Sermon X. On the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord

Sermon X.

On the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord.

Behold, this one has been set for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, and as a sign that would be contradicted; and a sword will pass through your own soul, so that thoughts may be revealed from many hearts. Luke 2:34 and 35.

Four things occur here to be considered:

I. Into what sort of ruin Christ is said to have been set? II. For whose resurrection he is asserted to have been set? III. As what sort of sign he is believed to have been set? IV. How the soul of his mother is transfixed by a sword?

I.

Concerning the first, note that the boy Jesus was set, that is, born, for the ruin of idols. Isaiah 19:1 foretold this, saying thus: Behold, the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud and will enter Egypt, and the images of Egypt will be moved before his face. Then the Lord ascended upon a light cloud when the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is called a light cloud because she was without the heaviness of any sin, when, I say, she took Jesus into her arms and fled with him into Egypt. And then, as the Master says in the literal history, the idols of Egypt fell. The Saints also hand down that, as in the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt there was no house in Egypt in which, by God's agency, a firstborn did not lie dead, so neither was there at that time a temple in Egypt in which an idol did not fall.

And note that, since by Egypt this world is figured morally, and since the boy Jesus most truly entered the world, it is fitting and just that the idols of this world be wholly crushed before his face. For he alone is God, and there is no other God besides him. Hence he must be loved and worshiped by all. But it must be noted that there are four principal idols of this world, namely pride, avarice, luxury, and gluttony. John makes mention of the first three in 1 John 2:16, where he says: All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. Concerning the fourth the Apostle says in Philippians 3:18: Many walk, whom I often told you of, but now I say it weeping, as enemies of the cross of Christ, whose God is the belly. The first three idols, namely pride, avarice, and luxury, were signified by the three idols that Solomon especially worshiped, and because of this he incurred the most grave anger of God. For it is read in 3 Kings 11:4 and 5: When Solomon was already old, his heart was corrupted by women, so that he followed strange gods, nor was his heart perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father. But Solomon worshiped Astarte, goddess of the Sidonians, and Moloch, the idol of the Ammonites.

1. Astarte is interpreted as superfluous making and signifies pride, which God did not create, but that most wicked Angel, namely Lucifer, first invented. 2. Chemosh is interpreted as gathering and signifies avarice, which is insatiable; hence it always strives to gather, for the avaricious man lacks even a small coin. 3. Moloch is interpreted as king or prince and signifies luxury, which rules over almost all human beings at least through the first motions, and scarcely anyone is so perfect and holy that its tyranny ought not to be held suspect. 4. An idol is called Bel, about which it is read in Daniel 14:2: There was an idol among the Babylonians named Bel, and each day twelve artabas of fine flour, forty sheep, and six amphorae of wine were spent on it. Note that an artaba was a measure of three modii. Therefore twelve artabas were thirty-six modii of fine-flour bread, which were offered daily to this idol. Forty sheep and six amphorae of wine were also offered. Therefore by that idol gluttony is fittingly figured, which is scarcely filled by food and drink. Hence also that king who worshiped that costly idol said to Daniel: Does Bel not seem to you to be a living God? Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day ¹?

Therefore, since the boy who is called Jesus and is our God has been born, we ought to spurn and flee the aforesaid idols, namely pride, avarice, luxury, and gluttony. For whoever has not abandoned the aforesaid idols will be abandoned by the Lord on the day of extreme necessity and will be confounded with eternal confusion. Hence Isaiah 1:28 says: Those who have abandoned the Lord will be consumed by fire, namely perpetual fire. They will be confounded by the idols to which they sacrificed. For Isaiah 2:20 and 21 says: On that day a man will cast away idols... and will enter the clefts of rocks and the caverns of stones before the face of the fear of the Lord and before the glory of his majesty, when he has risen to strike the earth.

II.

Concerning the second, note also that Jesus is asserted to have been set for the resurrection of many in Israel. This resurrection is made through repentance and the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence in the first word that the Lord preached, Matthew 4:17, he invites us to repentance: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. John the Baptist also preached the same ². Therefore the Lord was born for this, that with his grace cooperating, through repentance we may rise from sins to virtues. Hence through himself he says in John 11:25: I am the resurrection and the life.

And note that a human being falls through seven and rises through seven. Hence Proverbs 24:16 says: The just man will fall seven times and will rise, namely seven times. For he falls through the seven principal vices, but rises through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The devil invites us to a fall; hence it is read in Matthew 4:8 and 9 that the devil took Jesus up onto a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said to him: I will give you all these things, if, falling down, you will adore me.

First, therefore, a human being falls through pride, from which he rises through the gift of wisdom. For pride makes a human being despise God, but wisdom, conferring the true just thing on the soul, makes a human being seek God as the highest good. Secondly, a human being falls through anger, but rises through the spirit of understanding. Through anger a human being is darkened interiorly and forgets himself; but the gift of understanding leads a human being back to knowledge of himself. Thirdly, a human being falls through envy, but rises through the spirit of counsel. Envy dissuades a human being from doing any good for his neighbor, but the gift of counsel persuades a human being to love his neighbor and cherish him as himself. Fourthly, a human being falls through sloth and laziness of good work, but rises through the spirit of fortitude. Sloth weakens a human being so that he does not wish or is not able to serve God, but, on the contrary, the gift of fortitude strengthens a human being and sufficiently administers strength to him for serving God. Fifthly, a human being falls through avarice, but rises through the spirit of knowledge. Avarice urges a human being to gather many things and to preserve them tenaciously and impiously; but, on the contrary, the gift of knowledge, showing the human being that the goods of this world are unstable and that a very strict account must be rendered concerning them, persuades each one to be content with moderate things and to share mercifully and broadly with his neighbor those things that he justly possesses, especially since all things ought to be common in the kingdom of God. Sixthly, a human being falls through gluttony, but rises through the spirit of piety. Gluttony persuades a human being to be negligent and impious concerning his soul and solicitous and pious concerning his body, namely to furnish all pleasures to the flesh; but, on the contrary, the gift of piety admonishes a human being to have mercy on his soul and carefully feed and refresh it. For the soul is immortal, but the body is mortal, on account of which it must not be preferred to the soul. For the Apostle says that food is for the belly and the belly for foods, but God will destroy both this and these ³. Seventhly, a human being falls through luxury, but rises through the spirit of the fear of the Lord. Luxury urges a human being, after the fear of the Lord has been set aside, to immerse and wrap himself wholly in the lust of the flesh; but, on the contrary, the fear of the Lord admonishes him to keep himself clean and unstained, so that with confidence he may dare to be presented before the face of that strict judge who will avenge every uncleanness.

Therefore because the sevenfold spirit raises up those whom sevenfold sin kills and slaughters, Ezekiel 37:10 says: The spirit entered into the slain, and they lived, and they stood upon their feet. Note that there are many who are not ashamed to fall, that is, to sin, but are ashamed to rise, that is, to do penance. Augustine says about such persons: "There are many whom sinning does not shame; doing penance shames. O unbelievable madness! You are not ashamed of the wound, but you are ashamed of the binding of the wound? Is not the naked thing more foul and rotten?" Therefore, dearly beloved, let us hasten to rise from vices, so that on the day of judgment we may rise from the dust of the earth to eternal glory.

III.

Concerning the third, note that Jesus, set as a threefold sign, was granted to be born, namely as a sign of every kind of poverty, as a sign of excellent humility, and as a sign of manifold bitterness. And certainly by almost all today this threefold sign is contradicted. 1. First, the Lord was set as a sign of every kind of poverty. For he was poor lying in the manger, poorer living in the world, and poorest hanging on the gibbet. Hence the Son of God speaks to the Father in Psalm 85:1: Incline your ear, Lord, and hear me, for I am needy and poor. Concerning the sign of poverty it is read in Judges 6:1 and following that when the children of Israel were being oppressed by their enemies, namely by the Midianites, and when they cried to the Lord, the Lord commanded a certain strong man, who was called Gideon, to fight for his people and save them. But when Gideon sought a sign of victory from the Lord, he received this as a sign: that a certain fleece placed on the threshing floor would be rained upon and the floor would remain dry. Such a sign was also given to him: that all the earth would be wet with dew and only the fleece would remain dry. By the children of Israel is understood the human race, which before the coming of the Son of God into the world was gravely attacked by infernal enemies. On account of this, at the cry of the Patriarchs and Prophets, God commanded Gideon, that is, his only-begotten Son, that, entering the world, he should liberate the human race from the oppression of demons.

And as a sign of this liberation, a twofold sign preceded. The first sign was that, while the whole threshing floor remained dry, the fleece was wet with dew, which, when pressed out, filled a basin. By the threshing floor this world is understood. By the fleece the Son of God is figured. For just as fleece arises from flesh without pain, so also the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary without pain and distress. Therefore when the human race was to be saved, no one was found in the whole threshing floor of this world who was worthy to be filled with the dew of the Holy Spirit, so that he might be leader and savior of the faithful people, but only the fleece, that is, the body of the Son of God, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and this fleece filled the pressed-out basin, that is, the Blessed Virgin, with the moisture of grace. For the Son of God most broadly shared with his mother, while still existing in her womb, the same grace that he received from the Father. For as it is read in John 3:34: The Holy Spirit was not given by measure to the sacred little infant conceived in the Virgin's womb, who also broadly filled the maternal basin with the dew of grace infused into him ⁴.

The second sign was that all the earth was wet with dew and only the fleece remained dry. By the earth the world is understood; by the fleece, as has been said, the Son of the Virgin is figured. Therefore while the whole earth desired the moisture of riches, Christ alone remained dry through want and poverty. For he himself, having despised the riches at which the world gapes, loved poverty, joined himself to poverty, and commended poverty to others. Hence Bernard says: "The eternal abundance of all goods was available in heaven, but poverty was not found there. Therefore the Son of God, desiring this, descended so that he might choose it for himself and make it precious also for us by his valuation." Therefore almost all today contradict the sign of poverty. For very few are those who love poverty from the heart. Hence Jeremiah 6:13 says: From the least to the greatest, all are devoted to avarice.

2. Concerning the sign of humility it is read in Exodus 4:5 and following that when Moses had driven the flock of his father-in-law into the interior of the desert, the Lord appeared to him in the bush and entrusted to him that he should be his messenger to the children of Israel and to Pharaoh king of Egypt. But Moses, when he asked that a sign be given to him concerning this mission, the Lord said to him: So that they may believe that the Lord has appeared to you..., put your hand into your bosom. When he had put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous like snow. Draw back, he said, your hand into your bosom. He drew it back and brought it forth again, and it was like the rest of his flesh. By Moses the Son of God is understood, who then put his hand, that is, himself, into the bosom when, so that he might be incarnate, he entered the womb of the Virgin. But this hand was drawn out when the Son of God was born of the Virgin, and then this hand appeared as if leprous, because Christ in the flesh assumed appeared like other sinners. Hence Isaiah 53:4 says: We thought him as if leprous and struck by God and humbled. Then also that hand was drawn back into the bosom when the Son of God returned in the Ascension into the bosom of the Father. Again it will be drawn out on the day of judgment, but then it will not appear as if leprous; rather it will appear in great glory and without any stain of sin. Therefore the assumption of our despised humanity was the sign of great humility in Christ. And certainly this sign is contradicted by many, because there are many who, if it were in their choice, would rather be honored and dominate than be subject to others and be despised.

3. Concerning the sign of affliction and bitterness it is read in Joshua 2:1 and following that when Joshua had sent spies to consider the cities that he proposed to storm, and they had crossed into Jericho and turned aside into the house of a certain woman who was called Rahab, the king of that city, understanding this, had the aforesaid spies sought out, whom Rahab hid until the messengers of the king had passed by. At last she let them down through the window of her house, which was joined to the wall, by a scarlet cord. But the aforesaid Rahab asked the aforesaid spies that, when Joshua came and took the city, they would act with mercy toward her and all her kin, just as they themselves had obtained mercy from her. Therefore she asked that a sign be given about this. The spies answered her: This scarlet cord will be the sign, and you will tie it in the window through which you let us down ⁵. By Rahab the Church is understood, to whom salvation is promised through the scarlet cord. For Christ is that scarlet cord that was hung in the window of the holy cross. And the holy cross is well compared to a window. For as the dove returned through the window into the ark, so also the souls of the elect through faith in the holy cross are received in the present into grace, and afterward will be received into glory. In this window the Son of God himself was hung, so that he might be a sign of salvation and mercy to all who were to be saved from the family of the Church. But the Son of God was like a certain threefold cord: for he consists of divinity, and soul, and body. In his third part, namely in the body, this cord was broken, and then it was made wholly scarlet; for the lashes and thorns and nails and lance made that whole cord scarlet, that is, bloody. Therefore the sign of the unspeakable bitterness that he bore on the cross is contradicted by many today. There are few who wish to suffer with Christ, but there are many who would gladly delight with Christ.

Therefore pray to the Lord that the idols of vices may so fall in us, and that we may so rise to virtues, and that we may also in some measure imitate the poverty, humility, and harshness of Jesus, that at last we may be counted in the number of the saved. May he grant this to us, etc.