HOMILY VII. ON THE LORD'S NATIVITY.
GIOVANNA. I. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, etc.
Because we have recognized the temporal birth of the mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, which took place on this very day, as manifested by the holy words of the evangelists, namely Matthew and Luke, it is also fitting to scrutinize the sayings of the blessed evangelist John about the eternity of the Word, that is, his divinity, in which he remains always equal to the Father. John, through his unique privilege of chastity, deserved to grasp and simultaneously reveal the mystery of his divinity more profoundly than other writers of divine Scripture. For it is not in vain that he is said to have reclined upon the breast of the Lord Jesus at the supper, but this typifies that he drank more excellently than the others from the holiest fountain of the wisdom of that same breast. Hence he is deservedly compared to the flying eagle in the figure of the four animals. Indeed, the eagle is accustomed to fly higher than all birds and to fix its gaze more brilliantly than all living creatures upon the rays of the sun. And the other evangelists, as it were, walk on earth with the Lord, adequately describing his temporal generation and deeds and saying little of his divinity; but this one, as it were, flies to heaven with the Lord. By recounting very little about his temporal deeds, he more sublimely recognized and more clearly contemplated the eternal power of his divinity, through which all things were made, mentally soaring and observing directly, and handed down to us in writing for our understanding. Therefore, the other evangelists describe Christ born in time, while John testifies that he was already in the beginning, saying: "In the beginning was the Word." The others recall that he suddenly appeared among men, while he declares that he was always with God, saying: "And the Word was with God." The others say that he was a true man, while he confirms that he is truly God, saying: "And the Word was God." The others describe him as living temporally among men, while he shows him as remaining with God from the beginning, saying: "He was in the beginning with God." The others recount the great deeds he performed as a man, while he reveals that God the Father made every visible and invisible creature through him, saying: "All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made." And beautifully, blessed John at the beginning of his Gospel sublimely instructs the faithful about the divinity of the Savior, and powerfully surpasses the perfidiousness of heretics. For there were heretics who said: "If Christ was born, there was a time when he was not." He refutes them with his first words when he says:
In the beginning was the Word. He did not say, In the beginning the Word began to be, but in the beginning was the Word: so that he might show that the Word was not born in time, but was already existing in the origin of times, and thus was born of the Father without any beginning of time, according to what he Himself speaks in Proverbs: The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He did anything from the beginning, from eternity I was established (Prov. VIII). There were also heretics who, denying the three persons of the holy Trinity, said: The same God is the Father when He wills; when He wills, He is the Son; when He wills, He is the Holy Spirit; yet He is one and the same. Refuting their error, he adds:
And the Word was with God. For if one was with another, there are certainly two, the Father and the Son, and not one. The same is now the Father, now the Son, now also the Holy Spirit: as if the nature of the divine substance is changeable, whereas the apostle James most clearly says: With whom there is no change, nor shadow of change. (James I). There were also some authors of wicked doctrine, who, confessing that Christ was only a man, did not believe Him to be God at all: whom he strongly expresses (or oppresses), when he says:
And the Word was God. There were others who thought He was God indeed, but made God from the time of the incarnation, not eternal, born of the Father before the ages. Hence, it is remembered that one of such people said: I do not envy Christ made God, because I also, if I wish, can become like Him. And the evangelist refutes their wicked opinion when he says,
This was in the beginning with God. That is, this Word, which is God, did not begin in time, but was God with God in the beginning. There were also enemies of the truth who did not deny that Christ existed before His birth from the Virgin, yet did not believe He was born of the Father as God, but made by the Father, and therefore lesser than the Father, because a creature. The Gospel speech also condemns these, which says:
All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. For if nothing in creation was made without him, it clearly follows that he is not a creature through whom all creatures were made. The evangelist plainly teaches that creation, made indeed in time, was always ordained in the eternal wisdom of the Creator as to when and what kind of creation it would be. And this is what he says:
What was made, in him was life. That is, what appeared in time, whether living or lacking life, all existed in the spiritual reason of the maker as if it always lived and lives. Not because what was created is co-eternal with the Creator, but because the reason of his will, in which he has eternally had and has what and when he creates, how he governs the created so that it remains, to what end he leads each created thing, is co-eternal with him. Thus follows:
And life was the light of men. By this word it is clearly taught that this very reason of life, through which all things were ordered and governed, illuminates not every creature, but only the rational one so that it can gain wisdom. For humans, who were made in the image of God, can perceive wisdom, animals cannot. But even any human who is animalistic does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God. Hence, it rightly follows that when he said: And life was the light of men, he added, And of those who, by distancing themselves far from the honor of human condition, are compared to foolish beasts and have become like them, thus they are rightly deprived of the light of truth.
And the light, he says, shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not comprehended it. For the light of men is Christ, who illuminates, by his presence of knowledge, all the hearts of men that deserve to be enlightened. The darkness, however, are the foolish and wicked, whose blind hearts the light of eternal wisdom clearly recognizes for what they are, although they cannot at all grasp the rays of the same light through understanding: just as if some blind person were bathed in the sunlight, yet cannot see the sun, whose light bathes him. But divine compassion has not wholly disregarded such people; rather, it has offered them the remedy of salvation, by which they might come to see the light. For the same invisible light, the same wisdom of God, assumed flesh, in which it could be seen, appearing in the form of man and speaking to men, gradually, through purified faith, leading their hearts to the knowledge of its divine vision. Before him was sent a man of great merit, whose testimony would prepare all to hear, as soon as it appeared, the wisdom of God itself, to see the very sun of righteousness, now covered with the cloud of the body; that is, to see and hear the man who was God, full of grace and truth.
There was, he says, a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He did not say, that all might believe in him, for cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm (Jeremiah XVII): but that all might believe through him, that is, that by his testimony they might believe in the light which they had not yet known how to see, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, who testifies of himself: I am the light of the world: he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John VIII).
He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. And indeed holy men are rightly called light, as the Lord says to them: You are the light of the world (Mt. V), and the apostle Paul: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord (Eph. V). But there is a great difference between the light that is illuminated and the light that illuminates; between those who receive the light by participation in the true light so that they may shine, and the perpetual light itself, which not only shines in itself, but also by its presence is sufficient to enlighten whoever it touches. Compared to the true light, not only are any of the least elect, but even John himself, than whom no greater has risen among those born of women, asserted not to be light, to show that Christ is not what he was thought to be. For it is written: He was a burning and shining lamp (John V). Burning with faith and love, shining with word and action. The grace of light to pour into sinners belongs to him alone of whom it is said:
The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. Everyone, that is, who is illuminated either by natural intellect or by divine wisdom. For just as no one can be from themselves, so no one can be wise from themselves, but by that one who illuminates, of whom it is written: All wisdom is from the Lord God (Ecclus. II). The evangelist describes both his natures, divine, in which he always remains whole everywhere, and human, in which he appeared born in time and included in a place, saying:
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. For he was in the world, and the world was made through him, because he was God, because he was wholly present everywhere, governing by the presence of his majesty without labor, and holding together without burden what he made. And the world did not know him, because the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. By 'world' in this place he means those men deceived by the love of the world and clinging to the creature, turned away from knowing the majesty of their Creator. He came unto his own, because in the world, which he made through divinity, he appeared born through humanity: he came unto his own, because in the Jewish people he deigned to be incarnate, whom he had united to himself by special grace above other nations. Therefore, he was in the world, and came into the world. He was in the world through divinity, he came into the world through incarnation. To come or to go belongs to humanity, to remain and to be belongs to divinity. But let us see what follows:
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. For those who did not know him creating and governing all things in the power of his deity, did not want to receive him shining with miracles in the weakness of the flesh. And what is graver, his own did not receive him, namely, the men whom he himself created. The Jews, whom he had chosen as his peculiar people, to whom he had revealed the mystery of his knowledge, whom he had glorified by the wondrous acts of their fathers, to whom he had granted the doctrine of his law, from whom he had promised to be incarnated, and in whom he showed himself incarnate as he had promised, they for the most part refused to receive him coming. For not all refused, otherwise none would be saved. But now many have received him through faith from both peoples, of whom the evangelist following insinuates saying:
As many as received Him, He gave them the power to become the sons of God, to those who believe in His name. Let us consider, dearest brothers, how great is the grace of our Redeemer, how great is the multitude of His sweetness. The only one born from the Father did not want to remain alone; He descended to earth where He might acquire brothers for Himself to whom He could give the kingdom of His Father: God was born from God, and He did not want to remain only the Son of God; He also deigned to become the son of man, not losing what He was, but assuming what He was not, so that by this means He could transfer men into sons of God and make them co-heirs of His glory: so that what He always had by nature, they might begin to have by grace. Let us consider how great is the power of faith, by whose merit the power is given to men to become the sons of God. Hence it is well written, Because the just man lives by faith (Hab. II). For the just man lives by faith, not the faith that is only professed by the lips, but that which works through love; otherwise, faith without works is dead in itself. Let no one despise himself; let no one despair of his own salvation: let us all run, each one of us, so that we who were far away may deserve to come near by the blood of Christ. Let us see what is said, Because as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become the sons of God. As many as, he says, received Him: For God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation, he who fears God and works righteousness is acceptable to Him (Acts X). And in what order believers might become the sons of God, and how much this generation differs from the carnal one, the evangelist subsequently designates.
Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. For our carnal generation of each individual took its origin from blood, that is, from the nature [alternative, seed] of male and female, from the union of marriage: but the spiritual one is administered by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord distinguishing from the carnal said: Unless one is born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John III). What is born of the flesh is flesh; and what is born of the spirit is spirit, so that they may be made partakers of His virtue.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Which is to say: And the Son of God was made man, and dwelt among men. For Scripture is accustomed sometimes to designate the whole man by the term soul, sometimes by the term flesh. By soul indeed, as it is written: For Jacob went down into Egypt with seventy souls (Gen. XLVI); by flesh, as it is again written: And all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Luke III). For neither could souls descend into Egypt without bodies, nor could flesh see anything without the soul; but here by soul the whole man is signified, there by flesh. So therefore in this place where it is said: And the Word was made flesh, nothing else should be understood than if it were said: God was made man, by putting on flesh and soul; so that just as each one of us consists of flesh and soul as one man, so Christ from the time of the incarnation consists of flesh [alternative, flesh of divinity] and soul as one man: God from eternity existing eternally as He was, the man assumed in time into the unity of His person as true, which He had not.
And we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The glory of Christ which men could not see before the incarnation, they saw after the incarnation, beholding the humanity resplendent in miracles, and understanding the divinity lying hidden within, especially those who were deemed worthy to observe his brightness before the passion, transfigured on the holy mountain, with a voice descending to him from such magnificent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mt. XVII): and after the passion, with the glory of his resurrection and ascension being beheld, they were wonderfully refreshed with the gift of his Spirit; by all of which they clearly understood that such glory was not suitable for any saint, but only for that man who was the only begotten in divinity from the Father. And what follows:
Full of grace and truth. Full of grace was the same man Christ Jesus, to whom it was given by a singular gift beyond other mortals, that immediately from the time he was conceived in the womb of the virgin, and began to be man, he was truly God; hence also the same glorious ever-virgin Mary is rightly to be believed and confessed not only as the mother of the man Christ, but also of God. The same was full of truth, manifestly because of the divinity of the Word, which graciously assumed that uniquely chosen man, with whom he was one person in Christ, without changing any part of his divine substance into making the nature of man, as heretics claim; but remaining with the Father, assuming all that he was, taking upon himself the entire nature of true man from the seed of David, which he did not have. Hence, most dear brothers, it is necessary that we who today with annual devotion recite the human birth of our Redeemer, embrace with continuous and always love both his divine and human nature. The divine, through which we were created when we were not; the human, through which we were recreated when we were lost. And indeed the divine power of our Creator was sufficient to recreate us without assuming humanity; but the human weakness of the same our Redeemer could not without assuming it, and having divinity dwelling and working through it, recreate us. And thus the Word became flesh, that is, God became man, and dwelt among us, so that by living with us in the known form of a man, conversing with us, instructing us by speaking to us, offering us the way of life, he could battle against the enemy for us, and by dying and rising again destroy our death: through the coeternal divine nature with the Father, he might inwardly raise us to divine things by vivifying us, grant us remission of sins together with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and after the perfecting of good works, not only bring us to see the glory of his glorified humanity, but also show us the immutable essence of his divine majesty, in which he lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen.