Sermons to the People 202.1–206.3

Time bids us speak, also with a yearly sermon, about the festivity that today's feast, known throughout the whole world, brings us, and what it commemorates by its yearly return. For Epiphany is Greek; in Latin it can be called manifestation. For on this day the Magi are said to have worshipped the Lord, prompted by the star that appeared and led by it as it went before them. For on the day he was born they saw the star in the East, and they recognized whose birth it showed. From that day, then, to this day they hastened; they terrified King Herod with the news; when the Jews answered from the prophetic Scripture they found the city of Bethlehem, where the Lord had been born. Then, with the same star leading them, they came to the Lord himself; they worshipped him when he was shown to them; they offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh; they returned by another way. The Lord was indeed manifested on the very day of his birth to the shepherds, informed by an angel; on that day too he was announced by the star to those far away in the East; but it was on this day that he was worshipped by them. So the whole Church of the Gentiles has received this day as one to be celebrated most devoutly: for what were those Magi but the firstfruits of the Gentiles? The shepherds were Israelites, the Magi Gentiles; those near, these far; yet both ran together to the cornerstone. “For coming,” as the Apostle said, “he proclaimed peace to us who were far off and peace to those who were near. For he is our peace, who has made both one, and created the two in himself into one new man, making peace, and reconciled both in one body to God, killing the enmities in himself.”

Rightly have the heretical Donatists never been willing to celebrate this day with us: for they neither love unity nor are in communion with the Eastern Church, where that star appeared. But let us celebrate in the unity of the Gentiles the manifestation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by which he took the firstfruits of the Gentiles. For then the child, “before he knew how to call father or mother,” as had been prophesied of him, “received the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria”: that is, before he uttered human words through human flesh, he received the strength of Damascus, namely that in which Damascus trusted. For that city, flourishing in worldly terms, had once trusted in riches. And among riches the first place goes to gold, which the Magi humbly offered to Christ. The spoils of Samaria were those very people who lived there. For Samaria stands for idolatry; for there the people of Israel, turned away from the Lord, turned to worshipping idols. So Christ, who was to conquer the kingdom of the devil throughout the whole world with the spiritual sword, as a child took these first spoils from the dominion of idolatry, turning the Magi away from the plague of that superstition to worship him; and in this land, not yet speaking with a tongue, he spoke from heaven through a star; so that he might show who he was, and where, and for whom he had come, not by the voice of flesh but by the power of the Word, which became flesh. For this Word, which in the beginning was God with God, now made flesh also to dwell among us, had both come to us and was abiding with the Father; not deserting the angels above, and gathering men below to himself through angels; he was shining with unchangeable truth as the Word for the dwellers in heaven, and, because the lodging was cramped, he was lying in a manger. By him a star was shown in heaven, and it showed him on earth as one to be worshipped. And yet the infant, so powerful, so great, fled as a little one into Egypt, carried by his parents, because of Herod's hostility; so speaking to his members already, not yet by words but by deeds, and saying silently: “If they persecute you in one city, flee to another.” For he bore mortal flesh, in which he prefigured us, and in which he was also to die for us at the fitting time. Hence from those Magi he received not only gold, as one to be honored, and frankincense, as one to be worshipped, but also myrrh, as one to be buried. And what kind of people were to die for his name, how innocent, how humble, he showed in the little ones whom Herod killed. For the two years of their age also signified that number of commandments on which the whole Law and the Prophets depend.

Whom does it not make attentive, what it means that, when the Magi asked where Christ was to be born, the Jews answered from Scripture, and yet did not worship with them? Do we not see this even now, when from those very rites to which their hardness is subject nothing else is shown but Christ, in whom they refuse to believe? When they kill a sheep and eat the Passover, do they not show the Gentiles Christ, whom they themselves do not worship with them? And what of this, that often, concerning the prophetic testimonies by which Christ was foretold, when some people doubt whether they were written by Christians, not about things still to come but about things already done, we appeal to the books of the Jews to confirm the minds of the doubters? Do not the Jews then too show to the Gentiles Christ, whom they will not worship with the Gentiles?

We, then, dearly beloved, whose firstfruits those Magi were, we the inheritance of Christ to the ends of the earth, for whose sake blindness in part has come upon Israel, so that the fullness of the Gentiles might come in, having come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who to console us then lay in a cramped lodging, and now to exalt us sits in heaven, let us so proclaim him in this land, in this region of our flesh, that we do not return by the way we came, nor retrace the footsteps of our former way of life. For this is the meaning of the Magi's not returning by the way they had come. A changed way is a changed life. The heavens have told the glory of God to us too; the truth shining from the Gospel, like a star from heaven, has led us too to worship Christ; we too have heard with faithful ear the prophecy proclaimed in the Jewish nation, as the information given by the Jews who do not go along with us; we too, recognizing and praising Christ as king and priest and as having died for us, have honored him as with gold and frankincense and myrrh. It remains that, proclaiming the gospel, we take a new way and do not return by the way we came.

Epiphany is a word of the Greek language; in Latin it can be called manifestation. Today, then, the Redeemer of all nations, being manifested, has made a festival for all nations. Whose birth we celebrated a very few days ago, his manifestation we celebrate today. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, born thirteen days ago, is reported to have been worshipped by the Magi today. That it happened, the truth of the Gospel tells; on what day it happened, the authority of this so illustrious feast proclaims everywhere. For it seemed just, as it truly is just, that since those Magi were the first of the Gentiles to know Christ the Lord, and, not yet moved by his speech, followed the star that appeared to them and spoke visibly for the infant Word, as a tongue of heaven, the Gentiles should gratefully recognize the day of the salvation of their firstfruits, and dedicate it to the Lord Christ with thanksgiving and solemn service. For the firstfruits of the Jews for faith in Christ and his revelation were those shepherds who, coming from nearby, saw him on the very day he was born. To them angels announced it, to these a star. To them it was said, “Glory to God in the highest”; in these was fulfilled, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Both indeed, as the beginnings of two walls coming from different directions, circumcision and uncircumcision, ran to the cornerstone, so that he might be their peace, making both one.

Yet the shepherds praised God because they had seen Christ; but these, having seen Christ, also worshipped him. In those grace came first; in these humility was greater. Perhaps, then, those shepherds, being less guilty, exulted more eagerly over their salvation, while these Magi, burdened with many sins, sought pardon more humbly. This is that humility which divine Scripture commends more in those who were from the Gentiles than in the Jews. For that centurion was from the Gentiles who, though he had received the Lord with his whole heart, nevertheless called himself unworthy that he should enter his house, and did not want his sick servant to be seen by him, but to be healed by his command. So he held him present in his heart within, whose presence he respectfully turned back from his roof. Finally the Lord said, “I have not found such faith in Israel.” That Canaanite woman also was from the Gentiles, who, when she heard herself called a dog by the Lord, unworthy to have the children's bread thrown to her, begged for crumbs like a dog; and so she deserved to be no longer what she was, because she did not deny what she had been. For she too heard from the Lord: “O woman, great is your faith.” Humility had made her faith great, because it had made her small.

So the shepherds come from nearby to see, and the Magi come from afar to worship. This is the humility by which the wild olive deserved to be grafted into the olive and to bear olives against nature, because it deserved to change its nature by grace. For when with this wild olive the whole world was growing wild and bitter, by the grace of grafting it was enriched and shone. For they come from the end of the earth, according to Jeremiah, saying: “Truly our fathers worshipped lies.” And they come not from one part of the world, but, as the Gospel according to Luke says, from the East and the West, from the North and the South, to recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. So the whole world from its four parts is called to faith by the grace of the Trinity. By this reckoning, when four is taken three times, the apostolic number twelve is consecrated, as if prefiguring the salvation of the whole world from the four parts of the world in the grace of the Trinity. This number was also signified by the vessel shown to Peter, full of all kinds of animals, as of all nations. For it was let down from heaven by four lines and was let down and taken up three times, so that fours made twelve. Perhaps that is why, twelve days having been added after the Lord's birthday, the Magi, the firstfruits of the Gentiles, came to see and worship Christ, and deserved not only to receive their own salvation but also to signify that of all nations. Let us celebrate this day too, then, most devoutly; and let us worship the Lord Jesus dwelling in heaven, whom those firstfruits of ours worshipped lying in a lodging. For what they venerated in him as future, we venerate as fulfilled. The firstfruits of the Gentiles worshipped him eager for his mother's breasts; the nations worship him seated at the right hand of God the Father.

A few days ago we celebrated the Lord's birthday; today we celebrate the Epiphany, a Greek word that means manifestation, and it refers to what the Apostle says: “Without doubt great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh.” So both days belong to the manifestation of Christ. On the former he was born a man from a human mother, he who without beginning was God with the Father. But he was manifested to flesh in the flesh, because flesh could not see him as he was in the spirit. And on that day which is called his birthday the shepherds of the Jews saw him; but on today's day, which is properly called Epiphany, that is, manifestation, the Magi of the Gentiles worshipped him. To those angels announced him, to these a star. Angels inhabit the heavens, and stars adorn them: to both, then, “the heavens declared the glory of God.”

For the cornerstone was born for both, so that, as the Apostle says, he might create the two in himself into one new man, making peace, and reconcile both in one body to God through the cross. For what is a corner but the joining of two walls which come from different directions and there, in a way, find the kiss of peace? For circumcision and uncircumcision, that is, Jews and Gentiles, were hostile to each other because of two things different and contrary to each other: on the one side the worship of the one true God, on the other that of many false ones. So, since those were near and these far, he brought both to himself, who “reconciled both in one body to God,” as the same apostle goes on to add, “through the cross, killing the enmities in himself. And coming,” he says, “he proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” See whether he has not pointed out both the two walls coming from the difference of enmities, and the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus, to whom both came from different directions, in whom both came into agreement: that is, those who believed in him from the Jews and those who believed from the Gentiles; as if it were said to them: You from nearby and you from afar, “come to him and be enlightened, and your faces will not be ashamed.” For it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen, precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” Those who heard and obeyed came from both sides, held to peace, ended enmities: the firstfruits of both were the shepherds and the Magi. In them “the ox began to know its owner, and the donkey its master's manger.” From the Jews the horned animal, where the horns of the cross were being prepared for Christ; from the Gentiles the long-eared animal, of whom it had been foretold: “A people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me.” For the owner of the ox and the master of the donkey himself lay in the manger and gave both a common food. Since, then, peace had come to those who were far off and peace to those who were near, the Israelite shepherds, being found near, came to him on the day Christ was born, saw him, and exulted; but the Gentile Magi, being found far off, arrived today, so many days after his birth, found him, and worshipped him. It was fitting, then, that we, that is, the Church gathered from the Gentiles, should join the celebration of this day, on which Christ was manifested to the firstfruits of the Gentiles, to the celebration of that day on which Christ was born of the Jews, and keep the memory of so great a mystery with a twofold feast.

When these two walls are thought of, one from the Jews, the other from the Gentiles, cleaving to the cornerstone and keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, let not the multitude of reprobate Jews trouble the mind, among whom were the builders, that is, those who wanted to be teachers of the Law, but such as the Apostle says, “understanding neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertions.” Through this blindness of mind they rejected the stone which has become the head of the corner. But it would not become the head of the corner unless it offered two peoples coming from different directions a peaceful joining, with grace binding them together. Let us not, then, think of the persecutors and killers of Christ as in the Israelite wall, as if building the Law and destroying faith, rejecting the cornerstone and building ruin for an unhappy city. Nor let that numerous multitude of Jews scattered through the lands be thought of there, as witness to the divine Scriptures which they carry everywhere without understanding them. For in them Jacob limps, whose broad thigh was touched and withered, signifying the multitude of his race limping from its paths. But in the holy wall that came from them to the peace of the cornerstone, let those be thought of in whom Jacob was blessed. For the same man was both blessed and lame: blessed in those sanctified, lame in those reprobate. Let those be thought of in this wall whose great numbers went before and followed the Savior's donkey, crying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Let those be thought of who were chosen from there as disciples and made apostles. Let Stephen be thought of, called in the Greek language by the word for a crown, and first after the Lord's resurrection to be crowned with martyrdom. Let there be thought of also, from those very persecutors, so many thousands of believers when the Holy Spirit came. Let the churches be thought of of which the Apostle says: “I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; they were only hearing that he who once persecuted us now proclaims the faith which he once ravaged; and they glorified God in me.” In this way let the Israelite wall be thought of, and let it be joined to the wall coming from the Gentiles, which is now plain to see; and so the cornerstone, first laid in the manger and raised to the summit of heaven, Christ the Lord, is found not to have been foretold in vain.

Today we enter on the observance of Lent, brought before us by its yearly return; and on this day our exhortation is also solemnly due to you, so that the word of God, ministered through our office, may feed in the heart those who are about to fast in the body; and so that the inner man, refreshed with its own food, may carry out the chastening of the outer man and endure it more sturdily. For it befits our devotion that we, who are about to celebrate the passion of the crucified Lord, now drawing near, should make for ourselves too a cross of restraint on fleshly pleasures, as the Apostle says: “Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.” On this cross indeed the Christian must hang continually throughout this whole life, which is led amid temptations. For in this life there is no time for pulling out the nails of which it is said in the psalm: “Pierce my flesh with nails from fear of you.” The flesh is the fleshly desires; the nails are the commands of righteousness: with these the fear of the Lord pierces them, and crucifies us as an acceptable victim to him. Hence the Apostle says again: “I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God.” This cross, then, on which the servant of God not only is not put to shame but even glories, saying, “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world”: this cross, I say, is not of forty days but of this whole life, which is signified by the mystical number of these forty days; whether because, as some assert, a man who is to live this life is formed in the womb in forty days; or because the four Gospels agree with the tenfold Law, and four times ten makes this number, and shows us that both Scriptures are necessary in this life; or for some other more probable reason that a better and clearer understanding can find. Hence Moses and Elijah and the Lord himself fasted forty days: so that it might be suggested to us, in Moses and Elijah and Christ himself, that is, in the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel itself, that this is done with us: that we should not be conformed to this world and cling to it, but crucify the old man, not living in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and impurity, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh in its desires. Live so here always, Christian: if you do not want to sink your steps in the mud of earth, do not come down from this cross. But if this is to be done through this whole life, how much more through these days of Lent, in which this life is not only lived but also signified?

On other days, then, let your hearts not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness; but on these days fast as well. On other days do not touch adulteries, sexual immoralities, and all unlawful corruptions; but on these days abstain even from your spouses. What you take from yourselves by fasting, add to alms by giving it out. Let the time that was taken up with rendering the marital debt be spent on supplications. Let the body that was relaxed in fleshly affections be prostrated in pure prayers. Let the hands that were entwined in embraces be stretched out in prayers. And you who fast on other days too, increase on these days what you do. You who on other days crucify the body by perpetual continence, cling to your God on these days with more frequent and more intent prayers. All of one mind, all faithful, faithfully; all in this pilgrimage sighing with longing for the one homeland and burning with love. Let no one envy in another, let no one mock, a gift of God that he himself does not have. In spiritual goods, count as yours what you love in your brother; let him count as his what he loves in you. Let no one, under the appearance of abstinence, aim to change his delicacies rather than cut them off; so as to seek costly foods because he does not eat meat, and unusual drinks because he does not drink wine: lest under the pretext of taming the flesh he rather do the business of pleasure. To the clean, indeed, all foods are clean; but in no one is self-indulgence clean.

Above all, brothers, fast from lawsuits and discords. Remember the prophet reproaching certain people and crying out: “In the days of your fasting your own wills are found, for you goad all who are under your yoke and strike them with your fists; your voice is heard in clamor,” and other such things. Having mentioned these he added: “This is not the fast I have chosen, says the Lord.” If you want to cry out, frequent that cry of which it is written: “With my voice I cried to the Lord.” For that is not a cry of strife but of love; not of the flesh but of the heart. It is not like the cry of which it is said: “I waited for him to do justice, but he did iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry.” “Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” These are the two wings of prayer by which it flies to God: if one pardons the offender what he has committed, and gives to the needy.

With its yearly return the season of Lent has come, in which our exhortation is due to you; for you too owe the Lord works fitting to the season, works which cannot be useful to the Lord, but to you. Other seasons too ought to find the Christian fervent in prayers, fasts, and alms; but this solemn season ought to rouse those who on other days are sluggish in these things, and those who on other days are eager for them ought now to practice them more fervently. For our life in this world is the time of our humility, which these days signify, while Christ the Lord, who suffered once for us by dying, is as it were to suffer again in the feast that returns every year. For what was done once in all time, so that our life might be renewed, is celebrated every year, so that it may be recalled to memory. If, then, with the affection of most true piety, we ought to be humble of heart throughout the whole time of this pilgrimage, in which we live amid temptations, how much more on these days, in which we not only live through the time of our humility but also signify it by celebrating it? The humility of Christ has taught us to be humble, because by dying he yielded to the ungodly; the loftiness of Christ makes us lofty, because by rising he went ahead of the godly. “For if we have died with him,” says the Apostle, “we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him.” The one of these we now celebrate with due devotion as his passion draws near; the other after Easter, as his resurrection is completed. For then, after the days of this humility, though we are not yet free to live out the time of our loftiness by seeing, it is already a delight to signify it by meditating on it beforehand. Now, then, let us groan more urgently in our prayers; then we shall be gladdened more abundantly in praise.

But to our prayers, so that by flying they may reach God more easily, let us add the wings of piety, alms and fasting. From this the Christian mind understands how far it ought to be from defrauding another of what is his, when it perceives that it is like fraud not to give its superfluities to the needy. “Give, and it will be given to you; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Let us carry out these two kinds of alms, giving and forgiving, gently and fervently, we who pray the Lord that good things may be given us and evil things not be repaid. “Give,” he says, “and it will be given to you.” What is truer, what more just, than that whoever refuses to give should defraud himself and not receive? If a farmer is shameless to look for a harvest where he knows he sowed no seed, how much more shameless is he who looks for the rich God to give, when he would not listen to a poor man asking? For he who does not hunger willed to be fed in the poor. Let us not, then, spurn our God in need in the poor, so that in our need we may be filled in the rich one. We have needy people, and we are needy: let us give, then, so that we may receive. Yet what is it that we give? And in return for this small, visible, temporal, and earthly thing, what is it that we long to receive? “What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man.” Had he not promised it, it would have been shameless to give these things and want to receive those, and to be unwilling to give even these: which we would not have either, unless he had given them who exhorts us to give. With what face, then, do we hope that he will give in both, if in the least things we despise him when he commands? “Forgive, and you will be forgiven”: that is, pardon, and you will be pardoned. Let fellow servant be reconciled with fellow servant, lest the servant be justly punished by the Lord. In this kind of almsgiving no one is poor. Even someone who has nothing for the present to live on can do this so as to live forever. It is given free; it grows by being given; it is not used up except when it is not paid out. Let those, then, whose enmities have lasted until these days be confounded and ended. Let the enmities be ended, lest they end us; let them not be held, lest they hold us; let them be destroyed by the one who redeems, lest they destroy the one who retains them.

Let your fasts not be such as the prophet condemns, saying: “This is not the fast I have chosen, says the Lord.” For he rebukes the fasts of the quarrelsome; he seeks those of the godly. He rebukes those who oppress; he seeks those who release. He rebukes those who make enemies; he seeks those who set free. For during these days you rein in your desires from lawful things, so that you may not commit unlawful ones. Let him who on these days refrains from marital intercourse on no day gorge himself with wine or commit adultery. So our prayer, by humility and love, by fasting and giving, by restraint and forgiveness, by bestowing good things and not repaying evil, by turning from evil and doing good, seeks peace and pursues it. For prayer flies when it is supported by such wings of virtues, and is borne more easily into heaven, where Christ our peace has gone before.