are celebrating with no less appropriate solemnity his manifestation, the begin¬
SERMON 201
ON THE LORD'S EPIPHANY
Date: 411-415'
Christ's manifestation to the Gentiles
1. A very few days ago we celebrated the Lord's birthday; while today we are celebrating with no less appropriate solemnity his manifestation, the begin¬ ning that is of his manifestation to the Gentiles. On the previous day Jewish shepherds saw him; today Magi coming from the East paid him homage. He was bom, that is to say, as that cornerstone, the peace or pact joining two walls which come from the circumcision and the uncircumcision (from no small diversity, that is), so that they may be bonded together in him who has become our peace, and has made the two into one.2 This was pre-enacted in the shepherds from the Jews and the Magi from the Gentiles. Something began there that would bear fruit and grow throughout the world.
And so let us hold both days, of the Lord's birth and his manifestation, in equal esteem as splendid occasions for spiritual rejoicing. The Jewish shepherds were led to him by an angel bringing them the news, the Gentile Magi by a star pointing the way. This star confounded the futile calculations and divinations of the astrologers, when it pointed out to star-worshipers the creator of heaven and earth as the proper object of worship. When he was bom, you see, he brought to light a new star, just as when he was slain he obscured the sun.3 That light inaugurated the faith of the Gentiles; that darkness indicted the faithlessness of the Jews.4
What was that star, which had never appeared before among the constella¬ tions, and did not remain to be pointed to afterward? What was it, but a magnificent tongue of heaven to declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1), to cry aloud with unheard-of brilliance the unheard-of child-bearing of the virgin, to be succeeded after its disappearance by the gospel in the whole world? What, finally, did the Magi say when they came? Where is he that is born the king of the Jews? Now what is this? Hadn't there been a great many kings of the Jews bom before? Why were they so uncommonly eager to find and pay homage to the king of a foreign nation? For we saw, they said, his star in the East, and we have come to worship him (Mt 2:2). Would they have inquired about this with