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SERMON 89 A Fourth 1 ll things that have been created by God are good for us, very good indeed, as Scripture says: “And God saw all the things that he made, and they were very good.”2 Therefore, all things that have been created by God are good, very good indeed. But between the vices and the virtues there are intermediate goods such that while the knowledgeable take from them material for teaching, the ignorant find there a cause for error. For the wise certainly come to know the Creator from contemplating creation; the foolish, while they think that mere creatures are the creators, cannot know the Creator. That is why the gentiles made the sun, the moon, the stars, gold, stones, wood into gods for themselves, things which Christians know have been assigned to serve them. And it is no surprise that creation is one of these intermediate goods, since believers have Christ, the very Creator of all, as their salvation, but unbelievers have him as their downfall, as the evangelist says: “He has been appointed for the downfall and the rising of many.”3 In addition, some encounter the apostles for their death, others encounter them for their life, as 73 1. (Angle brackets here indicate an addition to the title in Olivar’s CCL text.) The liturgical season for this sermon is a subject for debate. A. Olivar, Los sermones, 266–68, believes that this, like the sermons surrounding it in the Felician collection, was preached in December prior to Christmas, with Lk 1.5ff being the Gospel. F. Sottocornola, L’anno liturgico, 90–96 and 303–4, is of the opinion that it was preached on the feast of John the Baptist’s martyrdom, probably June 24, with the Gospel of the day being either Mt 14.1–12 or Mk 6.17–29. Given Chrysologus’s intention, voiced in this sermon, to treat the death of John, Sottocornola has the stronger argument for a liturgical context other than one immediately prior to Christmas. 2. Gn 1.31. 3. Lk 2.34. Paul attests when he says: “To certain ones as a fragrance of death unto death; to others, moreover, as a fragrance of life unto life.”4 Therefore, even the readings from the Gospel become for the good an opportunity for knowledge that saves, but for the wicked an opportunity for error.5 2. Previously6 when the very blessed evangelist mentioned that John the Baptist had been locked up in Herod’s prison, killed on account of the adulteries of Herodias, beheaded as a dancing girl’s reward, we have recognized that some had become upset about why God had handed over a holy man to an impious one, a virgin to an adulteress, a messenger7 to a dancing girl.8 Brothers, we have given a full treatment in another sermon9 of the virtues of John and the crimes of Herod; now let us speak about what the reason was for the prison, what the need was for incarceration, and what benefit there was from John’s death. John could not die in a common fashion since he was born for a unique privilege. When Christ was born as God in the flesh, John was begotten as an angel on earth, so that earthly functions would be mingled with heavenly functions, just as divine affairs were mingling10 themselves with human ones, and God would not be 74 ST. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS 4. 2 Cor 2.16. 5. On this same point, see, e.g., Sermon 52.1 (FOTC 109.202–3). For other references on this theme, see A. Olivar, “Els principis exegètics de sant Pere Crisòleg,” in Miscellanea biblica B. Ubach, ed. Romualdo M. Díaz (Montserrat: Abadía de Montserrat, 1953), 434–36. 6. Probably a reference to a previous sermon, although F. Sottocornola, L’anno liturgico, 91, believes that this refers to the proclamation of the Gospel text on John’s martyrdom in the current liturgy right before Chrysologus began this sermon. 7. Or “angel.” See n. 23 below. 8. See Mt 14.1–12 and Mk 6.17–29. 9. Chrysologus preaches on John the Baptist’s martyrdom in Sermons 127, 173, and 174, but it is unclear to which one if any of these he is referring here. At the beginning of Sermon 127 Chrysologus mentions the turmoil people feel when great vice overcomes great virtue, a point to which he alludes in this Sermon 89, but...

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