Selected Sermons, Volume 3

158 A Third on Epiphany

SERMON 158 A Third on Epiphany1 e often wonder why Christ enters his world in such a way that he experiences the confines of the womb,2 that he suffers the indignity of being born, that he endures being wrapped up in swaddling clothes, that he tolerates being helpless in a cradle, that he seeks with tears to be fed at the breasts, that he feels completely the stages3 and constraints in life. And how else should he have come who willed to garner favor, to cast out fear, and to seek charity? Nature shows what every infant can do and accomplishes. What fury does infancy not conquer? What ferocity does it not tame? What cruelty does it not restrain? What rage does it not calm? What power does it not overcome? What severity does it not soften? What hardness does it not break down? What love does it not demand? What affection does it not extract? What favor does it not exact? What charity does it not obtain? That this is so, fathers know, mothers recognize, all people attest, and human hearts bear witness. So then, he wanted to be born, who wanted to be loved, not feared.4 And, nevertheless, listen to what success so charming, so devot272 1. This sermon was preached next after Sermon 156 (FOTC 17.265–70), which treats only the first two verses of Matthew 2 and in its closing sentence promises another sermon on the subsequent verses. F. Sottocornola, L’anno liturgico, 123–24 and 237, also suggests that this Sermon 158 was preached on the following Sunday. See also A. Olivar, Los sermones, 249 and 275–76. On how this sermon fits within Chrysologus’s Epiphany preaching, see Sermon 157, n. 1. 2. On such “confinement,” see also Sermon 142.4 and n. 10. 3. That Christ experienced the various stages of life is indicated also in Sermon 150.10. 4. For other references in Chrysologus’s sermons and in other ancient authors to God’s preference to be loved rather than feared, see Sermon 72b.4 and n. 15, and A. Olivar, Los sermones, 362. ed,5 and so dear an infancy achieves in the face of human malice . 2. Upon hearing this, it says, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them about where the Christ was to be born (Mt 2.3–4). If Jerusalem, if the king, if the scribes, if the chief priests are so troubled at the infancy of Christ, what would they do if Christ had come at that moment as a fully grown man, endowed with wealth and a crowd of followers?6 What if he had come with a suspicious lot and foreigners? They7 who have no consideration for the time in life, or one’s age, or the poor person, or the parent, however, as soon as they hear that he was born, prepare to inflict death on the newborn, their guile on the innocent, wickedness on the holy One, swords on the naked One, soldiers on One who is all alone, murder on him as he gives a baby’s cry, and punishment on him who pardons. And to mix violence together with blood, their bitter cruelty declares war on the cradle, attacks the breasts with weapons, strikes laps with shields, in order to make the human and divine offspring enter the grave before entering the world.8 3. Granted that King Herod felt compelled to undertake such actions out of love for his reign and fear of a successor: why did Jerusalem, the chief priests, and the scribes do this? Why? It is because the unholy one does not want God to be born, nor the servant his Lord, the guilty his Judge, the rebellious his Leader, the treacherous his Witness. Jerusalem had drenched itself in a variety of defilements, the priests had desecrated what was holy, and by selling sins they had turned parSERMON 158 273 5. The Latin is pia. On the pietas of God in Chrysologus’s preaching, see R. Benericetti, Il Cristo, 215–19. 6. A similar point is made in Sermon 150.9 about the prospects of what Christ would accomplish as an adult, based on what occurred when he was a mere infant . 7. Namely, the leaders in Jerusalem. I am following the punctuation given by Migne (PL 52.617) and not by Olivar...