of the Father without mother, created every single day; bom of his mother
SERMON 195
ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Date: after 412x
His begetting who shall tell the tale of?
1. The Son of God, who is also the Son of man our Lord Jesus Christ, bom of the Father without mother, created every single day; bom of his mother without father, he consecrated this particular day; invisible in his divine birth, visible in his human one, in each of them wonderful. Thus it's difficult to judge about which of the two the prophet is more likely to have prophesied, His begetting who shall tell the tale of? (Is 53:8); whether of that one in which, never not bom, he has the Father coetemal with himself; or of this one in which, bom at a particular time, he had already made the mother of whom he would be made; whether of that one where he was always bom, since he always was.2 Who, after all, will tell the tale of how light was bom from light, and they were both one light; how God was bom from God, and the number of gods didn't grow; how it can be said that he was bom, as of something that has been accomplished, though in that birth time hadn't passed to put it in the past, nor gone before, to put it in the future, nor just been present, as though it were still happening and wasn't yet finished?
Also, who will tell the tale of this begetting from the virgin, where his conception in the flesh was achieved without the flesh, where his birth from the flesh filled the breasts of the one who would suckle him, but did not cancel the virginal integrity of the one who bore him? Either of them, then, or each begetting, who shall tell the tale of?
The Son of holy Mary
2. This is the Lord our God, this is the mediator between God and men, the man our Savior,3 who, bom of the Father, also created his mother; created of his mother also glorified the Father; the only son of his Father without female parturition; the only son of his mother without male embrace. This is the one, fairest in form above the sons of men,4 the son of holy Mary, the bridegroom of holy Church, which he has restored to be like his mother; because he has both