On the Feast of the Nativity, Third Sermon

The things connected with the mystery of today’s solemn feast are well known to you, dearly beloved, and you have often heard them. But as this visible light gives pleasure to healthy eyes, so the Savior’s birth gives eternal joy to sound hearts; and we must not keep silent about it, though we cannot speak of it as we ought. For we believe that what Isaiah says, “Who will declare his generation?” applies not only to that mystery by which the Son of God is coeternal with the Father, but also to this birth by which “the Word became flesh.” And so God, the Son of God, equal to the Father and of the same nature, from the Father and with the Father, Creator and Lord of the universe, who is wholly present everywhere and wholly surpasses all things, chose for himself, in the due course of time, which runs by his own ordering, this day on which to be born of the blessed Virgin Mary for the salvation of the world, without loss of his mother’s honor. For her virginity was violated neither at the conception nor at the birth, so that, as the evangelist says, “what was spoken by the Lord through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin will conceive in the womb and will bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us.’” For this wonderful childbearing of the holy Virgin produced in her offspring one person, truly human and truly divine. For neither substance kept its properties in such a way that there could be any division of persons in them. Nor was the creature taken into partnership with its Creator in such a way that the one was the dweller and the other the dwelling, but in such a way that the one nature was blended with the other. And although the nature that is taken is one and the nature that takes is another, these two different natures come together into so close a union that it is one and the same Son who says both that, as true man, “he is less than the Father,” and that, as true God, “he is equal with the Father.” [a]

This union, dearly beloved, by which the Creator is joined to the creature, Arian blindness could not see with the eyes of understanding. They did not believe that the only Son of God was of the same glory and substance as the Father, and so they spoke of the Son’s Godhead as inferior. They drew their arguments from words that are to be referred to the “form of a slave.” In respect of that form, and to show that it belongs to no other or different person in himself, the same Son of God, with the same form, says, “The Father is greater than I,” just as with the same form he says, “I and my Father are one.” For in the “form of a slave,” which he took at the end of the ages for our restoration, he is inferior to the Father; but in the form of God, in which he existed before the ages, he is equal to the Father. In his human lowliness he was “made of a woman, made under the law”; in his divine majesty he remains the Word of God, “through whom all things were made.” So he who in the form of God made man was in the form of a slave made man. For each nature keeps its own proper character without loss; and as the form of God did not do away with the form of a slave, so the form of a slave did not impair the form of God. And so the mystery of power united to weakness allows the Son, in respect of the same human nature, to be called inferior to the Father. But the Godhead, which is one in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, excludes every notion of inequality. For the eternity of the Trinity has nothing temporal and nothing unlike in nature. Its will is one, its substance the same, its power equal; and yet there are not three Gods but one God, because it is a true and inseparable unity, where there can be no difference. So true God was born in the whole and perfect nature of a true man, complete in what was his own, complete in what was ours. And by “ours” we mean what the Creator formed in us from the beginning and what he took upon himself to repair. For what the deceiver brought in, and deceived man committed, left no trace in the Savior; nor, because he shared in human weaknesses, did he therefore share our faults. He took the form of a slave without the stain of sin, enlarging the human and not lessening the divine. For that “emptying of himself,” by which the Invisible made himself visible, was the stooping down of compassion, not the failing of power. [d]

So, in order that we might be called to eternal happiness out of our original bondage and out of earthly errors, he himself came down to us, since we could not go up to him. For although there was a love of truth in many, the variety of our shifting opinions was deceived by the cunning of misleading demons, and human ignorance was dragged into different and conflicting notions by a knowledge falsely so called. But to remove this mockery, by which human minds were taken captive to serve the arrogant devil, the teaching of the law was not enough, nor could our nature be restored merely by the prophets’ exhortations. The reality of redemption had to be added to moral commands, and our origin, corrupt from the root, had to be born anew. A victim had to be offered for our atonement who would be both a sharer in our race and free from our contamination. In this way God’s plan, by which it pleased him to take away the sin of the world in the birth and the passion of Jesus Christ, would reach to all generations. And we would not be troubled but rather strengthened by these mysteries, which vary with the character of the times, since the faith by which we live has at no time varied. [g]

So let those people stop their complaints who with disloyal murmuring speak against God’s arrangements and babble about the lateness of the Lord’s birth, as if what was fulfilled in the last age of the world had no bearing on the times that are past. For the incarnation of the Word did no more than help to carry out what was done, and the mystery of human salvation was never at a standstill, even in the remotest age. What the apostles foretold, the prophets announced; and what has always been believed was not fulfilled too late. But by delaying in this way the work that brought salvation, the wisdom and goodness of God made us more ready to receive his call. So what had been foretold through so many ages by many signs, many sayings and many mysteries would not be doubtful in these days of the gospel. And the Savior’s birth, which was to surpass all wonders and all the measure of human knowledge, would produce in us a faith all the firmer because its foretelling had been ancient and often repeated. So it was no new plan, no late pity, by which God took thought for humankind. From the founding of the world he ordained one and the same cause of salvation for all. For the grace of God, by which the whole company of the saints is always justified, was increased, not begun, when Christ was born. And this mystery of God’s great love, with which the whole world is now filled, was signified beforehand so effectively that those who believed the promise obtained no less than those who actually received it. [h]

So, dearly beloved, the loving-kindness is plain with which all the riches of divine goodness are showered on us. Our call to eternal life has been helped not only by the useful examples of those who went before, but also by the visible and bodily appearing of the Truth itself. Therefore we are bound to keep the day of the Lord’s birth with no lazy or fleshly joy. And each of us will keep it worthily and fully if we remember of what Body we are members and to what a Head we are joined, so that no one, like an ill-fitting joint, fails to hold together with the rest of the sacred building. Consider, dearly beloved, and by the light of the Holy Spirit thoughtfully bear in mind, who it was that received us into himself, and whom we have received into us. For as the Lord Jesus became our flesh by being born, so we also became his body by being reborn. Therefore we are both members of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit. And for this reason the blessed apostle says, “Glorify and carry God in your body.” For while setting before us the pattern of his own gentleness and humility, he fills us with the power by which he redeemed us, as the Lord himself promises: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Let us, then, take the yoke of the Truth that rules us, which is neither heavy nor irksome, and let us imitate the humility of the one to whose glory we wish to be conformed. May he himself help us and lead us to his promises, who in his great mercy is powerful to blot out our sins and to perfect his gifts in us, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. [i]