he is, nourishing them on imperishable fare; because he is the Word of God, on
SERMON 194
ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Date: before 41 f
Love what you believe, proclaim what you love
1. Listen, children of light, adopted into the kingdom of God; dearest brothers and sisters, listen; listen, and exult, you just, in the Lord, so that praise can befit you, the upright (Ps 33:1). Listen, and hear what you know, reflect upon what you hear, love what you believe, proclaim what you love. Just as we are celebrating the great anniversary of this day, so be eager to hear the sermon that is owing on this day. Christ is bom; God from the Father, man from his mother; from the Father's immortality, from his mother's virginity; from the Father without mother, from his mother without father; from the Father timelessly, from his mother seedlessly; from the Father as the beginning2 of life, from his mother as the end of death; from the Father to regulate every day, from his mother to consecrate this day.
You see, he sent a man ahead of him, John, to be bom at the time of year when the days were beginning to diminish, while he himself was bom when the days were beginning to grow.3 This would prefigure what John himself said, He must grow, while I must diminish (Jn 3:30). Human life, you see, has to fade away in itself, gain force in Christ, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for all and rose again (2 Cor 5:15); and that each one of us might say what the apostle says: I live though, no longer I, but it is Christ who is living in me (Gal 2:20). He, you see, must grow, while I must diminish.
Both angels and human praise Christ
2. He is praised just as he ought to be by all his angels, whose eternal food he is, nourishing them on imperishable fare; because he is the Word of God, on whose life they live, on whose eternity they live for ever, on whose goodness they live for ever in bliss. They praise him as he should be praised, God with God, and they give glory in the highest to God. We, though, his people and the sheep of his hands (Ps 95:7), in the measure of our weakness should try to be