(1 Cor 1:26), and with a staunchly persevering love cling to Christ, who has
SERMON 200 85 long ago, but have been composed by us after the event, so that what has occurred may be thought to have been prophesied. Then we can cite the volumes owned by the Jews, to clear the doubts of the pagans, who were already prefig¬ ured in those Magi, whom the Jews instructed from the divine books about the city in which Christ was bom, without themselves either seeking or acknowl¬ edging him.
Christ has been manifested to Jews
and Gentiles as the cornerstone
4. So now, dearly beloved, children and heirs of grace, consider your calling (1 Cor 1:26), and with a staunchly persevering love cling to Christ, who has been manifested to Jews and Gentiles as the cornerstone.7 He was manifested, you see, in the very cradle of his infancy to those who were near and to those who were far off;8 to the Jews in the shepherds who were near, to the Gentiles in the Magi who were far off. The shepherds are supposed to have visited him on the day he was bom, the Magi to have reached him today.
So he was manifested—but not to the shepherds as learned, nor to the Magi as just. Ignorance, after all prevails in the rustic life of shepherds, and impiety in the sacrilegious practices of magicians.9 That cornerstone attached both to himself, seeing that he came to choose the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise (1 Cor 1:27); and not to call the just, but sinners (Mt 9:13); so that none of the great might grow proud, nor the lowest of the low despair.
Now the scribes and Pharisees are in their own eyes exceedingly learned and exceedingly just; they could indicate the city of his birth by quoting the prophetic oracle, and they could still reject him as builders.10 But in fact he has become the chief cornerstone, and has fulfilled by his passion what he indicated by his birth;11 so let us remain bonded into him with the other wall that contains the remnants of Israel which have been saved by the election of grace.12 These, you see, were prefigured by those shepherds as ready to be joined up to the corner¬ stone from nearby, so that we too, whose calling from afar off was signified by the coming of the Magi, might remain no longer foreigners and sojourners, but citizens of the saints and members of God's household, built up together on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone (Eph 2:19-21). He it is that has made both into one (Eph 2:14), so that in the one we may love unity, and entertain a tireless charity for gathering in the other branches that were also grafted in from the wild olive, but have been broken off through pride and become heretics;13 because God is indeed powerful enough to graft them in again.14