Christ Jesus was united to the eternal Word; by which he, the Son of man, was at the same time the
SERMON 185 23 there, look for a cause, look for justice; and see whether you can find anything but grace.
NOTES
1. For only one of these Christmas sermons, from 184 to 196, do any of the scholars suggest a place; for 196 they tentatively suggest Hippo Regius. But where there is no positive evidence against it, I think we may safely assume that all the others were preached there too, in Augustine's own Church.
2. A curious sounding phrase. But he often compares the flesh which the Word became to the voice, in human communications, which carries the human word, the sound which conveys the meaning from one mind to another.
3. The star which appeared to them in the east. 4. See 2 Cor 1:2. 5. He is here referring exclusively to the grace of Christ, that is to the grace by which the man Christ Jesus was united to the eternal Word; by which he, the Son of man, was at the same time the eternal only-begotten Son of God. This, for Augustine, is the supreme paradigm of grace.