"bringing to light."
SERMON 199 81 tings of human beings, let them deny the free will by which they sin, let them fabricate the necessity by which they come to the defense of sins; let them strive to fix on the sky the blame for the abandoned morals they are detested for by people on earth, and stick to their lie that their depravity drips from the stars; then, however, let each one of them consider how he thinks, not his life but his household should be governed by any sort of authority. Because if he really has such ideas, he cannot allow himself to beat his slaves misbehaving in his house, without first blaspheming his gods shining so brightly in the sky.
Even so, they cannot suppose that Christ was bom under the control of the stars, just because the Magi saw a star in the East when he was bom, not even according to their own utterly groundless calculations and their books that certainly tell no fortunes but plainly tell falsehoods.8 What shows, you see, that Christ was not bom under its control, but rather appeared as its controller, is the fact that it did not keep to the starry tracks in the heavens, but pointed out to the men who were looking for Christ the track to the very place where he had been bom. So it wasn't the star that caused Christ wonderfully to live, but Christ that caused the star wonderfully to appear; nor was it the star that controlled Christ's miracles, but Christ that revealed the star as one of his miracles.9 He, you see, when bom of his mother, presented the earth with a new star from the sky, just as when bom of the Father he fashioned the earth and the sky.
When he was bom a new light was revealed in the star, just as when he died the old light was veiled in the sun.10 When he was bom the upper worlds were honored with a.new brilliance, just as when he died the nether worlds trembled with a new fear, when he rose again the disciples were on fire with a new love, when he ascended the heavens were opened to a new form of homage.11 So let us celebrate as devoutly and solemnly as we can this day too, on which the Magi from among the Gentiles recognized and worshiped the Christ, just as we celebrated that other day on which the shepherds from among the Jews saw the Christ when he was bom. The Lord our God himself, after all, chose the apostles from Jewry as the shepherds, by whose efforts he would gather together to be saved even the sinful sheep from among the Gentiles.12
NOTES
1. The feast of the Epiphany started in the Eastern Churches, as a celebration of the baptism of Christ quite as much as of the visit of the Magi. It was introduced into the African Church and other Latin-speaking Churches some time in the fourth century; and there the emphasis was almost ex¬ clusively on the Magi, as this and the following sermons on the Epiphany clearly show. From the somewhat elaborate style of this sermon, I would be inclined to date it early, before 400, even perhaps before 396 and Augustine's ordination as bishop.
2. See Ps 118:22, and quotations of the verse in Mk 12:10; also in Acts 4:11; 1 Pt 2:7.
3. See Jn 8:12. The theme of light is peculiarly appropriate to the Epiphany; the word means "bringing to light."