Deus, qui beatum Petrum Chrysologum,
episcopum. Verbi tui incarnati praeconem egregium effectisti
How secret are the sleeping quarters of a
king! The place where the nation’s head,
who is powerful, takes his rest is wont to be viewed only in a spirit of
reverence and awe. No alien, no sullied
man, no disloyal subject, gains access and entrance to it. How clean, how chaste, how faithful are the
services expected there! The resplendent
trappings of a royal court make all this clear to us. And what com-[p. mon or unworthy person dares
to approach the gates of the king’s palace?
Surely, no one is admitted to the inner chamber of
a bridegroom except a relative or an intimate friend. He must be a man of good conscience,
praiseworthy reputation, and upright life.
Thus, too, it happens that God takes into His inner chamber only this
one virgin; she alone, with her virginity unimpaired, is received there.
These examples, O man, are for your
instruction. Realize from them just who
you are, how great you are, and of what character you are. Then ponder this in your heart: Can you fathom
the mystery of the Lord’ birth? Do you
deserve to enter into the resting place of that bosom, where the heavenly King,
with all the full majesty of His divinity, finds His repose? Ought you, as a rash witness with human eyes
and bodily senses, to gaze on the virgin’s conceiving? Can you, as a bystander, contemplate with
daring reverence the very hands of God fashioning for himself the holy temple
of a body within the womb of the mother?
Can you by your gaze lay bare that mystery hidden through the ages, and
unveil for yourself that sacrament invisible to the angels themselves? Can you act as an overseer in the workshop of
the heavenly Artisan, so that you may clearly observe how God has entered the
shrine of her unbroken flesh? Can you
observe how without this virgin’s awareness He has produced the outlines of His
sacred body in her venerable womb; how, without any sensations on the part of
her who was conceiving, He made firm those bones which will last forever, how,
beyond any arrangement of man, He produced a genuine human form; how, without
any fleshly desire, He assumed the whole nature of man; how, apart from the way
human flesh operates, He has taken on its every quality?
Even if you did not enjoy free access to knowledge
of all these marvels, would you think that God was unable at that time to
assume from flesh what in the beginning he took from mud? Indeed, since everything is possible to God,
and it is impossible for you fully to understand even the least of His works,
do not pry too much into this virgin’s conceiving, but believe it. Be reverently aware of the fact that God
wishes to be born, because you offer an insult if you examine it too much. Grasp by faith that great mystery of the
Lord’s birth, because without faith you cannot comprehend even the least of
God’s works. “All his works,” says the
Scripture, “are [understood] by faith”.
But here is a matter which depends completely upon faith, and you want
it to stand by reason. It is not,
indeed, without reason that this matter holds true; it holds true by the
reasoning of God, O man, not yours. What
is so much according to reason as the fact that God can do whatever He has
willed? He who cannot do what he wills
is not God.
So,
what God commands an angel relates. His
spirit fulfills it and His power brings it to perfection. The virgin believes it, and nature takes it
up. The tale is told from the sky, and
then proclaimed from all the heavens.
The stars show it forth, and the Magi tell it about. The shepherds adore, and the beasts are
aware. As the Prophet testified: “The ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib” [Isaiah 1:3]. You, O man, if you did not recognize Him soon
along with the angels, do acknowledge Him now, even though very late, in
company with the beasts. Otherwise,
while you loiter, you may be deemed less than those very animals with whom you
were previously compared. Look, they
give homage with their tails, they manifest their pleasure with their ears,
they lick with their tongue, and with whatever sign they can they acknowledge
that their Creator, in spite of His nature, has come into yours. Yet, you argue and quibble along with the
Jews who turned away from their inns their Master whom the beasts welcomed in
their cribs. If, therefore, you will at
length give reverent ear at least to the angels, at least properly, if not
joyfully, receive from us the message which the angel will speak.
You
need a sermon about this, holy brethren, but today we find it necessary to
postpone this matter and treat it in our next discourse.
[From: Ganns, George E., Saint Peter Chrysologus:
Selected Sermons and Saint Valerian: Homilies, The Fathers of the Church, 17
(New York: Fathers of the Church, 1953) 229-232]
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