St. Augustine, Homily 200 for the Epiphany
Magi come from the East to adore the Virgin's
Child. Today we celebrate this event; we pay our respects and deliver a sermon
in keeping with the feast. This day first shone resplendently for the Magi; its
anniversary is renewed by us with a festal rejoicing. They were the
first-fruits of the Gentiles; we are a nation of Gen- tiles. The words of
Apostles announced His birth to us; a star was, as it were, the language of
heaven for them; like the heavens, therefore, the Apostles announced the glory
of God to us. Why should we not recognize as heavens those who have become the
abode of God, as it is written: The soul of the just is the seat of wisdom?
[Wis. 71 For, through these heavens [the Apostles], the One who made and who
dwells in the heavens has sounded forth. The earth trembled at the sound and
now, behold, it believes. O mighty mystery! The Lord lay in a manger, yet He
drew the Magi from the East. He was hidden in a stable, yet He was acknowledged
in the heavens, so that, thus recognized in the heavens, He might be manifested
in the stable and that this day might be called the Epiphany or, in the Latin
derivative, the Manifestation. Thus, at one and the same time, He set His seal
of approval on His high and His lowly estate, so that He to whom the heavens
bore witness by a starry sign might, when sought, be found in an insignificant
dwelling where, helpless in His tiny frame and wrapped in swaddling clothes, He
might be adored by the Magi and feared by the wicked.
Now, then, my dearly beloved sons and heirs of
grace, look to your vocation and, since Christ has been revealed to both Jews
and Gentiles as the cornerstone, cling together with most constant affection.
For He was manifested in the very cradle of His infancy to those who were near
and to those who were afar—to the Jews whose shepherds were nearby; to the
Gentiles whose M gi were at a great distance. The former came to Him on the
very day of His birth; the latter are believed to have come on this day. He was
not revealed, therefore, to the shepherds because they were learned, nor to the
Magi because they were righteous, for ignorance abounds in the rusticity of
shepherds and impiety amid the sacrileges of the Magi. He, the cornerstone,
joined both groups to Himself since He came to choose the foolish things of the
world in order to put to shame the wise and to call sinners, not the just [Mt.
9, 13], so that the mighty would not be lifted up nor the lowly be in despair.
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