Selected Sermons, Volume 3

155a [A Second] on January First

SERMON 155A 1 on January First 2 ow we must halt our playing of the trumpet of the Gospel,3 now we must not speak about the Apostle ’s insights, in order for that prophetic song of lament to be the only sound that is heard, which says: “I became mute and was humbled, I kept silent about good things, and my grief was revived.”4 The grief of the Christian bishop5 is revived when the error of the pagans does not wear out with time, nor is it dispelled by faith in all its brilliance. The days are now coming , the days that mark the new year6 are coming, and the demons arrive with all their pomp, a full-fledged workshop of idols is set up, and the new year is consecrated with age-old sacrilege . They fashion Saturn, they make Jupiter, they form Hercules, they exhibit Diana with her young servants, they lead Vulcan around roaring out tales of his obscenities, and there are even more, whose names must be left unmentioned, since they are hideous monsters; since nature does not produce such deformities , nor does creation have any knowledge of them, art takes great pains to mold them.7 Moreover, human beings are 264 1. (Angle brackets here indicate an addition to the title in Olivar’s CCL text.) On the authenticity of this sermon, particularly because of its similarity to Sermon 155 (FOTC 17.261–64) in both style and substance, see A. Olivar, Los sermones, 334–38. 2. Literally, the “Kalends of January” (Kalendis Ianuariis), when this sermon was preached. See Introduction, FOTC 109.15–16 and n. 71. 3. For other patristic references to the evangelica tuba, see A. Olivar, Los sermones , 337, n. 31. 4. Ps 38.3 LXX; Ps 39.2. 5. The Latin term is pontifex. 6. Literally, the “Kalends” (kalendae). 7. Much of the content and terminology in this section is also contained in Sermon 155.1 (FOTC 17.261–62). dressed as beasts,8 they turn men into women,9 violate honor, mock good judgment, deride public criticism, ridicule the world with the world as their witness, and say that they are doing these things for amusement.10 2. These are no amusements, no, they are not; they are sins. A human being is changed into an idol; and if it is a sin to go to idols, what do you think it is to be an idol? O man, you have been made in the image of God;11 whatever you wickedly introduce into yourself by your own depravity attempts and strives to insult God.12 Clearly you may not have altogether intended it this way, but on the whole this is how God judges the matter: namely, that you are the reason for the continuation and present -day survival of the obscenity that characterized the centuries that were under the sway of those whose cult is perishing day by day.13 Indeed, there is not enough charcoal that can blacken the faces of such gods; and so that their appearance may reach the level of utter and complete terror, straw, skins, rags, and dung are procured from all over the world, and anything connected with human shame is put on their face. Among gods like these the one who is thought to be more magnificent is the one found to be more obscene among the obscene;14 and the one who is considered the most magnificent of all is the one who can make monsters themselves marvel at his being so uniquely deformed. The prophet’s curse is fulfilled: “May those who make them SERMON 155A 265 8. On this point, see also Sermon 155.6 (FOTC 17.264). 9. For a similar custom among Persian royalty that likewise elicits Chrysologus ’s ire, see Sermon 120.2 (FOTC 17.203–4). 10. In Ravenna on January 1 and January 3 people masqueraded as pagan deities and animals in what was called the pompa circensis, marking both public games (ludi compitales) and the inauguration of civic magistrates (nuncupatio votorum ). While Christians who took part saw such activity as harmless amusement, Chrysologus interpreted it far more negatively. See R. Arbesmann, “The ‘Cervuli’ and ‘Anniculae’ in Caesarius of Arles,” Traditio 35 (1979): 111–13. 11. See Gn 1.26. 12. Chrysologus makes these same points in Sermon 155.4–5 (FOTC 17.263–64). 13. On this, see also Sermon 155.2 (FOTC 17.262). 14. See...