not this visible sun, but its invisible creator, who has consecrated this day,2 when
SERMON 186
ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Date: after 4001
A virgin for ever
1. Let us rejoice, brothers and sisters; let the nations be glad and exult. It is not this visible sun, but its invisible creator, who has consecrated this day,2 when the virgin mother gave birth from her fertile and unimpaired womb to the one who became visible for us, by whom in his invisibility she herself was created; a virgin in conceiving, a virgin in giving birth, a virgin when with child, a virgin on being delivered, a virgin for ever. Why be astonished at these things, O man? That is how he made her, who was himself made from her. He already was, you see, before he was made; and being almighty, he was able to be made, while remaining what he already was. He made a mother for himself, while he was still with the Father; and when he was made from his mother, he remained in the Father. How could he cease to be God on beginning to be man, when he enabled his mother not to cease to be a virgin when she gave him birth?
Hence that the Word became flesh (Jn 1:14), does not mean that the Word passed into flesh by perishing, but that flesh was attached to the Word to prevent flesh itself from perishing; with the result that just as man is soul and flesh, so Christ would be God and man. The same one God who is man, the same one man who is God; not by a compounding of nature, but by unity of person. In a word, the one who as Son of God is coetemal with his begetter and always from the Father, is identical with the son of man who began to be at a particular time from the virgin. And thus humanity was indeed added to the divinity of the Son; and yet this did not result in a quatemity or foursome of persons, but the Trinity or threesome remains.
One who was God became man
2. So please don't go along with the opinion of some people, who don't pay enough attention to the rule of faith and the oracles of the divine scriptures. They say, you see: what happened is that the son of man became the Son of God, not that the Son of God became the son of man. What made them say this was a