John Seleden’s
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY
Sermon 184
THE BIRTHDAY OF our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, on which
Truth sprang forth from the earth[1]
and the procession of day from day extending even unto our time
began, has, with the return of its anniversary, dawned upon us
today as deserving of special celebration. 'Let us be glad and
rejoice therein,'[2]
for the faith of Christians holds fast to the joy which the
lowliness of such sublimity has offered to us, a joy far removed
from the hearts of the wicked, since God has hidden these things
from the wise and prudent and has revealed them to the little
ones.[3]
Therefore, let the lowly hold fast to the lowliness of God so
that, by means of this great help as by a beast of burden
supporting their infirmity, they may come to the mountain of
God. The wise and prudent, however, while they aim at the
heights of God, do not put their trust in lowly things, but pass
them by, and hence they fail to reach the heights. Vain and
worthless, puffed up and elated, they have halted, as it were,
on the wind-swept middle plain between heaven and earth. Wise
and prudent in the rating of this world, they fall short of the
standards set by Him who made this world. For, if they possessed
the true wisdom which is of God and which is God, they would
understand that flesh could have been assumed by God without the
possibility of His having been changed into flesh; that He took
upon Himself what He was not and remained what He was; that He
came to us in the form of man and yet did not depart from His
Father; that He preserved His divine nature while He appeared to
us in our human nature; and, finally, that power derived from no
earthly source was bestowed upon an infant's body. The whole
world is His work as He remains in the bosom of His Father; the
miraculous child-bearing of a virgin is His work when He comes
to us. In fact, His Virgin Mother has given testimony to His
majesty in that she, a virgin before His conception, remained a
virgin after childbirth; found with child, she was not made so
by man; pregnant with man without man's co-operation, she was
more blessed and marvelous in that her fecundity was granted
without loss of integrity. People prefer to consider so
tremendous a miracle as fictional rather than factual. Hence, in
regard to Christ, the God-Man, since they cannot believe His
human attributes, they despise them; since they cannot despise
His divine attributes, they do not believe them. However, in
proportion as the body of the God-Man in His humiliation is the
more abject in their estimation, to that same degree it becomes
more pleasing to us; and in proportion as the fruitfulness of a
virgin in the birth of a child is more impossible in their eyes,
in ours it becomes the more divine.
(2) Hence, let us celebrate the birthday of the Lord with a
joyous gathering and appropriate festivity. Let men and women
alike rejoice, for Christ, the Man, was born and He was born of
a woman; thus, each sex was honored. Now
let the honor accorded to the first man before his condemnation
pass over to this second Man. A woman brought death upon us; a
woman has now brought forth life. The likeness of our sinful
flesh[4]
was born so that this sinful flesh might be cleansed. Let not
the flesh be blamed, but let it die to sin so that it may live
by its real nature; let him who was in sin be born again in Him
who was born without sin. Exult, you holy youths, who, having
chosen Christ as a model eminently worthy of imitation, have not
sought marriage. He whom you have thus esteemed did not come to
you through marriage, so that He might bestow upon you the grace
to despise the means through which you came into the world. For
you came into existence through carnal union, without which He
came to spiritual nuptials; and to you, whom He has called in a
special way to spiritual nuptials, He has granted the grace to
scorn earthly ones. Therefore, you have not sought joys from the
source whence you derived existence because you, more than
others, have loved Him who did not come into the world in that
manner. Exult, you holy virgins. A Virgin has brought forth for
you One whom you may wed without defilement, and you can lose
the One whom you love neither by conceiving nor by bringing
forth children. Exult, you who are just; it is the birthday of
the Justifier. Exult, you who are weak and ill; it is the
birthday of the Saviour. Exult, you who are captives; it is the
birthday of the Redeemer. Exult, you who are slaves; it is the
birthday of the Ruler. Exult, you who are free; it is the
birthday of the Liberator. Exult, all Christians; it is the
birthday of Christ.
(3) This child, born of the Father, created all ages; now, born
of a mother, He has commended this day. That first nativity
could not possibly have had a mother, nor did the second one
call for any man as a father. In a word, Christ was born of both
a father and a mother, and He was born without a father and
without a mother; for as God He was born of the Father and as
Man He was born of a mother; as God He was born without a mother
and as Man He was born without a father. Therefore, 'Who shall
declare his generation?'[5]
whether we consider His generation without the limits of time or
that without seed; the one without a beginning or that without
precedent; the; the one which has no end or that which has its
beginning there where it has its end.
Rightly, then, did the Prophets announce that He would be born;
truly did the heavens and angels announce that He had been born.
He who sustains the world lay in a manger, a wordless Child, yet
the Word of God. Him whom the heavens do not contain the bosom
of one woman bore. She ruled our King; she carried Him in whom
we exist; she fed our Bread. O manifest weakness and marvelous
humility in which all divinity lay hid! By His power He ruled
the mother to whom His infancy was subject, and He nourished
with truth her whose breasts suckled Him. May He who did not
despise our lowly beginnings perfect His work in us, and may He
who wished on account of us to become the Son of Man make us the
sons of God.
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Adoration of the Shepherds
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