a heavenly trumpet when we hear: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name.” Let us recognize, then, and announce Day from day, who was born in the flesh on this day: the Son, Day from the Father, Day; God from God, light from light. For this is the salvation of which it is said elsewhere: “God be merciful to us and bless us; may he make his face shine upon us, that we may know your way on earth, your salvation among all nations.” What he said as “on earth” he repeated as “among all nations”; and what he said as “your way” he repeated as “your salvation.” We remember that the Lord himself said, “I am the way.” And just now, when the Gospel was read, we heard that the most blessed old man Simeon had received a divine answer that he would not taste death until he had first seen the Lord's Christ. When he had taken the infant Christ in his hands and recognized the little one as great, he said: “Now, Lord, you let your servant depart in peace according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation.” Let us well announce, then, Day from day, his salvation. Let us declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. He lies in a manger, but he holds the world together; he sucks the breasts, but he feeds the angels; he is wrapped in swaddling cloths, but he clothes us with immortality; he is nursed, but he is worshipped; he finds no place in the lodging, but he makes himself a temple in the hearts of believers. For so that weakness might become strong, strength became weak. Let us then marvel at even his fleshly birth rather than despise it, and recognize in it the humility of such great loftiness for our sake. Let us kindle our love from it, so that we may come to his eternity.

The Word of the Father, through whom the times were made, became flesh and made his birthday for us in time; and in his human birth he willed to have one day, he without whose divine assent no day turns. With the Father he precedes all the spans of the ages; from his mother on this day he entered the course of the years. The maker of man was made man: so that he who rules the stars might suck at the breasts; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be wearied by the journey, the Truth be accused by false witnesses, the Judge of the living and the dead be judged by a mortal judge, Righteousness be condemned by the unrighteous, Discipline be beaten with whips, the Cluster of grapes be crowned with thorns, the Foundation be hung on wood, Strength be made weak, Health be wounded, Life die. To endure these and like indignities for us, in order to set free the unworthy, since neither did he deserve any evil, who endured such great evils for our sake, nor did we deserve any good, who received such great goods through him: for these reasons, then, he who before all ages, without beginning of days, was the Son of God deigned in the last days to be the son of man; and he who was born of the Father, not made by the Father, was made in the mother whom he had made, so that he might for a time spring from her here, who could never and nowhere have existed except through him.

So was fulfilled what the psalm had foretold: “Truth has sprung from the earth.” Mary was a virgin before conceiving, a virgin after giving birth. Far be it that in that earth, that is, in that flesh from which Truth sprang, integrity should perish. Indeed, after his resurrection, when he was thought to be a spirit and not a body, he said: “Touch and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” And yet the solid body of that young man came in to the disciples though the doors were not open. Why then could he who as a grown man could enter through closed doors not also, as a little one, come out through uncorrupted members? But unbelievers are willing to believe neither this nor that. So faith all the more believes both, because unbelief believes neither. For that is unbelief, which sees no divinity in Christ. But if faith believes that God was born in the flesh, it does not doubt that both are possible to God: that a body of fuller age should present itself to those inside without the entrance of the house being unbarred, and that the bridegroom as an infant should come forth from his chamber, that is, from the virginal womb, with his mother's virginity unharmed.

For there the only-begotten Son of God deigned to join human nature to himself, so that he might unite to himself, the spotless head, a spotless Church, which the apostle Paul calls a virgin, not considering in her only those who are virgins also in body, but desiring that the minds of all be uncorrupted. “For I have betrothed you,” he says, “to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” The Church, then, imitating the mother of her Lord, since she could not do so in body, is yet in mind both mother and virgin. In no way, then, did Christ by being born take away his mother's virginity, he who made his Church a virgin by redeeming her from sexual immorality with demons. You holy virgins, born of her uncorrupted virginity, who, despising earthly marriage, have chosen to be virgins also in the flesh, celebrate today with joy and solemnity the Virgin's childbearing. For he was born of a woman who was not sown in a woman by a man. He who brought you what you might love did not take from his mother what you love. He who heals in you what you drew from Eve, far be it that he should spoil what you have loved in Mary.

She, then, whose footsteps you follow, did not lie with a man in order to conceive, and when she gave birth remained a virgin. Imitate her as far as you can: not in fruitfulness, because you cannot have that with virginity intact. She alone could have both, of which you have willed to have one; for you would lose this one if you wanted to have both. She alone could have both, who bore the Almighty, through whom she could. For the only Son of God alone had to become son of man in this unique way. Yet Christ is not nothing to you because he is the offspring of one virgin. For him whom you could not bear as a son in the flesh you have found as a bridegroom in the heart; and such a bridegroom that your happiness may hold him as redeemer in such a way that your virginity need not fear him as a ravisher. For he who did not take virginity from his mother even by bodily birth preserves it much more in you by a spiritual embrace. Nor should you think yourselves barren because you remain virgins. For that devout integrity of the flesh itself belongs to the fruitfulness of the mind. Do what the Apostle says: since you do not think of the things of the world, how to please husbands, think of the things of God, how to please him in all things; so that you may have, not a womb fruitful in offspring, but a soul fruitful in virtues. Finally, I address all, I speak to all; with these words I call upon the whole chaste virgin whom the Apostle betrothed to Christ. What you marvel at in the flesh of Mary, do in the inner chambers of the soul. Whoever believes with the heart unto righteousness conceives Christ; whoever confesses with the mouth unto salvation gives birth to Christ. So may fruitfulness abound in your minds, and virginity endure.

Today “Truth has sprung from the earth”: Christ has been born of flesh. Rejoice solemnly; and, reminded by today's day, think of the everlasting day too; desire the eternal gifts with the firmest hope; having received the power, dare to be children of God. For your sake the maker of the times became temporal; for your sake the founder of the world appeared in the flesh; for your sake the Creator was created. Why, mortals, do you still take delight in mortal things, and try, if it were possible, to hold on to a fleeting life? A far brighter hope has shone on earth: that life in heaven should be promised to earthly beings. That this might be believed, something still more incredible was offered first. To make gods of those who were men, he who was God was made man; not losing what he was, he willed himself to become what he had made. He himself made what he would be, because he added man to God, he did not lose God in man. We marvel at the virgin's childbearing, and we try to persuade unbelievers of this new way of being born: that in an unsown womb the shoot of offspring sprang up, and a womb untouched by the embrace of flesh brought forth a son of man whose father it had not received as a man; that the integrity of virginity remained closed in conception and uncorrupted in giving birth. Wonderful is this power, but more wonderful is the mercy, that he who could be born in this way willed to be born. For he who was born the only son of his mother was already the only Son of the Father; and he was made in a mother, who had made his mother for himself: everlasting with the Father, born today of the mother; made of the mother after the mother, not made, from the Father, before all things; without whom the Father never was, without whom the mother would never have been.

Rejoice, virgins of Christ: the mother of Christ is your companion. You could not bear Christ, but for Christ's sake you have chosen not to bear. He who was not born of you was born for you. Yet if you remember his word, as you ought, you too are his mothers, because you do the will of his Father. For he himself said: “Whoever does the will of my Father, he is my brother and sister and mother.” Rejoice, widows of Christ: to him who made virginity fruitful you have vowed the holiness of continence. Rejoice too, chastity of marriage, all of you who live faithfully with your spouses: what you have lost in the body, keep in the heart. Where the flesh can no longer be untouched by intercourse, let the conscience be virgin in faith, by which the whole Church is a virgin. In Mary devout virginity bore Christ; in Anna aged widowhood recognized Christ as a little one; in Elizabeth married chastity and fruitfulness in old age served Christ. All ranks of the faithful members brought to the head what by his grace they could bring. Accordingly, since Christ is truth and peace and righteousness, conceive him by faith, bring him forth by works; so that what Mary's womb did in the flesh of Christ, your heart may do in the law of Christ. And how do you not belong to the Virgin's childbearing, since you are members of Christ? Mary bore your head; the Church bore you. For she too is both mother and virgin: mother in the womb of love, virgin in the integrity of faith and devotion. She bears peoples, but they are members of one, whose body and spouse she is, bearing in this too the likeness of that virgin, because in the many she is the mother of unity.

Let us all, then, with one mind, with chaste minds and holy affections, celebrate the day of the Lord's birth, the day on which, as we began this sermon, “Truth has sprung from the earth.” For what follows in the same psalm has also now come about. For he who sprang from the earth, that is, was born of flesh, since he came from heaven and is above all, without doubt, when he ascended to the Father, then too “righteousness looked down from heaven.” For he himself commends this righteousness in his own words when he promises the Holy Spirit: “He,” he says, “will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment: of sin, because they have not believed in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will no longer see me.” This is the righteousness that looked down from heaven. For “his going out is from the height of heaven, and his circuit to the height of heaven.” But lest anyone should despise the Truth because it sprang from the earth, when as a bridegroom it came forth from its chamber, that is, from the virginal womb, where the Word of God was joined to the human creature in a kind of ineffable marriage; lest anyone, then, should despise this and, though he was wonderfully born and wonderful in words and deeds, still believe Christ to be nothing more than a man because of the likeness of sinful flesh: after it had been said, “Like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, he rejoiced like a giant to run his course,” it was at once added, “His going out is from the height of heaven.” So when you hear, “Truth has sprung from the earth,” it is condescension, not condition; it is mercy, not misery. That Truth might spring from the earth, it came down from heaven; that the bridegroom might come forth from his chamber, his going out was from the height of heaven. That is why he was born today, the day than which no day on earth is shorter, yet from which the days take their increase. He, then, who bowed down and raised us up chose the shortest day, but the one from which light grows; by such a coming, though silent, exhorting us as with the sound of a great cry, that in him who became poor for our sake we may learn to be rich; that in him who took the form of a slave for our sake we may receive freedom; that in him who for our sake sprang from the earth we may possess heaven.

When the Gospel was read we heard the voice of the angels by which the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin's childbearing, was announced to the shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” A festive and congratulatory voice, not to one woman, whose womb had brought forth the child, but to the human race, for which the Virgin had borne the Savior. For it was fitting, and altogether proper, that for her who had brought forth the Lord of heaven and earth, and had remained untouched after bringing forth her child, not women with human ceremonies but angels with divine praises should celebrate the birth festivities. Let us too, then, say it, and say it with as much exultation as we can, we who do not announce to shepherds of flocks that he has been born, but celebrate his birthday with his sheep; let us too, I say, say with faithful heart and devout voice: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” And these divine words, these praises of God, this angelic joy, examined with all the consideration we can, let us meditate on in faith and hope and love. For as we believe and hope and desire, we too shall be glory to God in the highest when, with the spiritual body rising, we are caught up in the clouds to meet Christ, if only, while we are on earth, we pursue peace with good will. For in the highest is life, because there is the land of the living; and there are good days, where the Lord is the selfsame and his years do not fail. But whoever wants life and loves to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn from evil and do good; and so let him be a man of good will. And let him seek peace and pursue it: because on earth there is peace to men of good will.

But if you say, O man, “See, to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good I do not find”; and you delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but you see another law in your members fighting against the law of your mind and taking you captive in the law of sin that is in your members: persevere in good will and cry out what follows: “Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” For he is peace on earth to men of good will, after the war in which “the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do what you will”; for “he is our peace, who has made both one.” Let good will, then, persevere against evil desires, and, persevering, implore the help of the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is fought against by the law of the fleshly members, and see, now it is even taken captive: let it implore help, not trust in its own strength; and at least, worn out, let it not disdain to confess. For he will be at hand who said to those whom he already saw believing in him: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The Truth will be at hand and will set you free from the body of this death. For this is why the Truth whose birthday we celebrate sprang from the earth: that there might be peace on earth to men of good will. For who is capable of willing and being able, unless he who by calling granted that we should will helps us by inspiring, so that we may be able? For everywhere his mercy goes before us, so that we might be called when we were unwilling, and that we might obtain the ability to do what we will. Let us say to him, then: “I have sworn and determined to keep the judgments of your righteousness.” I have determined, and because you commanded, I have promised obedience; but since I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind and taking me captive in the law of sin that is in my members, “I am humbled exceedingly, Lord; give me life according to your word.” See, “to will is present with me”: therefore “accept, Lord, the freewill offerings of my mouth,” so that there may be peace on earth to men of good will. Let us say these things, and whatever else devotion, instructed by the holy readings, suggests, so that we may not throng in vain to the celebration of the Lord born of the Virgin, begun by good will and to be perfected by the fullest love, which is poured out in our hearts, not by ourselves but by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.